Show notes:

I’m a HUGE Disney fan and in today’s episode we are going to be looking at what we can learn from the Disney company in order to improve our own wedding business! If you are a wedding business owner it can be easy to focus inward… but there is a lot to be learnt from these large corporations.

In today’s episode I am going to be sharing 5 things we can all learn from Disney, including my favourite phrase – Disney never discount, so why should you?

Want to meet other likeminded wedding pro’s so that you can share ideas, network and help each other out? Then why not go ahead and join my free Wedding Pro community over on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/weddingprosreadytogrow/

Find out more about how I can help you grow your wedding business over on my website or Instagram page:

www.beccapountney.com

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Transcription:

Becca: [00:00:00] Earlier this year, I got to visit one of my favorite places in the world. In fact, many people call it the happiest place on earth. That’s right along with my husband and children. I spent the first week of 2022 in Disney world, Florida. And it was epic. I’m a huge Disney fan, but you might be wondering what on earth that has to do with you and your wedding business, well keep listening, because all will become very clear.

And I guarantee there’s something in here for you. I’m Becca Pountney, wedding business, marketing, expert, speaker, and blogger. And you’re listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode. In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking all things Disney, but whether you’re a [00:01:00] massive Disney fan like me, or whether you’re not that interested, there is always something to be learned from looking at these huge successful.

Sometimes when we focus on our business and our marketing strategy, we like to think small mainly because we don’t have the millions of dollars that a corporation like Disney has. However, there’s a lot that we can learn from some of these big brands and we can take what they’re doing and then implement it into our wedding.

In my opinion, Disney has the gold standard when it comes to advertising, marketing, customer experience and customer satisfaction. When I was out in Florida earlier this year, as well as enjoying the magic meeting the characters and having the best holiday of my lifetime, I was also learning, I saw five things.

I think that each and every one of us could be implementing into our businesses to make them better. And I’m going to share all of them with you. The first thing is something that many of you will have heard me say before. If you’re in any of my membership programs, if you take my courses or work with me one to one, you may have heard one of my favorite phrases, which is Disney, [00:02:00] never discounts.

I think all of us as wedding business owners, especially when we start out, can fall into the trap of thinking that cheaper means we’re more likely to get. But Disney turned that completely on its head. You never see Disney discounting. Now, if you’re here in the UK, just compare that for a moment to somewhere like Alton towers or Chessington world of adventures, or even Legoland, we know.

Every single time you want to go to one of those places, you can just go and buy a box of cereal or a bar of hand soap and get two for one voucher, which means you never, ever have to pay full price. In fact, if you’ve paid full price, you would feel that you’re kind of getting robbed. You know, that you can get the same value for half the.

However, when it comes to visiting Disney and trust me, I’ve looked at this Disney never discount. You can never get a two for one offer at Disney world. You can never get a kids go free offer Disney world, especially in Florida. Instead they do something which is [00:03:00] add value. If it’s quite a times of their year or times when they need to get.

Extra business. Instead of discounting this products or services, they might add value, include extra nights, include free dining, that kind of thing. And we can learn from this in our business. We have to believe that the amount we charge is what we’re worth, because otherwise people will think that we’re not worth what we say.

We know that Disney’s worth paying the money for, that’s, why people are willing to pay full price and they know that they never discount you pay the price and you get what it’s worth. And we should have the same mindset when it comes to our wedding business. So the next time you think about discounting, think like Disney and remember that Disney never discount.

Instead, when you are trying to put together an offer or a package or something to make someone buy, instead of taking money off the package. Why not add something on, give some added value, give a free album. If you’re a photographer or perhaps you could include an engagement photo. [00:04:00] Instead of giving money or flowers, perhaps you could, uh, include something that wouldn’t normally be included higher of a cake stand for a cake maker, for example, but don’t devalue your products and services by taking money off cheaper.

Isn’t better. You are worth the value that you put on your business. And if you constantly discount people will never pay you the full amount. The second thing that I’ve learned from Disney is that there’s always something new and enticing to make you keep coming back. Now I think lots of people say that Disney is a once in a lifetime holiday, but if you’re anything like me, it’s more like a once, every couple of years kind of holiday because every time you go and you have the best experience of your life, Then you want to go back and each and every time you want to go back, there is always something new, a new restaurant, a new ride, a new attraction, a new way of doing things, a way of streamlining it, a way of making things better and more exciting.

You always want to go back because you [00:05:00] always want to see what the new thing is. Now. I understand that in the wedding industry, we don’t often get repeat customers. However, we do want to keep enticing people to. Back to us. That’s why we should be looking at our products and services. Adding new features, maybe adding new things to our website, new blog posts, new content, give people a reason to keep on coming back.

If someone visits your website once and sees everything, they’re never going to come back again, unless you give them a reason to make a return visit. If you’re regularly updating content, updating blog posts, giving valuable information, guess what people are much more likely to come back and sometimes in our businesses, we do get repeat customers if you’re bringing out fresh things.

So if you’re a cake maker, perhaps you also make celebration cakes or biscuits for mother’s day, make sure you’re bringing out new exciting offerings and send them to your past clients. If someone’s bought from you before, they’re much more likely to want to buy from you again. The third thing that we can [00:06:00] learn from Disney is the way they do customer service.

It’s absolutely impeccable. In fact, they are known across the world for being some of the best customer service providers. I know because I’ve experienced it. When you go into Disney world, the staff are incredible. People go above and beyond. All of the time from the housekeeping staff, through to the restaurant staff, the ride operators, the people in the costumes, everyone is full of energy.

Everyone is happy to see you and everyone is going above and beyond to make your day magical. In fact, sometimes they even say to you, have a magical day. It’s incredible, but when you’re paying a premium price, you expect premium service. And that is why people are willing to pay that extra price to go to Disney world because they know they will get an incredible experience.

So consider for a moment, what are you doing in your business right now to provide excellent customer service for your couples? What is it that gets them [00:07:00] talking, perhaps you send them a handwritten note after they book, perhaps you go above and beyond for them in a consultation. Perhaps you send them something for their first wedding anniversary or for their first Christmas as a married couple, perhaps you’re always going back to them politely on emails, perhaps.

You’re always going the extra mile on the wedding day. Perhaps you’ve thrown in something extra for free to say, congratulations. I don’t know what you’re doing in your business, but you should be looking to provide exemplary customer service all the way along that customer journey. When you do something that goes above and beyond for someone not only are they willing to pay more for that experience.

Also recognize the value and start talking about it to other people. I always remember when my first child started school. I couldn’t believe it when I dropped him off at the school gate. And the first thing that happened was a member of the PTA, gave me a goodie bag in that goodie bag was a teabag, a packet of tissues and a cookie to say, we know how hard it’s going to be, for your son’s first day.

I was completely overwhelmed. [00:08:00] They went above and beyond in that moment and I remembered it. I still remember it. And I’m talking about it to you today. When we go above and beyond for people, we create a memorable experience that they’re willing to pay for and they’re willing to talk to their friends about, so what are you doing to ensure you go above and beyond when you have a client consultation?

Are you making sure you have it somewhere special that matches the price tag that you are charging? Think about what you could do that doesn’t cost you a lot of money, but can help you. Excellent customer service. The fourth thing that I learned from Disney is that they’re amazing at pivoting and really considering their ideal customers, Disney are great at strategy.

They’re great at looking at what their customers need, what their customers want and how ultimately they can make more money from the things that they have, they are always reviewing, always changing and always pivoting. When I went out to Disneyworld, Florida this year, I noticed something, there was a subtle change, but actually quite a big [00:09:00] change.

When you go to Disneyland Paris, if you’ve ever been there, you’ll know that when you go on the rides or to the shows, some of the voiceover work is in French and then some of it’s in English. However, when you go to Florida, typically it’s always in. Well, until now, what I noticed on my most recent trip was all of a sudden some of the rides and some of the shows had Spanish translations.

Just think for a moment of some of the films that Disney have recently released things like Coco or Encanto or based in countries which speak predominantly Spanish. Now I’m all for inclusion and diversity. And I think it’s really important that Disney do their bit with this. I personally don’t think it’s a complete coincidence that all of a sudden there’s a real emphasis on the Spanish speaking market in Disney world, Florida.

Why? Because we’ve just been through a global pandemic. And during that global pandemic, there was a lack of tourists visiting from England, from [00:10:00] Europe. They couldn’t get there because of all the restrictions. So instead they realised they needed to pivot and they needed to shift. So all of a sudden they had this market that was kind of untapped in south.

The south American countries predominantly speak Spanish. And so in order to open up the market to them, guess what they’re doing, making it more accessible. I guarantee they’ve done a big marketing campaign in that region during the COVID months in order to bring a new audience to their parks and in order to do so, they’ve started introducing some Spanish speaking in their shows and their rides.

So, what can we learn from this? Well, we learn that a successful business doesn’t stay still they are always looking at what’s going on around them. They’re always looking at what the current trends are. Instead of seeing a problem such as a global pandemic, they’re always looking for a solution and we should be doing.

If we see that all of a sudden, one of the areas of our business is kind of drying up. We need to ask why that is. Do we need to focus on a different customer [00:11:00] base? Is that trend not really in trend anymore? Do we need to start working with some different venues, which could be more successful for us? We cannot stand still.

We cannot just always do what we’ve always done. We need to be looking at what’s coming up. We need to look at new ideas and we need to be looking at new emerging markets. Disney are definitely doing that. We can see it a mile off, but we should be doing it too. Now the final thing that I want to share with you today is one of my favorite things about the Walt Disney company and what they do.

And it’s something each and everyone of us can be learning. In Disney world when they make a mistake. And of course, like all companies they are always going to make a mistake, instead of calling it a mistake, they turn that mistake into a magical moment. See what they did there. All of a sudden something bad has become something.

If there’s a mistake in Disney world, they make it into a magical moment. They will go above and beyond to rectify whatever mistake that [00:12:00] was. And to make it memorable for you. Some examples, if you’ve got a child and their balloon blows off and a cast member sees it, they’ll go and replace it with.

Perhaps they drop their ice cream or once again, they’ll go and replace it with a different one. Perhaps the technology in the parks isn’t working very well. We had that when we were out there with our app and we couldn’t book the ride, now we weren’t annoyed about it, but we went to see customer services.

What, instead of saying, sorry, and giving us any kind of refund, they turned it into a magical moment and they gave us a free Q skip for any ride in the. Thinking of these mistakes and turning them into magical moments is absolutely the best way to go about it. We’re all going to make mistakes in our business from time to time.

We’re not perfect. Like I said, even Disney make mistakes and they make some pretty big. And we’re going to make mistakes too, and we need to expect that to happen. Perhaps you’re stationary and you’ve made a typo on some wedding invitations, perhaps you’ve made a [00:13:00] cake and the heat has just made some of it slide.

All of these things are things we should be trying not to do, but very occasionally a mistake happens. If a mistake happens to you, don’t go on the defensive with your couple, think like Disney and work out how you can turn that mistake into a magical moment instead of going straight for the I’m. So sorry, I’ll give you a discount or I’ll give you your money back.

Think about if there’s something you can do to rectify the mistake and go above and beyond for the couple to make it even better. I love the way they call their mistakes, turning it into a magical moment. And I think we should all be learning from that. So the next time you make a mistake, stop, stressing, stop panicking, and think, right?

What can I do to turn this around and make it into a magical moment for my customer? So then they’ll be glad that they made the mistake. I was glad that my app broke when I was at Disney world. Why? Because I ended up with a great queue skip. There’s another thing that I love at Disney world, [00:14:00] which is when people wear inappropriate clothes, instead of telling them they have to get out, they go buy them a new t-shirt from the shop.

Even that becomes a magical moment. Okay. Let’s recap. All the things that we can be learning from Disney in our business. First up and my favorite one Disney never discount stop. Always discounting, stop trying to undercut your competitors. That’s not the way to stand out. Sometimes you can stand out for other reasons.

We always pay full price to go to Disney world. And guess what? They are always, always. Secondly, remember there’s always something new, something new to add to your business. Perhaps you can update your website, update your imagery, make people have a new reason to come and visit your site. Perhaps there’s new offerings.

You can add new services, new ways of doing things always keep fresh and new. Thirdly, what are you doing to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service, just replying to emails quickly, doesn’t really cut it. I’m talking about things [00:15:00] that are going to make people remember you and talk about you to their friends.

Fourthly remember that you can always pivot and you can always look at the strategy and the ideal customer that you’re talking to keep on top of it. Don’t just rely on the strategies you’ve always used in the past, because things change and things shift. You need to keep ahead of the trends. Otherwise someone else is going to come in and overtake.

And finally remember if you make a mistake it’s okay. We all make mistakes from time to time, but next time you make a mistake, think how can I turn this into a magical moment for my couple to make it all better? Whether you’re a massive Disney fan like me, or whether you couldn’t really care less. There’s definitely things that we can all be learning from the Disney company.

And I urge you to start looking at some of these big corporations that you engage with on a regular basis, the shops that you shop in the brands, you engage with, the things you watch, perhaps you use Netflix or Amazon. We can learn from these companies. We can learn from the way they [00:16:00] advertise. We can learn from the way they streamline.

We can learn from the way they do business. Always things from these huge companies we can be implementing even into our small businesses. I’m sure there’ll be future episodes on some of these things. I’d love to know what your key takeaways been from today’s episode. If you’re not already in there, why not jump into my free Facebook group, wedding pros who are ready to grow and share what your key learnings have been from today’s episode.

I’d love to know what you’re going to implement, and I’d love to get your feedback. So go in there, let me know, and let’s have a chat about. Also, if you’ve enjoyed today’s show, why not go back and listen to some past episodes? Leave me a rating. I love reading everything you have to say, or why not even tell your friends about the show I’m passionate about helping more wedding industry, business owners do better in their business.

I’ll see you next time. And don’t forget Disney never discounts.

One thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing people you get to [00:17:00] work with. If you want some like-minded wedding pros, just like you, then why not join my free Facebook community wedding pros who are ready to come meet some new connections, hang out with me and hopefully learn some new things to just search for us on Facebook.