Has anyone else noticed an upswing in CM friendliness?

[bethymouse]

Had a nice conversation w/ the CMs and a security guard when it stormed like crazy, and we were all huddled in the Big Top Tent buying candied apples and other good sweets. We enjoyed the free samples. Man did the thunder crack!

 

[Britt]

Bloomin well hope so. Last time I was there I almost thought I had gone to Disneyland Paris instead
CM friendliness was my major gripe in WDW last year. We expect it in France, but when we used to go to the world in the 80's/90's it was all "have a nice day" etc. Last year they were about each other and to each other. Leave it at the door guys!

LOOOL! Is it really bad in France???

 

[WDW-LUVR]

I found lots of CMs today that were happy and fun. Bus drivers, OMG had one this morning 7:00 and let me tell you. Wait for the bus my father pulled his scooter in to handicap spot and we are waiting along with other guest. Up pulls a bus the driver opens the door and people started loading. I went to the front door and say mama we have a scooter that needs to be loaded her reply was, well you need to tell me these things there are other buses that come here too. I said its is parked in the spot it should be yes.

 

[rct247]

Weather, crowds, and work hours all play a HUGE role in how happy the cast are. If the lines are long, the weather is hot and humid, and the cast are working long hours dealing with guests who are y about lines and hot and tired, naturally they won't be as magical even if they try.

 

[IWantMyMagicBand]

LOOOL! Is it really bad in France???

Yep, but we just accept it because it's always been that way. It's like Paris is Orlando's smaller, messier, badly behaved sibling when it comes to customer service.
And the French/Spanish refuse to queue for characters so just barge in front of young kids, cast members refuse to intervene. They let people smoke in the queues, they prefer to look after their own nationality above others. For instance, when checking in to the hotels if you go before 2pm, all the ready rooms will go to French or Spanish. I have only seen one CM there really truly love his role. He was a CM working on the parade and was great with the crowd and taught the crowd the words to the parade song before it arrived. Dad and I joked that he must have been to WDW for training.
We go there because we need a Disney fix and it's cheaper for us than going on holiday for a week in our country (England) as my kids are theme park and Disney junkies, but I've trained them to "think French" when it comes to queuing, and we really try our best to fit in with their culture and we all say our s'il vous plaits and mercis.

But going to Orlando we expect to see impeccable service at all times, because that's what we had when we used to go. I've worked in the hotel industry and customer relations for a few American companies. One even had me trained to smile and talk at the same time. You would never see any other than politeness coming from our team, even when one of us was grabbed round the throat. I think it's all to do with our idea about what a nationality should behave like. I'm English, I expect most people coming to England for the first time would expect to see tea rooms, earl grey, scones and Harrods. Most of my friends believe that Americans have excellent customer service skills, and are willing to help anyone because if they don't they'll end up sued lol.

Going to our themeparks here we expect the CMs to be miserable, going to Paris we expect them to be rude. But going to WDW, we expect them to be always cheery and willing to help.

At the end of the day, the CMs have a job to do and that is to ACT happy even if they are not. WDW is a stage. All customer facing roles are an actor's job essentially. And despite the few things I have seen that have not lived up to WDW's reputation, we have had some lovely interactions with CMs and even had a magical moment created for us. I suppose the point I am trying to make is we all have bad days but seeing them affecting staff in WDW is unexpected.
Wow, sorry to ramble! Apologies!

 

[von Slapschtick]

When I first went to WDW in the early nineties many of the CM were mature adults and their manner and behavior was impeccable. They always showed an interest (shops) and asked where you were from and it was more than pleasant, they usually signed off with have a nice day or enjoy the rest of your trip. A couple of years down the road and the influx of younger CM was notable along with a huge change in attitude which in too many cases was basically can't be bovvered. The last five years things have picked up a bit but no where near the experiences we had the first years of visiting.

I don't think this can be lumped at the CM door, what happened to the training programme they have to go through where and why did all that change? I liked Disney when Eisner was holding the baton.

 

[IWantMyMagicBand]

When I first went to WDW in the early nineties many of the CM were mature adults and their manner and behavior was impeccable. They always showed an interest (shops) and asked where you were from and it was more than pleasant, they usually signed off with have a nice day or enjoy the rest of your trip. A couple of years down the road and the influx of younger CM was notable along with a huge change in attitude which in too many cases was basically can't be bovvered. The last five years things have picked up a bit but no where near the experiences we had the first years of visiting.

I don't think this can be lumped at the CM door, what happened to the training programme they have to go through where and why did all that change? I liked Disney when Eisner was holding the baton.

Yes! You've hit the nail on the head there. I remember most of the cast members reminded me of a mum/dad figure, and yes they always asked where you were from, usually followed by "I have friends in London, they're called The Smiths, do you know them?!?!"
In an ideal world, we should grab some Walt DNA and clone him multiple times for CM roles, problem solved

 

[Britt]

Yep, but we just accept it because it's always been that way. It's like Paris is Orlando's smaller, messier, badly behaved sibling when it comes to customer service.
And the French/Spanish refuse to queue for characters so just barge in front of young kids, cast members refuse to intervene. They let people smoke in the queues, they prefer to look after their own nationality above others. For instance, when checking in to the hotels if you go before 2pm, all the ready rooms will go to French or Spanish. I have only seen one CM there really truly love his role. He was a CM working on the parade and was great with the crowd and taught the crowd the words to the parade song before it arrived. Dad and I joked that he must have been to WDW for training.
We go there because we need a Disney fix and it's cheaper for us than going on holiday for a week in our country (England) as my kids are theme park and Disney junkies, but I've trained them to "think French" when it comes to queuing, and we really try our best to fit in with their culture and we all say our s'il vous plaits and mercis.

But going to Orlando we expect to see impeccable service at all times, because that's what we had when we used to go. I've worked in the hotel industry and customer relations for a few American companies. One even had me trained to smile and talk at the same time. You would never see any other than politeness coming from our team, even when one of us was grabbed round the throat. I think it's all to do with our idea about what a nationality should behave like. I'm English, I expect most people coming to England for the first time would expect to see tea rooms, earl grey, scones and Harrods. Most of my friends believe that Americans have excellent customer service skills, and are willing to help anyone because if they don't they'll end up sued lol.

Going to our themeparks here we expect the CMs to be miserable, going to Paris we expect them to be rude. But going to WDW, we expect them to be always cheery and willing to help.

At the end of the day, the CMs have a job to do and that is to ACT happy even if they are not. WDW is a stage. All customer facing roles are an actor's job essentially. And despite the few things I have seen that have not lived up to WDW's reputation, we have had some lovely interactions with CMs and even had a magical moment created for us. I suppose the point I am trying to make is we all have bad days but seeing them affecting staff in WDW is unexpected.
Wow, sorry to ramble! Apologies!

Oh, no!! No apologies needed!WOW I had no idea!! Maybe ill stick to Orlando/CA/Japan! Lol

 

[jaklgreen]

There has been a change the last couple of years in an improvement of most things. We have been going 1-2 times a year for the last 17 years and around 5-6 years ago we noticed a big lack of general upkeep. Things needed painted, the bathrooms were missing attendants, cast members were rude, etc. They have fixed these things the last couple of years and it is going back to what it used to be. Idk if they changed management or what but you can see a big difference for the better now.

 

[jw24]

I haven't noticed it either though I have yet to have a negative experience with CMs. I've gone in mid-March on my past few trips where it's crowded but not unbearable like it is during the summer months. I'm a firm believer that when it comes to customer service, it has to be a two way street. If you're nice to them, they'll be nice to you. At least that should be the case in theory. If not, there's a problem! In the US as a whole, I must say that customer relations in general, at least from my POV, is always hit or miss. Sometimes, they get it right, they deeply care and strongly value you as a customer but other times, they act as if they're just there for the paycheck and don't exactly do the job properly or mistreat you for whatever reason. Bottom line is, like @IWantMyMagicBand says, "At the end of the day, the CMs have a job to do and that is to ACT happy even if they are not. WDW is a stage. All customer facing roles are an actor's job essentially." At the same time, however, there are some people who take the whole entitlement of the customer always being right too far. Some people need to realize that the CMs are people and they have feelings, too. I mean, if you're going to voice a complaint for whatever reason, do so in a professional and proper way, at least! Friendly but firm is what I say. So basically, treat the CMs like you want be treated and in turn, they should do the same.

 

[jkl2000]

I found lots of CMs today that were happy and fun. Bus drivers, OMG had one this morning 7:00 and let me tell you. Wait for the bus my father pulled his scooter in to handicap spot and we are waiting along with other guest. Up pulls a bus the driver opens the door and people started loading. I went to the front door and say mama we have a scooter that needs to be loaded her reply was, well you need to tell me these things there are other buses that come here too. I said its is parked in the spot it should be yes.

You called the bus driver "mama?"

 

[ExtinctJenn]

You called the bus driver "mama?"

Something tells me that was a typo'd "mam"

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Pretty sure that bus driver really is her mother and she just came here to vent about her family...

 

[jkl2000]

Something tells me that was a typo'd "mam"

I thought maybe she was from somewhere like - is it Milwaukee where the waitresses all call people "Hon?" Something like that. But yeah, it must have been a typo.

 

[Sped2424]

Its not the cm's that are changing like many have stated its the guests.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Its not the cm's that are changing like many have stated its the guests.

No, it's both. There are many, many factors that go into this.

 

[Sped2424]

No, it's both. There are many, many factors that go into this.

I really don't think so, I have never had a bad encounter with a cm they are literally trained and told to handle whatever bs gets thrown their way.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I've never had a bad encounter with a CM until my recent trip. We upgraded our tickets at our resort from 2 day to 5 day tickets, paid and kept our receipt. On our 4th day our tickets were saying we had no days left. When we spoke to guest relations they said we only added 1 day not 3 days. So we called over to Coronado and got the nastiest CM who insisted we misunderstood and that we only paid for a 3 day ticket, had no proof of a 5 day ticket, and demanded we stay at the park and just pay the price to upgrade at guest relations because we would be "wasting our time because we need to pay regardless." We went back to Coronado anyway, found the CM we spoke with and provided our receipt that clearly said 5 day, the Manager came out and fully refunded what we paid to upgrade our tickets and apologized that we lost 2 hours of park time because of it. Looking back at it, she was most likely going by what the system told her but her attitude was bad.
But of all the cast members I encountered throughout my many trips to Disney, only ONCE was a bad experience. I find most cast members go out of their way!

 

[von Slapschtick]

Note to self: Hang onto receipts ...

 

[Ernierich]

The vast majority of CMs we've met have been excellent although, like any profession, not everyone is a good match for their position.

I think the worst CM experienced I had was at the Crystal Palace when wed had a problem and politely asked the Waitress if we could speak to a manager. She went away and came back with a paper anytime FP and said the manager wouldn't speak with us but would like us to take the pass. I still remained calm, refused the pass and again requested to speak to the manager. The waitress went away and then returned, very embarrassed and said the manager still wouldn't speak to us. To this day I still can't understand her reluctance to communicate with us.

Oh we'll, I can only assume after our visit to City Hall that the manager in question was summonsed to see her boss. I bet she didn't refuse that request!