Disney cast members can’t point
This is one of my favorite rules. It sounds demanding and petty on the surface level. In practice, it’s a wonderful demonstration of customer service. Disney feels that park guests don’t always respond well to one-finger gestures. No, I don’t mean anything obscene here. Many visitors, particularly children, struggle to see and respond to a single finger. Should a cast member point, it wouldn’t help enough. Two finger-movements provide much greater clarity.
That’s the psychology of the practice. The customer service aspect is more interesting. In some cultures, gesturing with a single finger is akin to gesturing with your middle finger in the United States. Any type of pointing angers people from many countries. Absolutely THE last thing Disney wants to do is upset guests from foreign lands. So, they’ve banned single finger gestures as a bit of diplomatic courtesy.
You must know!
Disney expects a certain level of omniscience from its cast members. At least, Disney expects their employees to be able to fake knowledge. Cast members aren’t allowed to respond, “I don’t know” to any question. It’s a bad display of customer service that reduces guest morale.
Instead, Disney spends more money on employee training than virtually any other company in the industry. Cast members are expected to know lots of questions. These can range from “Where’s the closest bathroom?” to “What time does the parade begin?” to “What’s the fastest way to get to Adventureland from here?”
Even after exhaustive training and years of experience on the job, cast members still can’t know absolutely everything about the parks, though. Rather than admit this lack of knowledge by saying the dreaded three words, Disney expects its employees to use different terms such as “Let me research the matter.” Then, the cast member calls their superior or someone else above them in the company to find out the proper answer. It’s a great way to guarantee that a customer always receives a satisfactory answer to a question.
Comments
Actually, the final point about having their hometown on the name tag is wrong, on a recent visit, a staff member had an official name tag listing her hometown as Alderaan. not only is that fictional (it pains me to say that) it is also a planet, not a town, city or village