CASE STUDY

Mickey Mouse: To Talk or Not?

When Walt Disney created the Disney empire in the 1950s, he forbid its star characters such as Mickey Mouse and Pluto to talk. Mr. Disney thought it would be too difficult to control the service encounters between customers and the Disney characters, and it would ruin the magic of Disney. Therefore, Disney characters were trained to gesture and use only their body language to interact and entertain guests.

Today, during a meeting of (fictional) senior imagineering managers, Mr. Luke Tomas, V. P. of Costume Design, said, Mr. Walt Disney would not like Mickey Mouse talking if he were alive. But Luke, if Mickey speaks it gives us new ways to interact with our guests, respondedCindy Bridgetown, V.P. of Imagineering, and Lukes boss. Cindy, we cant control the conversation if Mickey talks to guests. Kids and parents are going to get their feelings hurt one way or another. And its too demanding on our employees.

QUESTIONS:

1.Using as a reference What Do Operations Managers Do? box in the chapter, explain why these key activities (process design, job design, quality management and service encounter design) relate to the case situation?

2.Provide one good and bad example of a moment of truth if Mickey Mouse talksto customers.

3.Explain the 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of talking Disney characters from a service perspective?