Be Our Guest (Part 1)
Today I want to begin a short series of posts about my recent week at Disney World. More specifically, I want to share with you some of the practices of the Disney World team that I would love to see become more true of the Southside team. So, let’s get right to it.
One thing that I noticed while I was on Disney property was that every Disney “cast member” (they don’t like or use the word employee) goes out of their way to make guests feel special.
Almost every “cast member” I came into contact with went out of their way to make me and my family, feel important. They especially went out of their way to single out my children, especially my girls. I don’t know how many times Kenzie was called a “princess” while we were at the parks, or how many “ooh’s and ah’s” Kassidy got for being such a cute baby. It seemed that they were always looking for an opportunity to make our experience more memorable.
If you haven’t connected the dots yet, let me go ahead and make my point. Every Sunday is someone’s first Sunday here at Southside. And because of that, we have to do all that we can do as the people of God in this place to make sure that our guests feel welcomed and accepted.
Now, let me say that I am so thankful that we have so many wonderful volunteers who understand that every Sunday is someone’s first Sunday. However, at the same time, we need more people who will go out of their way each weekend to make our guests feel like this is “the happiest place on earth”!
I certainly understand that not everyone feels at ease going the extra mile to welcome new people, but for most of us, that is just an excuse. In fact, I saw Disney cast members of all shapes and sizes, go out of their way, and probably outside of their comfort zone, to make someone’s day. And here’s why they do it. They understand (and we need to better understand) that first impressions are lasting impressions!
Here’s my last thought. If the cast members of Disney can go out of their way to make guests feel special for the sake of a make believe mouse , than surely, we can go out of our way to make our guests feel special for the sake of One who gave His life for us.