Cast compliments is the best way to recognize a cast member. The cm along with management see them and goes into a record for them. It’s fairly new as far as how easy it is to do. I also have collection of pixie dust souvenirs that guest, mostly children have given me. Small, handcrafted items they give cms to thank them. There is a story behind each one and it’s something you never forget.
There is a little girl, 5ish that comes in every so often and hands every cm a little duck. The duck is half the size of a dime. The first time she approached me, I didn’t want to take it, I couldn’t take her little duck. Her mom said, please take it, she loves doing this. She hands it to you and thanks you for making Magic. I have six of them and look at them everyday.
Complaints, in my experience, are complaints about their experience and not you personally. Compliments are on a personal level, that cm connected with you and has made your experience more enjoyable. My goal and job is to turn that complaint into a compliment. I love solving people’s problems, getting a smile and a thank you is my goal. What may seem not a big deal to you, is a huge concern for someone else and to be able to solve or help someone with their problem is the best part of the job. I had a mom and her young son come up to me, he was crying and she a bit upset. Her son wasnt tall enough to ride a certain attraction. ( I’m not in attractions) now, there is nothing anyone can do about that, nobody can get him on that attraction because it’s a safety issue. We have a saying, everyone goes home the same way they came. But, I can try to make his day a little better. I can assure you, when he is in his late 20s and brings his family to WDW, he won’t remember or care about the day he couldn’t ride test track, but he will remember the grey/ bald old cm that made his day when he was 5 and that is the reason he brought his 5 year old son to experience the same magic.
It’s also my job to help and coach cms in guest interactions. For most of them, it is their first job, they are far away from home and they are working in a huge place with a lot of people, it can be very intimidating. My goal is to make myself approachable to them with their questions and problems. Show them how to do things, show them someone cares and recognizes them every step of the way. Number one, smile. Just smile. Pick your chin up, make eye contact and smile. Not easy for everyone to do but once that’s accomplished I’m home free. Their not mad or a bad person, they are just scared.
The best part of that aspect of the job is seeing that shy, quiet cm turn into someone ready to face the world head on, fist bump them on their last day and thank you. I give a lot of cm recs. It makes them feel what they are doing matters and someone is noticing. Like I said, my job is very rewarding.
It got you from A to B but it didn't tell you how to derive the functions of A and B.
