Haagendazs Training With Disney Instit

case study:
Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs International Franchisees’ Renewed Focus on
Employee Training Results in Increased Customer Satisfaction,
Employee Retention and Sales
SUMMARY
International ice cream manufacturer and marketer Häagen-Dazs needed help implementing and introducing a new training and brand-awareness program. Members of the company’s marketing and operations team, as well as international franchisees, experienced tailored Disney Institute programs that explored the links between employee satisfaction, guest satisfaction and operational results. After implementing many of the lessons learned at the Walt
Disney World® Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., franchisees report increases in sales revenue, growth, customer approval and employee satisfaction.

FULL STORY

Sadir, along with 40 managers, franchise owners and operators from Latin America, the Caribbean and South
Africa, came to Disney Institute to find that spark.

Finding the Spark
For years, Häagen-Dazs has been known as an international manufacturer and marketer of super-premium ice creams.
Customers in more than 50 countries have come to Celebrating Employees equate the brand with excellence.
After consulting with the Häagen-Dazs
But despite its reputation as the team, Disney Institute recommended creator of the “luxury” ice cream a carefully tailored series of programs
Employee satisfaction experience, the half century-old incorporating content from Disney’s leads to guest company discovered that not all of
Approach to Quality Service and satisfaction which its employees fully understood the
Disney’s
Approach to People company’s history, rich culture and
Management.
leads to operational the importance of communicating results. those attributes to customers.
Disney Institute facilitators showed the Häagen-Dazs audience that much
“We needed to make our employees of the fabled “Disney magic” could be passionate about the brand,” explains Guillermo applied to scooping ice cream. “We’re not going to tell
Sadir, Häagen-Dazs’ senior training and operations you how to run your business because you are the experts manager. Sadir and his franchise owners knew that if at that,” Disney Institute Facilitator Tom Madden told they could excite their employees, that excitement could the group. “But we are going to show you some things translate into higher morale, improved customer service we do that we think you may be able to use when you and increased sales. go home.”

“

The firm had recently introduced an international training program, its Branded Customer Experience, but as Sadir admits, “it was often a tough sell to get an 18 to 25 year old new employee in Latin America or South Africa to connect with the Häagen-Dazs brand and our culture. Many were hearing but not listening. What we needed was a spark to set the training program on fire.”

”

For example, on a behind-the-scenes experience to the
Magic Kingdom® Park, the group heard Madden explain how every Disney Cast Member (Disney-speak for employee) understands that regardless of whatever job they may have been hired for, their real goal should be to create
“special moments,” a key element of the Disney culture. It was an “Aha!” moment for the Häagen-Dazs visitors. “We realized that every person coming into one of our shops is

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case study:
Häagen-Dazs

also celebrating something or rewarding themselves, and our employees should do everything they can to make that moment special,” says Sadir.

Disney term), provide new uniforms, and has implemented many of the techniques Disney uses. He and other franchisees even put large mirrors in employee areas of the shops so employees can inspect themselves before they go “onstage” à la Disney. “That says a lot about the value of these Disney Institute sessions,” says Sadir.
According to Sadir, franchisees also report a jump in customer satisfaction.

In the Utilidors, the underground service tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom® Park, Sadir and his team saw firsthand how Disney communicates with its Cast Members, even posting photographic examples of clever ways to greet and interact with guests. Another poster displays acceptable and unacceptable examples of grooming.
“We learned that we needed to tell
Disney Institute truly our employees a lot more of what epitomizes what we should we expected of them,” says Sadir. all be striving for. It was a
Later as the group watched a video magical experience. about the history and culture of
Disney, they realized how important it was to immerse even a potential employee in a company’s culture.

“

Back in the seminar room Madden and co-facilitator Fernando
Beltran
led the group through Disney
Institute’s
Chain of Excellence, a model that illustrates the importance of treating employees as you would treat customers. “It’s a three-legged stool,” said Beltran. “Employee satisfaction leads to guest satisfaction which leads to operational results.” The presentation also emphasized the importance of hiring for attitude instead of aptitude. “We can teach skills but we can’t teach attitude,” Madden told them.

Häagen-Dazs has re-launched its
Branded Customer Experience and even introduced the word
“magic” into its corporate vocabulary. “We now talk about creating magic in our shops. That’s a direct quote from Disney,” says Sadir. Also inspired by Disney, HäagenDazs has produced a video,
“The Häagen-Dazs Essentials
Program,” that details the firm’s history, explores its culture and tells potential employees what is expected of them. “We realized we weren’t connecting emotionally with new hires,” says Sadir. “This will do that and help raise our employee retention rates.”

”

Häagen-Dazs franchisee Zaid Surtee from South Africa reported that his time at the Disney Institute was invaluable:
“Disney Institute truly epitomizes what we should all be striving for. It was a magical experience.”

At the end of their visit, Sadir and his team were fired up.
“You could see it in their eyes,” he says. “They couldn’t wait to get back to their countries and implement many of the practices they’d learned.” As Trinidadian franchise owner/operator Robert Hadad told Sadir, “Disney Institute has changed my life!”

Taking the Lessons Home
It turns out that Robert Hadad was not exaggerating. Since completing the Disney Institute training, Hadad reported double-digit growth in his business and is doubling his number of shops. “And that’s in a time when retail business in much of the world has been slowing down,” says Sadir.
The franchisee has been inspired to put into service a new
“Cast Member” instruction program (he’s adopted the

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