Clue? Clue!?

[alexpgp]

So the guy who gets paid to run the Deprtment of Veterans Affairs gets up on his hind legs the other day in front of people at a media breakfast and says the following:

“When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important? What's important is, what's your satisfaction with the experience?”

And a lot of people have gotten hot under the collar about this, because it's almost as if he's saying that being in line for health care is like being in line to experience the "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Which in and of itself is a pretty dumb thing to say, and doesn't say much for the wisdom of the board at Proctor & Gamble, which once appointed this clueless goldbrick as the company CEO.

But what makes this cretin's statement all the more galling is that, based on my brief experience, back in the day, assigned to a project that brought me into contact with "imagineers" at Disney World in Orlando, the people who run the park do—absolutely—measure the number of hours people wait in line, for the purpose of reducing that time.

There's an incentive to do that, you see, and that's because people standing in line represent lost profits, both over the short term (people waiting in line aren't buying food or souvenirs) and the long term (if the main thing you remember about your visit to Disney World is the long lines, then you will basically put a line through the "visit Disney" item on your bucket list and get on with your life; if, on the other hand, you had a lot of fun, you might just create some good word-of-mouth, or maybe even return yourself, some day).

Cheers...

Comments

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

It's his horrific grin and nonchalance with the delivery of that sentiment that literally took my breath away. I'm still slightly stunned by it.

Disney has finally come out swinging this morning in response. OF COURSE they are intimately and mathematically involved with the wait times of their lines.

What a jackalope.