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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here on the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, where we help you easily transition from law school into your professional career as an attorney. And where we even make the practice of law fun.
[00:00:19] Scott Benton: And today, we’re going to answer the question of, what does it mean to use the Disneyland experience?
[00:00:28] Scott Benton: Now, this is a subject that I’ve been recording about on a number of podcasts episodes, where generally, we talk about the client journey and the importance of making sure that you’re looking at the entire interaction process through the eyes of your client as they work with your law firm.
[00:00:45] Scott Benton: Now, remember that as the client is the one who hires the attorney and the client is the one who can stop paying for legal services anytime they choose to, that essentially means that you are working for them. And essentially, that also means that the [00:01:00] client is your boss. So there’s a certain amount of sales and marketing skills involved, as well as, there’s a strong importance placed on using excellent customer service that goes on the entire time you’re working with your clients. Therefore, mastering those skills becomes critically important to developing yourself into a truly exceptional attorney.
[00:01:22] Scott Benton: Now, working as an attorney, it’s not just about practicing law, or doing legal research, or figuring out the best case strategy, or filing motions, or attending hearings. Working as an attorney really includes a thick layer of data business skills that you have to develop, on top of practicing law. And the more business skills that you can develop, the more effective you really become as an attorney.
[00:01:47] Scott Benton: So, don’t put it off. That might mean, for you, reading countless books on single subjects such as advertising, or marketing, or sales, or accounting since the language all by itself self that you’re going to need, [00:02:00] in order to, for instance, talk to your accountant or your bookkeepers because remember, a law firm at the end of the day, it’s a business. And it’s a business providing legal services that are being used in order to generate a profit. As all businesses, their sole purpose is to generate a profit, and a law firm is no different.
[00:02:17] Scott Benton: As an attorney, one of the key differentiators for you to get really good at is your ability to provide excellent customer service to the clients that you’re working with, because there’s always a potential of losing the client if they don’t really feel like the law firm that they’re working with is treating them very well. Or really, if the law firm isn’t treating them like a VIP, they’ll just stop paying and they’ll go find another attorney somewhere, which are really their two options right there. Not paying and finding another attorney, that you really have the ability to prevent. Either of those situations from happening simply by providing a high level of customer service.
[00:02:54] Scott Benton: And so, this is exactly why you want to use what we call at the firm that I [00:03:00] work at, the Disneyland Experience. What exactly is that? What does that mean? What’s the Disneyland experience?
[00:03:04] Scott Benton: The Disneyland experience is probably the highest form of customer service that you can possibly reach. It’s really a way to treat clients as if they are the most important person in the world while you’re working with them, which really helps retain your clients.
[00:03:19] Scott Benton: Let’s say, for instance, you go to Disneyland. Or really, you can go to any of the Walt Disney theme parks because they’re all the same. It’s all the Disney company. And when you go to Disneyland, you’re going to see how pleasant and how always upbeat the cast members are, as they treat the guests, and as they treat them at all times in the park. And that level of treatment, it never ever stops. And by the way, the employees at Disneyland, they call them cast members. And they call the customers, guests. So you’ll hear that all the time.
[00:03:47] Scott Benton: And that’s an example of what’s called, staying in character, in terms of always treating the guests like they’re the most important person in the world. That’s staying in character. [00:04:00] So, they’re called cast members because they’re the cast in a play, like a stage play.
[00:04:05] Scott Benton: That play is performed all day long, every single day of the week, at all of the different Disney parks across the world. So, just like people in a play or people in a movie or a television show, the cast members never break character. And everyone who works at Disneyland while they’re in the park, they know the golden rule.
[00:04:27] Scott Benton: The golden rule is never, ever break character. So that means, no matter who they are, whether they’re in a character costume, or maybe they’re in a particular outfit for a ride, like they’re wearing that Pirates outfit for Pirates of the Caribbean, or maybe, they’re wearing the Haunted Mansion costume, that they’re always in the performance for that character that they’re playing, until they’re no longer in the public area of the park where the guests will ever see them. They’re always in character. They never break character.
[00:04:57] Scott Benton: For instance, you’ll never see any of the cast [00:05:00] members at Disneyland. They’ll never yell at anyone, they’ll never get angry, you’ll never see them really talk about their personal lives or the problems that they’re having at home with like bills, or maybe their car’s breaking down, maybe their cat’s getting sick. They’ll never talk about that stuff. It’s only going to be positive uplifting subjects that they’ll talk about to guests. And also, how they can be a further assistance or service to you as the guest.
[00:05:27] Scott Benton: So, whenever you speak, they’re gonna stop and listen carefully to you, and they’re gonna respond with helpful information and action, so that your day, it’s gonna be always enjoyable. It’s gonna be memorable, whenever you’re at any of the Disneyland parks.
[00:05:41] Scott Benton: So, if any of the cast members ever break character for some reason, even for a second, they’re taken out of the park right away. So that any negative or unproductive behaviors, they’re not seen by the guests. For instance, you’d never see a Mickey Mouse or a Goofy character, suddenly kick a garbage [00:06:00] can because they’re overheating inside the costume, and they just finally lose their temper, you’re never gonna see that. If something like that happened, Mickey or Goofy, they would be led to the cast members only section of the park. And immediately, that means they would be taken backstage.
[00:06:15] Scott Benton: You’ll also notice that everything at Disneyland, it’s made from the highest quality materials. It’s crafted by top designers. And everything that you see there as a guest is part of what they call, Part of the Magic. So there’s a lot of truth in that slogan.
[00:06:30] Scott Benton: Disney is in the business of delivering high quality, family entertainment to audiences of all ages. And there’s really no better place to find an example of that than at Disneyland. And why this idea becomes an important reference for you to pay close attention to and to really to learn from.
[00:06:51] Scott Benton: So, as you develop your own practice as an attorney, the idea of the Disneyland experience really becomes a good framework. [00:07:00] Not only for learning how to provide excellent customer service to the clients that you’re going to be working with, but also, in how the firm can operate as a whole to make sure clients are having the best possible client journey that can be created for them.
[00:07:17] Scott Benton: And that’s something that you’re a part of, being a part of the magic if you worked at Disney. You’re part of the firm that you’re working at. So you want to keep in mind that while you’re working with your clients, that you’re in the role of their legal advisor who represents them, and represents them in court, if necessary.
[00:07:34] Scott Benton: And that while you want to develop an authentic, genuine, professional relationship with your clients, it’s important that as their attorney, you never break character. Like the people at Disneyland will never break character. It’s important for you to stay in that role at all times. And it helps to build that authentic relationship with your client. So that’s why, the Disneyland [00:08:00] experience is important. And I hope that’s been helpful.
[00:08:02] Scott Benton: I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. If this is material that you are enjoying and you’d like to receive a notification anytime we put out a new episode, you can go to our website, which is Classroom2Courtroom.com.
[00:08:17] Scott Benton: That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom.com. You can put in your contact information. You’ll receive a notification, anytime we put out a new episode of a Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast.
[00:08:28] Scott Benton: And if you do like this material, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe, if you want to stay on top of all our newest episodes. We hope you’ll join us for the next one. Until next time. We hope you’ll also join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time.
[00:08:43] Scott Benton: Thank you so much for listening and take care.
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