“All aboard the magical bus!”

Okay, we get it. We totally geek over Disney’s transportation system. But you probably will too…

The inner workings of Disney’s bus system

If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you know that Disney’s bus system brings you from the airport to your resort. You go straight to the Disney property without making any stops in between. They also have an internal bus network that takes you from your 20+ resorts to the four different parks, the two water parks and Disney Springs. There are water taxis that take you from certain resorts that are right on the water to Disney Springs.

 They have various boats that bring you to Magic Kingdom. There’s the iconic monorail that goes around three resorts and to Magic Kingdom, and also to Epcot. They also have trams to bring everyone from the parking lots to the front gate of Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and all of the other parks. There was also a Skyliner in the works that should be opening soon. (hoping that it will be open for our next trip). 

What’s the big deal?

Now, this transportation system is huge. The property at Disney world serves hundreds of thousands of people a day. In fact, it said that over 150,000 people take the monorail every single day. And obviously it varies between the summer seasons and the off seasons, but 150,000 people take just the monorail. So you can just imagine the bus system and everything else that comes with it. 

Now, the reason that we geeked out about this topic is because transportation has absolutely nothing to do with Disney World going to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, everything else. It has nothing to do with going to the parks. People were coming to Disney World. They were driving their own cars. They were taking taxis. They were finding their own way around. But the smart thing here is that Disney invested millions of dollars and the infrastructure that supports their parks to create an entirely one-of-a-kind experience.

The Disney “bubble”

The infrastructure around Disney’s parks are designed to get people from their hotel to the park, to spend money, to not leave their property, to not go visit SeaWorld, to not go to Universal Studios or any other attraction in the area was to create an internal network that basically holds guests hostage to stay at Disney world. They can’t leave the bubble. 

And if you are a Disney fan, you know all about this bubble, when you exit the bubble and you stay off property, it’s very easy to realize, “Oh, Disney World is in the middle of a lot of other things” but it doesn’t seem that way when you’re there. And that’s intentional. Disney has essentially realized that by keeping people on the property and keeping them in their ecosystem, it’s an opportunity to get them to spend more with Disney. 

Think about it. When you book your trip, you prepay for your hotel, you prepay for your park tickets. You know, you may prepare for the dining plan if that’s your jam, but what about all this spending money? What happens when you get to Florida? When you get to Orlando and you’re at Disney property, now you can spend a few days in the parks. And then head off to Universal Studios, check out Harry Potter, but that’s kind of more expensive and hard to do. If you have to rent a car or book an Uber to do that, it’s just so much easier to stay on site and check out the hundreds of experiences that Disney has to offer, and it doesn’t even end at the parks.

Saving money, saving time 

Think about the resorts if you’ve ever been there during the holidays, and you haven’t gone to the various, especially the deluxe resorts to see the gingerbread houses and the beautiful Christmas trees. That’s an activity in itself. And Disney keeps you engaged and onsite by giving you access to this transportation system that can literally get you to point A to point C without a lot of stress or hassle. There are also a few other interesting things that Disney has done to actually enhance the experience and make it easier for people is implement technology as part of the process. 

Now, a few years ago, the only way you knew when buses were coming was if you looked at the sign when you got to the bus depot at your resort. And it told you when the bus was coming, and you had to wait. In the last year or so, Disney has updated the My Disney Experience app to give you a bus countdown. So now you can literally be in your hotel room, look to see when the next bus is coming. Do you have to see if you can make it across in time to the Bus Depot? So you’re not even wasting a lot of time waiting for the buses. It’s a fantastic tool. 

That’s made the experience so much easier and it just, it saves you money and it makes it easier to stay on Disney because you don’t have to worry about the additional expense of getting your taxi or Uber from the airport to the resort. You don’t have to worry about getting to various places within the park. You’ve got the bus system, the ferries and boats and the new skyline, all to get you there. Disney is taking the expense of transportation off of your plate and basically freeing up more of your budget to buy anything else you want. 

It’s not just transportation 

This isn’t just about transportation and creating a way to get from point A to point B. It really comes down to that customer experience and making sure that they’re delivering on it and making everything worth your while. So investing in something like letting people know the time that the next bus is coming, they actually pay their drivers $15 an hour to drive a Disney bus all day long and that’s actually going up soon. The reason they do that is because they know who the first person is when you start your Disney day — you get on the bus and you see the bus driver. And he says, “Hey, I hope you’re having a magical day. I can’t wait to see what happens when you come back to your resort! Are you going to want to see Mickey Mouse today?”

They invest in those drivers just as much as they invest in the buses themselves because they know that that is the first line to the customer and that needs to be a magical experience. Now they’re also very cognizant of the times. So just this past week, they put into play six brand new buses that feature USB ports. And it’s so smart and so needed because Disney actually has wifi all around their property. And you’re expected to use the My Disney experience app to get your fast passes, to check bus times to quick order food, which we’ll talk about these things in other episodes. But your battery drains very fast at Disney World. And I have grown accustomed to carrying along a spare charger, but many people don’t. And to be able to plug in on the buses is an amazing experience for the customer, because it’s just going to keep them in that shop Disney app. 

It’s an entire ecosystem 

So let’s talk about what the real takeaway is here. And we brushed upon it a little bit earlier on when we mentioned creating an ecosystem that you can basically contain your customers within. You’re discouraging them from heading off to the competition because they’re getting everything that they need from you. So when we’re thinking about the lesson here and an actual real life example, one thing that came to mind is one of our clients, Christina Scalera, who owns The Contract Shop®. 

Now, if you’re not familiar with The Contract Shop, what Christina does is sell contract templates for entrepreneurs to give them solid protection without the expense of having to hire a lawyer. You need a lot to maintain things and keep yourself in good standing and out of trouble, and that could cost you a lot of money if you worked with a lawyer every time. Christina knows that, in order for people to want to buy her contract, they need clients. So many of her teachings and trainings and courses and challenges are all centered on how to get more clients, because she said herself, if they don’t have clients, they don’t need contracts. 

The other thing that Christina does really well is that, if you purchase a contract, there’s a post-consumption sequence. And what we mean by that is there is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use your contract, how to edit it for your needs, how to use other tools that support it. And there’s also bonuses that we won’t share here, but there’s little bonuses along the way that really just continue to bring magic to the experience. 

And it’s one of those things that Disney — and Christina — does really well. They set you up for success because they’ve taken the thinking out of the process. At Disney, they’ve already thought ahead and considered the transportation that you need. They are giving these bus drivers that authority to give you a magical day and sprinkle some pixie dust on you. And this is all part of the holistic plan that they make in order to get people into their parks, into their restaurants, into their shops, to spend more money with you. And it’s very intentional.

What would Disney do?

So, next time when someone buys something from you, think about what Disney would do. They don’t stop when someone buys a ticket to their park. They’re constantly engaging their customers by giving them an incredible experience and making their vacation a lot more magical. People end up spending more money at Disney than they planned, usually. So if you implement something like a post-purchase consumption sequence that engages your audience and that engages your customer to build that relationship, to build that trust with you. So they come back for more. And if you continue to give them tools and resources that compliment your core offering, you’re only keeping them in your ecosystem a lot longer. 

And frankly, it stops them from going to your competitors. You’re going to become their one-stop shop for anything related to that topic, because they’re going to know that they can trust you because you have given them support in another place that they wouldn’t expect you to give support. And so they’re just going to keep coming back to you with that trust built. 

Want to rock a post-purchase sequence?

Wondering how to create an experience and ecosystem that keeps customers or clients coming back for more? We are going to share some extra tips and walk you through a post-purchase consumption sequence that you can implement in your own business. We’ll deliver this sequence right to your inbox when you drop your email herehttp://pixiedustandprofits.com/bundle: