The most important think to focus on if you want to drive Service Excellence if the culture of an organization. Putting together a training session and rolling out a program without focusing on the culture just won't work - it will never stick! As a leader, you can work to build a culture but you have to remember...THEY ARE WATCHING YOU. At Disney there is a clear culture of equality. I don't mean equality from a Diversity and Inclusion point of view (although that part of equality at Disney is clearly valued) - but from a more global perspective. Everyone - and I mean everyone wears a nametag. Backstage (aka behind the scenes) or in front of the Guest...from a day one new Cast Member (Associate) to our President...everyone wears a nametag. No one is too good or too important or too unimportant. We all wore nametags - it was as intuitive as getting dressed in the morning. That little thing created a real sense of pride and a culture of everyone being in this together. If it is something required of Guest facing associates then why isn't it something for everyone to do? Same with picking up trash, we all did it all the time. Keeping areas clean is important as it also creates the sense of pride. That sense of pride clearly translates to a culture of Service Excellence. Same goes for greeting everyone as you make eye contact, smile and say good morning. It makes such a huge difference.
When I was a Disney's BoardWalk our team was heading down to the Conference Center one day for a presentation by a particular department and their SVP was coming over to the Resort to roll out the program. I had gone down a bit early to greet everyone as they arrived and our HR leader, Melissa, came walking in about five minutes before it started. She sought me out immediately to let me know that the SVP who was coming over had walked in with her and she said Hi, Welcome! He walked right by her and did not acknowledge her at all. I said that he must have been focused on his presentation and she said it did not matter...it was not right! He was from Team Disney and if he did not stop to say hello, it's the wrong message. She was right! I never forgot that - if we as leaders can not stop to say hello, or pickup trash, or wear our nametag then how can we expect our teams to do those things? And doing those things creates the sense of pride that leads to delivering great guest service!