And remember how NOBODY at the Harley-Davidson plant ever smiled? Not the tour guides, and certainly not anyone who worked there. It was a job, and that's all that it was. I don't know what regular "HOG" (Harley Owner's Group) folks expect, but I ran many engineering tours at my company, and all of our customers loved them - Some industry mags actually gave us awards for our engineering and manufacturing tours......
Well..... Kathy and I just got back from cruising the Bahamas on the Disney Dream ship of the Disney Cruise Line. Gorgeous cruise. We had some really great folks joining us for dinner each night at our table - You keep all of your table mates and wait staff every night and rotate through four different restaurants on board throughout the cruise.
Anyway, on the last night I look across the table and the husband of our Minnesota couple has a nice, button-down "Harley Davidson" shirt on (his wife was sitting next to me) so I mention that I did the tour through the Harley plant in York, PA, as part of a group of 40-50 folks and that it was the weirdest tour I've ever been on - really interesting production things going on, but poorly explained and nobody smiled, not even in the gift shop! Grumpiest bunch of people I'd ever seen, and then, right in the middle of the tour, some Harley folks decide that one of our members doesn't have the right footwear on and evict him to the gift shop while the rest of us finish, and how much of a bummer THAT was. None of us wanted to go back there, even on a bet.
So the Minnesota wife turns to me and says "You know that I work for Harley Davidson and am responsible for those tours, don't you?
A short moment of silence ensued as I let that sink in and figured out how to recover and then said "Well....I'm sure that since YOU took those tours over that they must be "World Class" by now." (She is a long-timer HD person and I'm sure she's been responsible for their tours for longer than when we were all there).
Her reply, "Oh, yes....Everyone loves them, now" seemed a little ingenuous to me.
She did mention, though, that all people taking a Harley Davidson tour now get issued some temporary, steel toed, over-shoes for them to cover their safety regulation asses (we never had to do that in our shop).
I still wouldn't go back there on a bet. But it's amazing the people you meet on a Caribbean cruise. And how easy it is to stick a big foot in your mouth......
