Page 402 - Marketing Management

DESIGNING AND MANAGING SERVICES | CHAPTER 13 379

Marketing Excellence president and chief operating officer, explained, “It’s all
about people. Nobody has an emotional experience with a
thing. We’re appealing to emotions.” The Ritz-Carlton’s
>>The Ritz-Carlton 38,000 employees at 70 hotels in 24 countries go out of
their way to create unique and memorable experiences for
their guests.
While The Ritz-Carlton is known for training its em-
ployees on exceptional customer service, the hotel also
reinforces its mission and values to its employees on a
daily basis. Each day, managers gather their employees
for a 15-minute “line up.” During this time, managers
touch base with their employees, resolve any impending
problems, and spend the remaining time reading and dis-
cussing what The Ritz-Carlton calls “wow stories.”
The same “wow story” of the day is read to every
single employee around the world. These true stories rec-
ognize an individual employee for his or her outstanding
customer service and also highlight one of the 12 Service
Values. For example, one family staying at the Ritz-Carlton,
Bali, needed a particular type of egg and milk for their son
Few brands attain such a high standard of customer who suffered from food allergies. Employees could not find
service as the luxury hotel, The Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz- the appropriate items in town, but the executive chef at the
Carlton dates back to the early 20th century and the orig- hotel remembered a store in Singapore that sold them. He
inal Ritz-Carlton Boston, which revolutionized the way contacted his mother-in-law, who purchased the items
U.S. travelers viewed and experienced customer service and personally flew them over 1,000 miles to Bali for the
and luxury in a hotel. The Ritz-Carlton Boston was the family. This example showcased Service Value 6: “I own
first of its kind to provide guests with a private bath in and immediately resolve guests’ problems.”
each guest room, fresh flowers throughout the hotel, and In another instance, a waiter overheard a man telling
an entire staff dressed in formal white tie, black tie, or his wife, who used a wheelchair, that it was too bad he
morning coat attire. couldn’t get her down to the beach. The waiter told the
In 1983, hotelier Horst Schulze and a four-person de- maintenance crew, and by the next day they had con-
velopment team acquired the rights to the Ritz-Carlton structed a wooden walkway down to the beach and
name and created the Ritz-Carlton concept as it is known pitched a tent at the far end where the couple had dinner.
today: a company-wide concentration on both the per- According to Cooper, the daily wow story is “the best way
sonal and the functional side of service. The five-star hotel to communicate what we expect from our ladies and gen-
provides impeccable facilities but also takes customer tlemen around the world. Every story reinforces the ac-
service extremely seriously. Its credo is, “We are Ladies tions we are looking for and demonstrates how each and
and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” every person in our organization contributes to our service
According to the company’s Web site, The Ritz-Carlton values.” As part of company policy, each employee is en-
“pledge(s) to provide the finest personal service and facili- titled to spend up to $2,000 on a guest to help deliver an
ties for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, anticipated need or desire.
yet refined ambience.” The hotel measures the success of its customer
The Ritz-Carlton fulfills this promise by providing im- service efforts through Gallup phone interviews, which
peccable training for its employees and executing its Three ask both functional and emotional questions.
Steps of Service and 12 Service Values. The Three Steps of Functional questions ask “How was the meal? Was
Service state that employees must use a warm and sincere your bedroom clean?” while emotional questions
greeting always using the guest’s name, anticipate and ful- uncover a sense of the customer’s well-being. The Ritz-
fill each guest’s needs, and give a warm good-bye again Carlton uses these findings as well as day-to-day
using the guest’s name. Every manager carries a laminated experiences to continually enhance and improve the
card with the 12 Service Values, which include bullets such experience for its guests.
as number 3: “I am empowered to create unique, memo- In less than three decades, The Ritz-Carlton has
rable and personal experiences for our guests,” and num- grown from 4 locations to over 70 and earned two
ber 10: “I am proud of my professional appearance, Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards—the only company
language and behavior.” Simon Cooper, the company ever to win the prestigious award twice.