Page 154 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 3: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU
Chris McCarty, Gallup engagement manager, observes,
“Ritz-Carlton deploys dedicated quality leaders at the individ-
ual hotels. These directors are in charge of consulting about the
Gallup CE 11 at the front line and energizing quality programs
at the hotel level. They help frontline workers understand how
guests are being surveyed, the nature of the survey, and how the
results predict future guest behavior and attachment to Ritz-
Carlton. The local quality leader’s role is really unique. Many of
our clients have one centralized person who knows and under-
standsour customer engagement tool. That person then dissem-
inates information about the instrument through marketing or
some other less-defined communication channel. But at Ritz-
Carlton, the quality leader consistently drives knowledge of cus-
tomer engagement at the property level, which I believe is a huge
communication and resource advantage.”
The methodology of the customer engagement survey in-
volves monthly phone interviews with meeting planners and
individual guests. In the case of guests, Gallup will secure 33 in-
terviews per property per month, totaling over 19,000 on an
annual basis. They will ask the guests the 11 questions of the
11
Gallup CE and also inquire about transactions at the hotel (for
example, room cleanliness and the check-in process) as well as
emotional factors (the guest’s overall sense of well-being and the
staff’s ability to anticipate needs). Once the data are collected,
results are posted monthly, and an 18-month rolling average is
used to place each hotel in a green, yellow, or red zone.
Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Mil-
lenia Singapore, notes, “There isn’t a general manager who sleeps
the night of the 19th because the results of the customer survey
come out the morning of the 20th, and we all want to know.
The rewards and incentives for everybody in the company are
set up based on the perceptions of the guest; that’s how we do
it.” While managerial bonuses are linked to a variety of factors,
they are heavily weighted in the direction of showing improve-
ment on customer engagement scores.

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