Page 158 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 3: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU
getting the fundamentals right, customers are benefiting on
every continent.”
As suggested by Ricco and Simon, customer satisfaction or
consumer engagement measurement has to go beyond an infre-
quent exercise in data collection. To truly build life-long cus-
tomers, receive recognition for service and quality, enhance
customer spending patterns, and produce customer evangelism,
businesses must place the information they receive from cus-
tomers directly in the view of leadership and the front line. Fur-
ther, leaders need to evaluate the performance of business units
and their ability to swiftly adjust offerings to enhance their emo-
tional bond with their customers.

C Understanding Changes in D
Your Customer Base

In Chapter 3, we looked at how Ritz-Carlton continues to re-
fine its product and service offerings based on the changing
needs of its clients. That chapter discussed how Ritz-Carlton in-
corporated the subject matter expertise of its advertising agency
partner Team One to better understand the discerning affluent.
Ritz-Carlton leaders invested over $1 million across three years
to further understand changes in the luxury consumer.
Laurie Wooden, vice president of new business development
and corporate strategy at Ritz-Carlton, says, “Since customers
are always changing, I am surprised to find businesses that are
content to do things the way they have always done them. By
actively talking to luxury customers, both those who use our ho-
tels and those who don’t, we learn a great deal about the chang-
ing expectations of our guests. Without that listening, how
would we know what best suits their needs? It is exciting to hear
the voice of the luxury guest and strategically translate that into
products for today and the foreseeable future.”
While Laurie references her company’s effort to listen to lux-
ury customers who are not currently staying in Ritz-Carlton

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