Page 161 - The New Gold Standard
P. 161

Build a Business Focused on Others

                             STRIKING GOLD


              D  What efforts do you make to not only measure the satisfac-
                 tion of your customers but also their emotional engage-
                 ment with your brand?
              D  Do employees at all levels of your organization understand
                 your customer feedback metrics? Do they understand the
                 importance of those metrics to the overall success of the
                 business?

              D  How do you attempt to listen to the needs and opinions of
                 those who choose other providers?

              D  Would your company be described as a customer-centric
                 business or a more inward-looking business focused on
                 process efficiencies?
              D  How do you solicit input from business partners, vendors,
                 and other individuals who have a stake in the outcome of
                 your company?




            sury Holdings, the ownership group for The Ritz-Carlton, Pow-
            erscourt, County Wicklow, Ireland, shares, “We’ve had a very
            good experience with Ritz-Carlton. From the onset of our ne-
            gotiations with them we could sense the sincerity of their inter-
            est in our ideas and vision. That is not to say that there were no
            disagreements. It was an intensely challenging but highly cre-
            ative period of time, bearing in mind that we opened the hotel
            972 days after we first broke ground. However, the senior people
            at Ritz-Carlton were invariably open to other perspectives, par-
            ticularly from those who knew the country where the hotel as-
            pired to operate. This willingness to listen serves the group well,
            particularly as one that is growing, adapting and becoming more
            international in outlook and location. The Ritz-Carlton group


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