Page 192 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 4: DELIVER WOW!
done in order to actually service the customer or produce a prod-
uct require communication to happen across these boundaries.”

STRIKING GOLD

D In what ways have you designed service delivery that ap-
peals to both the thinking and feeling aspects of the con-
sumer?

D How does staff gain an awareness of the opportunities they
have to wow or make emotional connections with cus-
tomers at every touch point of the customer interaction?

D What processes and technologies do you employ to maxi-
mize cross-departmental service?

C Not a Home Away from Home D

In order to have staff deliver the emotional Wow experience, a
very clear picture of the customer’s desired emotional state must
be painted. Past President Horst Schulze points out that origi-
nally the message shared with staff at Ritz-Carlton was that
guests wanted to “have a home-away-from-home experience.
But what we learned when we did a careful analysis of what
guests were telling us is that they didn’t go to a hotel to replicate
what they experienced at their home. They went to a hotel to ex-
perience more than what they experienced at home. Believe it or
not, they wanted a hotel environment to emulate what a child
might feel in the home of a loving mother.”
Horst adds, “Guests wanted things to be done without their
having to worry whatsoever. Think about it. When children
open the refrigerator in their mother’s home, they find what they
like without having to play a role in how it got there. The light
bulbs in their home are changed, and they never have to think

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