Page 195 - The New Gold Standard

Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience
interest is directed to their family, their life, or what they did
when they were at this property or even off-property.”

C Attention Is a D
Multisensory Activity

Micah’s example of artful attentiveness demonstrates that emo-
tional connections are forged not only through heroic efforts
of staff members but through subtle attentiveness. Research
conducted by professors Laurette Dubé and Leo Renaghan,
published in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration
Quarterly, validates the universal importance of “attentiveness”
among hotel staff. Of all the service characteristics they studied,
“friendliness” and “attentiveness” were the most valued by hotel
guests across all traveler groups (leisure, business). The impact of
attentiveness is underscored in the comments of a Ritz-Carlton,
St. Thomas, guest who writes, “Somehow the staff must have
overheard that my son’s birthday would be happening during
our stay at the hotel. We awoke to a basket delivery of chocolate-
chip pancakes, complete with candle and matches and birthday
wishes written in chocolate. Trudy, the gift store cashier, sent
a bag of goodies: a puzzle and map. They couldn’t have made a
nicer impression for an eight-year-old who didn’t get a party
with his best buddies on the big day.”
A guest at The Ritz-Carlton, Central Park, offers a similar
example of how focused attentiveness fuels customer loyalty and
the desire to continue a relationship with a business: “When we
entered the hotel for the first time, it was quite impressive be-
cause they called us by our names. We happened to mention we
were in the city to see the musical Mary Poppins. When we came
back to our room, the same concierge had the Mary Poppins
soundtrack playing and told us to take it home with us, as a me-
mento of our stay. My stay there in New York City made me feel
like a queen!”

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