Page 197 - The New Gold Standard

Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience
increasingly reluctant to share personal information. Most will
only share once they see a clear benefit, and then many still only
share reluctantly.”
In essence, customers seem to be most concerned about the
intention of the information sharing; if the sharing does not serve
the customer’s direct need (for example, internally inefficient
process requirements, employee gossip, or cross-departmental
marketing), it can raise privacy concerns and the possible per-
ception of intrusiveness. However, if handled with discretion
and in the service of the wants, needs, and desires of the cus-
tomer, most individuals are delighted to know that thoughtful-
ness and communication are occurring on their behalf. A guest
at The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, comments, “We were sit-
ting in the lounge having a couple of drinks. One of my peers
commented about how nice it would be to have a cigar. A few
minutes later, a security guard approached him and asked if he
would like to check out the selection of cigars in the gift shop,
which had been closed for the evening. The guard then escorted
this gentleman to the shop, opened it up, and waited while he
picked out a few cigars. Apparently our waitress had overheard
us talking about cigars and asked the security guard to take care
of us.” The commitment to look for ways to share information
that will enhance a guest’s experience is central to Ritz-Carlton
service philosophy and ultimately produces customer memories
and stories that are often exchanged and retold by loyal guests.

C I’m Here for You D

Some of the greatest opportunities for wowing customers occur
when breakdowns happen. From the standpoint of service re-
covery, Horst Schulze continues his comparison of guests want-
ing more than a home-away-from-home experience. Horst
believes that emotional connections with customers occur by
also looking at how a loving parent would handle a problem:
“When something went wrong at your home as a young child

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