Page 200 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 4: DELIVER WOW!
and we were stranded. The Ritz-Carlton staff accompanied us
to a hotel further inland in downtown Cancún where we stayed
as the hurricane hovered over Cancún for three days. While at
the other property, the Ritz-Carlton staff provided food, water,
and amazingly enough, constant streams of mouthwash and
towels, while providing excellent service and smiles during the
horrific ordeal. After the storm passed, we found out the Can-
cún airport was closed indefinitely.” Amazed, the guest adds, “At
its own cost, Ritz-Carlton chartered a tour bus that took us to
the closest airport, in La Mirada, where they made arrangements
to charter a plane that took us to Mexico City. While I would
never wish such a horrible experience on anyone, I will say that
I am now a Ritz-Carlton customer for life.”
Whereas many businesses go out of their way to deny re-
sponsibility for guest problems, the staff of Ritz-Carlton typi-
cally acts responsibly, without ascribing blame, through targeted
corrective action. One guest tells of an experience of his daugh-
ter at the Ritz Kids program at South Beach where staff jumped
in and did the unexpected. “My daughter spilled something on
her pants soon after arriving there for the day. Our baggage was
lost by the airline, and so she didn’t have a change of clothes. Not
only did the camp counselors have her clothes dry cleaned but
they also went to Macy’s and bought her a new outfit. I was
floored. This is obviously above and beyond anything I would
have expected.”
Customers are all too often surprised when businesses ac-
cept responsibility for breakdowns, thus providing a strategic
advantage for those businesses that admit their faults. John
Fleming, Ph.D., principal and chief scientist for Gallup and
coauthor of the book Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-
Customer Encounter, says, “Taking responsibility for customer
problems is a huge area of opportunity because most companies
don’t do a good job of it. It’s a low-hanging fruit in building strong
relationships.”

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