Page 201 - The New Gold Standard

Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience
Consistent with John’s perspective and given Ritz-Carlton’s
stated objective of producing guests for life, problem resolution
is a mission-critical skill set. The relationship-strengthening ben-
efits of mastering these skills are demonstrated in the comments
of a guest in Maui who writes: “My wife accidentally broke a
bottle of makeup that she had brought along and left it in pieces
on the counter in the bathroom because she still wanted to use as
much of it as possible. We came back to the room one day to
find a note sitting beside the broken makeup bottle from house-
keeping offering to replace the broken bottle and they didn’t
even break it.”

C Demonstrating the D
Ability to Respond:
Responsible Behavior

People are genuinely wowed when others make a concerted ef-
fort to take care of their needs, particularly when the situations
that produced the needs are not directly the responsibility of the
person offering assistance. A guest at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua,
retells one incident. “We booked two plane tickets to fly over the
volcanoes. Despite the claims of the tour operator, which we
double-checked by having Ritz-Carlton call them to confirm,
there was no air-conditioning on the plane, most sights were
only visible on the right side of the plane, and the engine noise
was deafening even with headsets on. At $400 a ticket, it was a
huge disappointment and basically ruined our day. Because of
the constant dipping and steep turning of the plane, both my
wife and I got sick during the flight. Everyone was sweating, and
the pilot, Captain Bill, had the audacity to play his own band’s
music through the headsets and ask for tips at the end of the
flight! But credit goes to Ritz-Carlton and front office manager
JoAnne. We told her of our experience the next day, and after
the tour operator refused to grant any concession, JoAnne

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