Page 205 - The New Gold Standard

Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience
tunity to make a memorable connection through a fond farewell.
A guest at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California, shows
how simply, elegantly, and genuinely people can be wowed even
as they leave a hotel. “When we retrieved our car from the valet
to go home, they had a little note in the car thanking us for stay-
ing, another card listing the local radio stations and directions
to the freeway, plus two bottles of water for us.” Ritz-Carlton
staff members understand that memorable and caring service re-
quires nothing more than a handwritten note that says “thank
you” or “I look forward to seeing you again.”
In some cases, superb service requires no words at all, just
the passion to hold the needs of the customer as paramount. A
striking example is evidenced by a guest at The Ritz-Carlton,
Amelia Island, Florida: “One of our executives had an impor-
tant teleconference but was expecting a fax from one of the par-
ticipants. He called the front desk, told them he was going to be
on the phone, and asked if a staff member could bring up the fax
as quickly as possible when it arrived. The Ritz-Carlton staff
member assured our executive that it would be taken care of. He
began his conference call, and a short time into the call he heard
the soft sound of paper sliding beneath his door. However, it was
only the first page of his fax. Thinking they had made a mistake,
he returned to his call. A moment later he heard the sound
again, and another page appeared from beneath the door. The
hotel had someone running his fax up one page at a time, as each
page came off of the fax machine! They understood that the fax
was important, and rather than wait for the whole thing to
transmit, they sent it up as quickly as it came in. Because of these
types of experiences, I believe Ritz-Carlton is THE standard by
which all other service providers should be measured.”
Ritz-Carlton has created the expectation that its business
will be the standard-bearer for customer service and memorable
customer experiences. Well-selected and trained staff makes it
happen at all touch points of a customer interaction . . . one
guest at a time.

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