Page 49 - The New Gold Standard

Set the Foundation
From Horst’s term paper in hotel school at age 15, the
Motto has served not only to elevate the status of “service pro-
fessional” but it has also communicated the expectation that
staff will treat one another as Ladies and Gentlemen and that the
leadership of Ritz-Carlton will protect their Ladies and Gentle-
men from guests who fail to behave respectfully. Diana Oreck
says, “We are serving wealthy people. We are blessed; 99 percent
of our guests are lovely people. However, there are a few who
equate money with being rude or abusive. The Motto is helpful
for our Ladies and Gentlemen when an isolated incident occurs,
and they encounter someone who is really difficult. Our staff can
then say, ‘We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gen-
tlemen, and I would really appreciate it if you could address me
that way.’ If the guest fails to modify his or her behavior accord-
ingly, our leadership is glad to invite the guest to stay somewhere
else. In fact, we will even secure the reservation for him or her.”
While some have argued that the language of the Motto and
the Credo needs to be more progressive and is ripe for change,
leadership at Ritz-Carlton evaluated the issue and invited the
Ladies and Gentlemen to share their input. Through surveys
conducted to determine the relevance of all of the Ritz-Carlton
Credo Card contents, staff showed a strong preference for the
Motto’s remaining unchanged, suggesting that its language
imbues a timeless sense of pride in the service professions. Ac-
cording to Brian Gullbrants, who started as a server at The Ritz-
Carlton, Phoenix and has moved through the ranks to serve as
vice president of operations, “The results were clear and re-
sounding that our Ladies and Gentlemen felt the Motto offered
them a magnitude of esteem.”
Hervé Humler, president of international operations, and
one of the founders of the company, notes, “I am always attend-
ing the countdown to opening our new international hotels and
orienting our new staff to the fiber of this company, and I start
with, ‘My name is Hervé Humler, and I am the president of
Ritz-Carlton International, and I’m a very important person.’

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