Page 65 - The New Gold Standard

Be Relevant
our guests. For example, at a resort in Florida we required a jacket
and tie at dinner, when the guests had been in their bathing
suits by the pool all day or wearing shorts playing tennis. It was
90-plus degrees and very humid, and of course guests were choos-
ing to leave our hotel to go have dinner.”
Laurie goes on to clarify, “Many of us began to wonder if,
as a company, we were serving the needs of customers from
another time, not the needs of today’s customer or the future
customer. That line of inquiry gave us direction in trying to un-
derstand what was happening when our buildings, services, or
service delivery did not seem to meet the needs of our guests.”
From that desire to first gain an understanding of the relevance
of its products, Ritz-Carlton leadership charted a course on how
to evolve. Based on anecdotal observation and extensive research
concerning the changing wants and needs of the luxury con-
sumer and luxury traveler (approximately the highest-spending
5 or 6 percent of the traveling population), whom the Ritz-
Carlton leadership targets as their market, a number of conclu-
sions were drawn.
According to Paul Westbrook, senior vice president of prod-
uct and brand management, “Several decades ago our guests
were very similar. Essentially, they were affluent people who trav-
eled in similar circles and socialized with one another. They were
both business leaders and individuals who had amassed signifi-
cant wealth. Our company was founded on service excellence
primarily conforming to their expectations.”
Simon Cooper, president of Ritz-Carlton, contrasts “con-
ventional” Ritz-Carlton customers with the reality of those they
serve today: “Twenty-five years ago, guests were expecting a very
consistent look of a Ritz-Carlton. That’s why we built hotels that
were rather traditional and put them on the beach in Florida. In
those days, consistency of a look and feel was rewarded. Also, 25
years ago if you cast your eye across the lobby of a Ritz-Carlton,
you would find primarily a male guest who was older and in a
suit. He had clear expectations as to what he would expect from

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