Page 93 - The New Gold Standard

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Select–Don’t Hire

Whatever you are by nature, keep to it;
never desert your line of talent. Be what nature
intended you for and you will succeed.
SYDNEY SMITH

Displeased customers are more likely than sat-
isfied consumers to take the time to write to
|corporate leadership. So imagine opening a
two-page handwritten letter from a customer who merely
wanted to offer gratitude for staff members who deliver
subtle but caring service. In such a letter the guest re-
counts, “One of your employees and I got on an eleva-
tor in your building. I pushed the sixth-floor button and
he pushed none. Instead of getting off with me on the
sixth floor, your employee simply said, ‘Have a nice day.’
Upon exiting the elevator, I asked, ‘Where are you go-
ing? Aren’t you getting off here?’ Your employee replied,
‘No, I’m going back down to the fifth floor.’” The guest
goes on to write, “I couldn’t believe it—how do you find
people who are so invested in placing the needs of their
guest above their own?” Such was a letter received by
Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper.
Simon receives a fair share of customer letters, both
critical and complimentary; however, he realizes that given

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Copyright © 2008 by Joseph A. Michelli. Click here for terms of use.