Importance of ritz carlton wow stories

Marketing Excellence >>The Ritz-Carlton

Few brands attain such a high standard of customer service as the luxury hotel, The Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz-Carlton dates back to the early 20th century and the original Ritz-Carlton Boston, which revolutionized the way U.S. travelers viewed and experienced customer service and luxury in a hotel. The Ritz-Carlton Boston was the first of its kind to provide guests with a private bath in each guest room, fresh flowers throughout the hotel, and an entire staff dressed in formal white tie, black tie, or morning coat attire.

In 1983, hotelier Horst Schulze and a four-person development team acquired the rights to the Ritz-Carlton name and created the Ritz-Carlton concept as it is known today: a company-wide concentration on both the personal and the functional side of service. The five-star hotel provides impeccable facilities but also takes customer service extremely seriously. Its credo is, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” According to the company’s Web site, The Ritz-Carlton “pledge(s) to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.”

The Ritz-Carlton fulfills this promise by providing impeccable training for its employees and executing its Three

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Steps of Service and 12 Service Values. The Three Steps of Service state that employees must use a warm and sincere greeting always using the guest’s name, anticipate and fulfill each guest’s needs, and give a warm good-bye again using the guest’s name. Every manager carries a laminated card with the 12 Service Values, which include bullets such as number 3: “I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests,” and number 10: “I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.” Simon Cooper, the company president and chief operating officer, explained, “It’s all about people. Nobody has an emotional experience with a thing. We’re appealing to emotions.” The Ritz-Carlton’s 38,000 employees at 70 hotels in 24 countries go out of their way to create unique and memorable experiences for their guests.

While The Ritz-Carlton is known for training its employees on exceptional customer service, the hotel also reinforces its mission and values to its employees on a daily basis. Each day, managers gather their employees for a 15-minute “line up.” During this time, managers touch base with their employees, resolve any impending problems, and spend the remaining time reading and discussing what The Ritz-Carlton calls “wow stories.”

The same “wow story” of the day is read to every single employee around the world. These true stories recognize an individual employee for his or her outstanding customer service and also highlight one of the 12 Service Values. For example, one family staying at the Ritz-Carlton, Bali, needed a particular type of egg and milk for their son who suffered from food allergies. Employees could not find the appropriate items in town, but the executive chef at the hotel remembered a store in Singapore that sold them. He contacted his mother-in-law, who purchased the items and personally flew them over 1,000 miles to Bali for the family. This example showcased Service Value 6: “I own and immediately resolve guests’ problems.”

In another instance, a waiter overheard a man telling his wife, who used a wheelchair, that it was too bad he couldn’t get her down to the beach. The waiter told the maintenance crew, and by the next day they had constructed a wooden walkway down to the beach and pitched a tent at the far end where the couple had dinner. According to Cooper, the daily wow story is “the best way to communicate what we expect from our ladies and gentlemen around the world. Every story reinforces the actions we are looking for and demonstrates how each and every person in our organization contributes to our service values.” As part of company policy, each employee is entitled to spend up to $2,000 on a guest to help deliver an anticipated need or desire.

The hotel measures the success of its customer service efforts through Gallup phone interviews, which ask both functional and emotional questions. Functional questions ask “How was the meal? Was your bedroom clean?” while emotional questions uncover a sense of the customer’s well-being. The Ritz-Carlton uses these findings as well as day-to-day experiences to continually enhance and improve the experience for its guests.

In less than three decades, The Ritz-Carlton has grown from 4 locations to over 70 and earned two Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards—the only company ever to win the prestigious award twice.

Questions

1.

How does The Ritz-Carlton match up to competitive hotels? What are the key differences?

2.

Discuss the importance of the “wow stories” in customer service for a luxury hotel like The Ritz-Carlton.

Sources: Robert Reiss, “How Ritz-Carlton Stays at Top,” Forbes, October 30, 2009; Carmine Gallo, “Employee Motivation the Ritz-Carlton Way,” BusinessWeek, February 29, 2008; Carmine Gallo, “How Ritz-Carlton Maintains Its Mystique,” BusinessWeek, February 13, 2007; Jennifer Robison, “How The Ritz-Carlton Manages the Mystique,” Gallup Management Journal, December 11, 2008; The Ritz Carlton,

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www.RitzCarlton.com.

Marketing Excellence >>Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated not-for-profit medical group practice in the world. William and Charles Mayo founded the clinic over 100 years ago as a small outpatient facility and pioneered the concept of a medical group practice—a model that is widely used today.

Mayo Clinic provides exceptional medical care and leads the nation in many specialties such as cancer, heart disease, respiratory disorders, and urology. It consistently ranks at the top of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals list and enjoys 85 percent brand recognition among U.S. adults. It has reached this level of success by taking a different approach from most clinics and hospitals and putting a relentless focus on the patient’s experience. The clinic’s two interrelated core values trace back to its founders and are at the heart of all the organization does: placing the patient’s interests above all others and practicing teamwork.

Every aspect of the patient’s experience is considered at Mayo Clinic’s three campuses in Rochester (MN), Scottsdale (AZ), and Jacksonville (FL). The moment a patient walks into one of Mayo Clinic’s facilities, he or she feels the difference. New patients are welcomed by professional greeters who walk them through the administrative processes. Returning patients are greeted by name and with a warm smile. The buildings have been designed so that, in the words of the architect of one, “patients feel a little better before they see their doctors.” The 21-story Gonda Building in Rochester has spectacular wide-open spaces with the capability of adding 10 more floors. Fine art hangs on the walls, and doctor’s offices are designed to feel cozy and comforting rather than sterile and impersonal.

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The lobby of the Mayo Clinic hospital in Scottsdale has an indoor waterfall and a wall of windows overlooking mountains. In pediatric exam rooms, resuscitation equipment is hidden behind a large cheery picture. Hospital rooms feature microwave ovens and chairs that really do convert to beds because, as one staff member explained, “People don’t come to the hospital alone.” The newest emergency medical helicopter was customized to incorporate high- tech medical equipment and is one of the most advanced aircraft in the world.

The other significant difference in serving patients is Mayo Clinic’s concept of teamwork. A patient can come to Mayo Clinic with or without a physician’s referral. At that time, the patient’s team is assembled, which can include the primary physician, surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists, nurses, residents, or other specialists with the appropriate skill, experience, and knowledge.

Teams of medical professionals work together to diagnose patients’ medical problems, including debating test results for hours to determine the most accurate diagnosis and best treatments. Once a team consensus has been reached, the leader meets with the patient and discusses his or her options. Throughout the process, patients are encouraged to take part in the discussion. If surgery is necessary, the procedure is often scheduled to take place within 24 hours, a dramatic difference from the long wait patients experience at many hospitals. Mayo Clinic’s doctors understand that those who seek their care want action as soon as possible.

Mayo’s doctors are put on salary instead of being paid by the number of patients seen or tests ordered. As a result, patients receive more individualized attention and care, and physicians work together instead of against each other. As one pediatrician at Mayo explained, “We’re very comfortable with calling colleagues for what I call