Quality at the ritz carlton hotel company case study

Case study #1

The Rtiz-Carlton Hotel Company

Product liability refers to a seller being held responsible for offering defective products into the hands of consumers. Unquestionably, a product is expected to meet the ordinary expectations of a consumer. Therefore, a product that has an unexpected defect cannot be said to satisfy the ordinary expectations of a customer. Ritz-Carlton is committed to service excellence. As a result, the hotel has a quality department in each franchise to track the success of the hotel in attaining Six Sigma and identifying the causes of any identified defect. The establishment established the Daily Quality Production Report (DQPR) for gathering, reporting, and tracking defect data. The DQPR is simply a weekly report that records a list of all service defects that were identified and recorded during a particular week. The report is a key source for identifying hotel processes that deviate from the quality standards of the hotel. The current analysis will explore product liability concerning the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.The Ritz hotel is currently evacuating due to severe hurricane. There are currently guest who are inside the hotel that are currently on vacation, honeymoon, etc. The Ritz Carlton managers gave order to evacuate all guests to the rescue boat. Currently there are others who aren’t staying at the hotel currently but need help as well and are trying to board the boat. Although they want to board the recuse boat they aren’t able to because they aren’t guess of the hotel currently and are left behind. However, as a person/family member would you want someone to leave you behind if you weren’t a guest at the hotel? When you start to sit back and think about what has occurred do you believe you should have let the people board the boat because at the end of the day that still represents you and your management skills. Not to mention people will probably look back and think that The Ritz-Carlton hotel will only do for the people who pay and not genuinely do things to help one another.

Questions

1. Is Ritz-Carlton Hotel liable for the products it offers?

2. What are the repercussions of people being stranded on the island?

3. As a hotel manager/worker would you allow others to get on the boat even though they aren’t customers at the hotel or not? Why or why not?

Ritz-Carlton depends on its employees to report its defects since employees and not the customer reported complaints provide the majority of the data in the DQPR. Defect reports are input into the DQIS (Dynamic Quality Information System). Each defect record must contain the actual defect that occurred. Additionally, a defect record should contain key information such as the date and time of the incident, the name of the guest involved, as well as the department where the root cause of a defect appears to lie. Ideally, Ritz-Carlton hotel believes that the DQIS reflects a complete and accurate collection of all the defects of the hotel and can be used to facilitate the analysis of recurring trends. Therefore, the DQIS measures the quality of service as well as customer satisfaction.

The employees of Ritz-Carlton frequently focus on customer pacification. It, therefore, means that the employees do not recognize the importance of reporting a defect once a customer is satisfied and the defect is remedied. According to the quality director at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, failure to report defects and instead focusing on instant pacification presents a challenge to the hotel. Focusing on instant pacification might prevent the company from identifying the root cause of every defect. Several issues could arise from such a situation. First, the hotel could be losing customers because of deficiencies in service that the hotel may not be even aware of. Additionally, focusing on instant pacification could undermine the ability too improve its service.

The DQIS was designed as a tool for improvement. The system should identify deficiencies in service that need to be addressed to satisfy the needs of the customer. Besides, DQIS should enhance the ability of Ritz-Carlton to proactively improve its service. However, focusing on the customer pacification presents an ethical problem. The hotel cannot correct defects in services if the employees do not record them. Since the Ritz-Carlton sells its products to guests, it is expected to meet the ordinary expectations of the customers. Therefore, the hotel should be liable for any defect in service provided by the employees. For this reason, the establishment should have a record of every defect in service.

Further Reading List

Keeton, P. (1973). Product Liability and the Meaning of Defect. . Mary's LJ, 5, 30.

Karatepe, O. M. (2006). Customer complaints and organizational responses: the effects of complainants’ perceptions of justice on satisfaction and loyalty. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(1), 69-90.

Davidow, M. (2000). The bottom line impact of organizational responses to customer complaints. Journal of hospitality & tourism research, 24(4), 473-490.

Mccarthy,K. (n.d.). Tourists says Marriot rescue boat left them behind because they weren’t hotel guest. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/tourists-marriott-rescue-boat-left-werent-hotel-guests/story?id=49814576