Ritz carlton five star employee award

PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 13, 2010

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company The Quest for Service Excellence BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN* *

As Pat Mene, Corporate Vice President of Quality, reviewed a summary file containing the most recent data reported in the Dynamic Quality Information System (DQIS) from the Buckhead Ritz-Carlton, he wondered what it was going to take to lead the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to the next level in service excellence. The Ritz-Carlton was the first hotel company to become a winner of the nation's premier prize for performance excellence and quality achievement, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.1 The 1992 award represented the culmination of the Ritz-Carlton’s efforts since its restructuring in 1983 to provide the highest level of service in the hospitality industry.

The Atlanta-based company was preparing for its second Baldrige application. Closing the summary file, Mene considered the difficulty of continuing the legacy of the founder, Cesar Ritz, to provide discriminating patrons with the highest standards of quality service in a setting of luxury and elegance.

History of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Cesar Ritz, founder of the Ritz-Carlton Management Corporation (the predecessor of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company), opened the first Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1898. The hotel was designed to pamper its guests through meticulous service and luxurious elegance. As news of the success of the new upscale hotel spread in France and throughout the rest of Europe, the Ritz name became synonymous with quality service and high style. In an effort to capitalize on the growing value of the Ritz name, in the early 1900s, Cesar Ritz organized a group of hoteliers and financiers and formed the Ritz-Carlton Management Corporation for the purpose of franchising the Ritz-Carlton name to individual hotel owners who were

Author affiliation *Professor of Professional Practice and Director, W. Edwards Deming Center, Columbia Business School †Armand G. Erpf Professor of Business ‡ PhD ‘98 **Paul M. Montrone Professor of Private Enterprise in the Faculty of Business

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prepared to abide by the strict service and culinary standards set forth by Cesar Ritz. As early as 1927, Ritz-Carlton hotels were opened in locations including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlantic City, as well as London and Montreal. Each hotel committed to abide by the strict mandates of service and fashion demanded by the Ritz- Carlton Management Corporation. Although austere economic conditions in the United States in the early 1920s and 1930s eroded the profitability of the Ritz-Carlton hotels, forcing the closure of all but one U.S. Ritz-Carlton hotel by 1940, Ritz-Carlton continued to be equated with quality and elegance.

In 1983, the Ritz-Carlton name and trademark were purchased by real estate developer William B. Johnson, and W.B. Johnson Properties Inc. became the parent company of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. William Johnson’s vision was to create a luxury hotel group with the highest standards of the hospitality industry, designed to appeal to the discriminating leisure and corporate traveler. After acquiring the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, W.B. Johnson initiated a corporate wide effort to ensure that the same high standards were maintained at all hotels bearing the Ritz-Carlton crest. In April 1995, Marriott International Inc. acquired 49% of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and in 1998, Marriott exercised its option of acquiring the remaining 51% of the Ritz-Carlton.

By early 1997, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company managed and operated 34 Ritz-Carlton hotels, including 25 city hotels and nine resorts. Twenty-five of the hotels were located in the United States; the remaining were distributed throughout the world, with hotels in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additional hotels were planned in Shanghai, Dubai, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Coconut Groves, and the Philippines. With the exception of the owned and managed Buckhead Ritz- Carlton hotel located in Atlanta, Georgia, the site of Ritz-Carlton’s corporate headquarters, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company operated its hotels under management contracts between the Ritz-Carlton and the owners of those hotels. Through its management contracts, the Ritz- Carlton Hotel Company was able to enforce and maintain its strict quality standards at all of its affiliated hotels. Independent surveys indicated that 97% of Ritz-Carlton customers not only were satisfied with their experience, but felt that a stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel provided them with a “memorable” experience.

The Hotel Industry The hotel industry has seen significant transformation since its inception in the early twentieth century. The majority of the earliest hotels were independent, privately owned ventures, located in population or trade centers, and had few conveniences. There was no standardization of services. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, however, to meet the demands of the growing number of travelers, hotel chains such as Howard Johnson's, Travelodge, and Holiday Inn were developed. As business travel continued to expand in the 1980s and 1990s, the hotel industry responded with the introduction of convention hotels, executive floors, business services, fitness amenities, and most recently, all-suite hotels.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence | Page 2 BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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The expansion, however, was not immediately accompanied by increased profitability. In 1981, in an attempt to stimulate capital investment in the United States, the government passed the 1981 Economic Recovery Act. The lure of investment tax credits was the catalyst of a major building boom in the hospitality industry, and a resulting glut of hotel construction—largely by developers with limited understanding of the hospitality industry. Approximately 7,000 hotels (over 900,000 rooms) were built during the early part of the decade. Properties were built often without regard for market demand or the need to establish a customer base. Although the construction boom ended with the Tax Reform Act of 1986, when federal legislation reduced the level of tax-related incentives, it was years before the hotel industry was able to recover. As recently as 1990, the hotel industry suffered a $5.7 billion loss. Since 1990, however, industry profits have improved dramatically, due to strong consumer demand and the absence of significant capacity expansion. In 1995, pretax profits exceeded $6 billion due in part to a modest rise in occupancy level (0.8% increase to 65.5%) and a 4.8% increase in room rates.

Hotels are typically categorized into five segments: (i) luxury hotels, such as Ritz-Carlton; (ii) upscale hotels, such as Hyatt; (iii) mid-price hotels, such as Holiday Inn; (iv) economy hotels, such as La Quinta; and (v) budget hotels, such as Motel 6. Each segment experiences its own occupancy rate and room rates.

Hotels can also be classified based on their form of ownership and management. Some hotel properties are owned and managed by the same individual or group. Other hotels, such as the Ramada chain, are franchisees where, in exchange for royalty and marketing fees, the property owner receives such services as a national reservation system, national advertising, and volume purchasing discounts. Finally, some hotel properties, such as Ritz-Carlton hotels, are owned by individual property owners, but are managed by a management company in exchange for management fees.

As of December 1996, the U.S. lodging industry had approximately 3.6 million rooms at approximately 47,000 properties. In 1996, hotel occupancy and room prices were on the rise; the average occupancy rate was 65.2%, and the average room rate had increased by 11% since the beginning of 1995. According to a survey by Zagat, the average room rate at a Ritz- Carlton hotel increased by 19% from 1995 to 1997.

Commitment to Excellence THE GOLD STANDARDS After W.B. Johnson acquired the Ritz-Carlton trademark, the company focused its efforts on developing a chain of prestigious and highly personalized hotels, with the objective of achieving product and profit dominance. To achieve these objectives, Ritz-Carlton formulated a philosophy predicated upon management’s commitment to providing uncompromisingly high quality service to its guests. This philosophy was formally stated in the company's Gold Standards, which became the guiding principles of the Ritz-Carlton philosophy. The Gold Standards included the Credo, the Motto, the Three Steps of Service, and the 20 Ritz-Carlton Basics. (See Exhibit 1.)

Page 3 | The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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This document is authorized for use only by Wenlong Gu in MGT545-141 taught by Ivana Zilic, DePaul University from September 2017 to November 2017.

THE CREDO The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambiance. The Ritz- Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

The first of the Gold Standards, the Credo, embodies the essential characteristics of the products and services provided by Ritz-Carlton. The Credo is more than the company's mission; it influences the development and management of each Ritz-Carlton hotel and pervades the attitude and manner of each member of the Ritz-Carlton organization, from senior management to housekeeping. Each Ritz-Carlton hotel is designed and operated using the Credo as a guideline. For example, hotel lobbies are small, designed for intimate gatherings rather than large group meetings. Lobby music varies by time of day and surrounding environment. Conference rooms are located out of direct view from the lobby, to obscure the business function of the hotel. Each Ritz-Carlton hotel offers a full panoply of on-site facilities ranging from on-site fitness centers to 24-hour room service. Each hotel is associated with a number of fine restaurants with international acclaim.

THE MOTTO We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen.

The second, and most well-known, of the Gold Standards is the Motto. The Motto captures the essence of the Ritz-Carlton philosophy and represents the Ritz-Carlton commitment to quality and excellence. “Our employees are treated with as much respect as guests,” explained John Dravinski, general manager at the Marina del Rey Ritz-Carlton hotel. 2 Employees are taught that they are professional service providers, not servants. The Motto is each employee’s touchstone when servicing hotel guests. Each employee is trained to act as if he/she is a lady/gentleman, and to treat guests similarly, that is, in a highly professional and courteous manner.

THE THREE STEPS OF SERVICE The Three Steps of Service detail the actions and decisions required for all employee- customer interactions. The Three Steps describe the behavior expected of a Ritz-Carlton employee, whether he services a guest or an “internal customer” (a fellow employee). The first step in performing a service is to greet the customer. The Ritz-Carlton philosophy believes that if the customer is not greeted, the employee is only performing a task, rather than a service. The second step is to anticipate the needs of the customer. Employees should not wait until a customer fully articulates his needs; rather, the employee should attempt to anticipate these needs and fulfill them. Finally, the employee should bid the customer farewell after completing the service. (See Exhibit 1.)

THE BASICS The last of the Gold Standards is the 20 Ritz-Carlton Basics. These describe the guest problem-solving process as well as the fundamental rules of conduct that must be followed

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence | Page 4 BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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by all employees. The Ritz-Carlton Basics reiterate the Ritz-Carlton commitment to quality service and customer satisfaction. (See Exhibit 2.)

Employee Selection, Training, and Staffing Ritz-Carlton management has recognized that in order to implement the Gold Standards uniformly in all managed hotels, it is necessary for senior management to transmit these values to all Ritz-Carlton employees personally, and to empower employees with responsibility and sufficient autonomy to apply the company’s values in their daily tasks. Empowerment instills employees with a sense of ownership, and encourages them to assume responsibility and take the steps necessary to satisfy their customers. Ritz-Carlton management takes the following four steps to ensure that employees maintain the company's high standards for quality and service excellence, as articulated in the Gold Standards: (i) rigorous employee selection process, (ii) employee orientation, (iii) employee training certification, and (iv) continuous coaching.

EMPLOYEE SELECTION Individuals seeking employment at a Ritz-Carlton hotel are selected based on the recommendations generated by Ritz-Carlton's Targeted Selection Process, developed in 1987. In an effort to match prospective employees with the requirements of their respective positions within the company, Chief Operating Officer Horst Schulze appointed a team of managers to develop personality profiles for each position within the company. Managers developed these profiles by capturing key personality traits of the best employees in each position. The result was a list of essential character traits that best fit each job. Potential hires are asked a series of 55 open-ended questions, designed to help identify where that individual's natural talents lie. The goal is to assess an individual's communication skills, attitude, and motivations, as well as past work experience and behavior, to assure a good fit in the assigned position specifically and the Ritz-Carlton organization generally.

EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION New hires at each Ritz-Carlton hotel participate in a two-day orientation seminar. All new employees attend the same orientation seminar, irrespective of their title or position. New hires are familiarized with company history and with the company's vision for the future. They also are instructed in the corporate philosophy and the role they will play within the Company in effectuating that philosophy. The importance of quality service, both to external as well as internal customers, is emphasized. Finally, employees are led on a tour of the hotel premises.

The two-day orientation seminar is reinforced by a “Day 21 meeting.” The Day 21 meeting is an informal meeting where employees have the opportunity to provide feedback to ensure that they understand the Ritz-Carlton philosophy, and that their expectations are being met. The Day 21 meeting provides new hires with three weeks to reflect on the information they learned during orientation.

Page 5 | The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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This document is authorized for use only by Wenlong Gu in MGT545-141 taught by Ivana Zilic, DePaul University from September 2017 to November 2017.

EMPLOYEE TRAINING CERTIFICATION Following the two-day orientation, new hires begin training for their respective positions. Training is conducted by a fellow employee who has been certified for his job by his manager. Training is a 30-day process, designed to ensure that all employees provide uniform and consistent high-quality service. Training involves both technical training as well as exposure to the Gold Standards. The approach to training is a "tell, show, do, review" approach. Specifically, the training process is designed to match the learning needs of all individuals, whether they require oral or visual training. After 30 days, the new employee's performance is reviewed by his manager. At this time, the employee must pass written and skill demonstration tests to confirm that he has mastered all aspects of his position. If the manager agrees that the employee has been properly trained in all facets of his new job, the employee receives a training certification. The certification is a checklist of all duties required by the employee's position. (See Exhibit 3.)

CONTINUOUS COACHING The training each employee receives at the commencement of his employment is reinforced through the coaching that continues throughout the duration of employment. Corporate philosophy is reinforced at daily line-ups before the start of each new shift. The line-up is a 15-minute meeting where one of the 20 Ritz-Carlton Basics is discussed. Line-ups are coordinated companywide; each day the same Basic is discussed at all Ritz-Carlton properties. The line-up also serves as a time for information sharing. Employees are informed of any special events that will occur during their shift as well as any guests with special needs or desires, so the employees can anticipate their needs.

As a result of the Ritz-Carlton's employee selection and training process, employees are educated in the company philosophy and commitment to service excellence and the role they play in attaining the company’s commitment to quality service. According to Ritz-Carlton quality personnel, by 1997 Ritz-Carlton’s selection and training processes had contributed to a reduction in employee turnover to an annual 30% rate, compared with the industry-wide annual turnover rate of approximately 110%.

Total Quality Management By 1987, four years after being acquired by W.B. Johnson, the Ritz-Carlton was recognized by lodging industry surveys as a premier luxury hotel chain. However, despite this achievement, Ritz-Carlton hotels continued to experience numerous customer complaints. Schulze recognized that in order to ensure long-term profitability and to maintain its premier position, significant improvement in service quality and efficiency would be necessary. To meet the challenge, Schulze embraced the traditional techniques of Total Quality Management (TQM).

Ritz-Carlton believed the commitment to quality services must begin with management’s concerted efforts and actions to create systems and structures that enable and motivate a corresponding commitment throughout the organization. In the words of Schulze, “You know the three obstacles to TQM? Top management, middle management, and lower

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence | Page 6 BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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management.” 3 Bob Worman, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Buckhead, explained that Ritz-Carlton managers must create a culture where each employee recognizes the dual objective of defect-free service and customer satisfaction, and where the employees themselves propel the progression towards Six Sigma. Toward this end, managers are required to lead by example; management must use and teach the quality process. Indeed, senior executives at Ritz-Carlton devote over 25% of their schedule to quality enhancement issues. Management frequently consults with guests and employees to identify areas for improvement. The company's 14 senior-most executives meet weekly to review quality standards and performance, guest satisfaction, and market developments.

In addition, Ritz-Carlton has established incentive programs to reward employees for implementing ideas to improve their workplace or guest satisfaction. These include, among others, the Good Idea program, which awards cash prizes for the best employee initiatives, and Five-Star employees of the quarter awards. (See Exhibit 4.) Further, employees do not receive fixed annual or tenure raises. Instead, employees are compensated for their skills in an effort to keep employee compensation aligned with corporate goals.

Process Control Ritz-Carlton recognized that process management and control as well as quality improvement techniques long used in the manufacturing industry could be employed in a service environment as well. “In all business—whether it's a factory or a hotel—work gets done by transforming methods, materials and people into a product or service,” explained Mene. “A manufacturing plant probably spends more time on its machinery and materials, whereas we're more concerned with the flow of people coming into our organization.”4

As evidence of its commitment to service excellence, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company requires that each hotel in its franchise establish a quality department. The role of the quality department is to track the hotel’s success at achieving Six Sigma, and to identify and eliminate the root causes of any identified defects.

In an attempt to communicate the complexities involved in problem prevention to its employees, the company adopted a quality mascot, a mischievous-looking animated character named Mr. Biv (an acronym for Mistakes, Rework, Breakdown, Inefficiency, and Variation) to represent the five most common mishaps that interfere with a service provider's ability to satisfy his customers consistently and efficiently. Mr. Biv serves as an effective and accessible medium to communicate to employees the potential sources for error, and helps alert employees to wasteful work habits.

THE DYNAMIC QUALITY INFORMATION SYSTEM In addition, Ritz-Carlton has developed a system for gathering, reporting, and tracking defect data. Ritz-Carlton defines a defect as any deviation from a desired service level. Attempts are made to record each defect and to use this information as input into a Daily Quality Production Report (the DQPR). The DQPR is a weekly report that lists all service defects that were identified and recorded during the prior week. The DQPR is used as a first

Page 7 | The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

For the exclusive use of W. Gu, 2017.

This document is authorized for use only by Wenlong Gu in MGT545-141 taught by Ivana Zilic, DePaul University from September 2017 to November 2017.

source for identifying hotel processes that deviate from the company’s quality standards. Ritz-Carlton relies on its employees to report defects, as the majority of input to the DQPR is provided directly by employees, rather than customer reported complaints. (See Exhibit 5.)

PRODUCING THE DQPR It is the responsibility of a member of the quality team at each hotel to gather all reported defects from all logs that record defect information. This information is input into the Dynamic Quality Information System (DQIS), a Paradox for Windows database application. The information is viewed as a tool for improvement rather than a “report card” of performance. Each defect record contains the actual defect that occurred, in addition to other pertinent information including, for example, the date and time of incident, name of the guest involved, and the department where the root cause of the defect appears to lie. Similar defects are assigned the same keyword. The use of keywords, as well as inputting various characteristics of the defect, allow quality personnel to sort the defects based on various identifying criterion. For example, if quality personnel required the number of defects involving delay in food service, all defect records could be extracted with the keyword "f&b delay." If quality personnel required a comparison of defects occurring at night with defects occurring during the day, the data could be retrieved by sorting the records by time of defect.

USING THE DQPR Employees at each Ritz-Carlton hotel are charged with “instant pacification,” that is, to immediately remedy any defect they discover, irrespective of the task they are engaged in when discovering the defect. Thus all defects that appear in the DQIS have already been addressed. The sole purpose of the DQIS is to identify any recurring trends by allowing quality personnel to analyze the defect data in various forms and generate reports based on internal customer needs.

Ritz-Carlton has not developed any standard methods for analyzing the DQPR. Rather, quality personnel at different hotel sites use different methods for analyzing the defect reports. Quality personnel at the hotels do not use specific statistical software to analyze the data, and personnel may have had different statistical training. Quality training comes from informal seminars organized within the company.

The DQIS is most often used to generate Pareto charts aggregated by keyword, to identify different sources of defects. If a particular department appears to be the source of a disproportionate percentage of defects, quality personnel will then analyze the actual records in the associated DQPR in an attempt to determine the root causes.

PROBLEM SOLVING Upon identifying a systemic problem based on analysis of the relevant DQPR, quality personnel apply problem-solving processes to eliminate the source of the defects. Internal Problem Solving or Quality Improvement Teams are created, composed of members of different departments affected by the process that requires improvement. The team is assigned ownership of the problem; by assigning ownership, employees assume responsibility to solve the problem, and are empowered to take action to resolve the

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company: The Quest for Service Excellence | Page 8 BY NELSON M. FRAIMAN*, LINDA V. GREEN†, ALIZA HECHING‡, AND GARRETT J. VAN RYZIN**

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problem. The most common approaches utilized by the teams to identify and eliminate the problem are the Six Step Problem Solving Process, and the Nine Step Quality Improvement Process. The teams also make use of the Six Step Cycle Time Reduction Process to analyze the tasks required to complete each process and to determine where inefficiencies lie. (See Exhibit 6)

Customer Satisfaction Ritz-Carlton relies heavily on continuous customer feedback and customer assessment of the level and quality of service they experience at the Ritz-Carlton hotels, as a measure of its success in satisfying its customer’s needs. Ritz-Carlton measures both its ability to satisfy its customers, as well as the level of satisfaction experienced by customers, by using both internal and third-party assessment methods. Ritz-Carlton also measures customer perception of quality of service provided, using both immediate reaction to service and retrospective reaction to service.

Ideally, assessment of quality of service and customer satisfaction can be measured by the data reported in the DQIS, as the DQIS should reflect a complete and accurate collection of all system defects and can be used to facilitate analysis of recurring trends. However, employees frequently focus exclusively on customer pacification; once the customer is satisfied and the defect remedied, employees do not recognize the importance of reporting the defect.