The Service Culture At Ritz Carlton

This paper mainly presents the service culture at Ritz Carlton. The paper discusses the service culture in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. This paper covers some background history of the hotel as stated on the corporate website, service strategies – golden rules incorporated by the hotel chain. With real life examples taken from interviews by professionals the service culture is illustrated and explained. The purpose of this is to inform and educate what the service culture includes and how Ritz Carlton maintains outstanding service atmosphere in all its branches across the world. This paper also states how Ritz -Carlton executes the service offered as stated in an interview taken by Jankowski. The line-up for which the hotel is known for is also discussed along with employee feedback, empowerment and their focus on service.

The heritage of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. started with The Ritz-Carlton, Boston. The service standard set by this Boston landmark provided a standard for all Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts across the world.

In 1927, Mayor Curley requested Edward N. Wyner, who was a Boston real estate developer, to construct a world-class hotel. During this time, Wyner was constructing an apartment building. He agreed to change the apartment building into a hotel. Wyner was aware both of Ritz’s reputation in Europe and Boston’s cosmopolitan society and knew that the name would definitely bring success. After getting authorization from The Ritz-Carlton Investing Company and The Ritz Paris’ for using their name, he started work on the luxury hotel in Boston. The Ritz-Carlton, Boston opened its doors on May 19, 1927 charging $15 per room.

As was the tradition of Cesar Ritz, Wyner maintained the privacy of his guests that attracted the elite. This policy is followed till today at all Ritz-Carlton hotels. Considered a private club for rich people, until 1960s the hotel was very formal and hotel guests had to be in the social register or admirable. It was believed that the hotel sometimes checked the quality of writing paper used by the guests when requesting reservations, having refused a few for having used inferior quality.

As Boston society was formal, strict dress code was specified for all guests. Even the restaurants were strict regarding who they chose to entertain. The Cafe did not allow women to lunch alone and until 1970, the Ritz Bar did not allow unescorted women.

The hotel had its own upholstery, print shop and an in-house craftsman who was assigned to color gold stripes on the hotel’s furniture. Many guests were pampered and every care was taken to make them feel special. For Winston Churchill, the room’s fabric on the furniture was redone in red, as it was his favorite color.

After Edward Wyner death in 1961, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes (land developers) with their chairman and majority stakeholder, Gerald W. Blakely, took over the hotel. To continue with the Ritz legacy, Charles Ritz, son of legendary Cesar Ritz, was appointed on the board of The Ritz-Carlton until his death in 1977. In 1983, Blakely sold the hotel and the rights to William B. Johnson, who then established The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

The Ritz-Carlton logo created by Cesar Ritz is a combination of the British royal seal (the crown) and the logo of a financial backer (the lion). In 1965, Cabot, Cabot and Forbes revised the logo which is used till date.

In many Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts tables are set with the signature cobalt blue glasses which were considered a status symbol in 1920s Boston. These glasses were originally made to go with the blue Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers present in the original Dining Room in The Ritz-Carlton, Boston. The window glasses which were imported from Europe chemically reacted with Boston’s climate and turned blue. Having blue glass windows meant the owners could afford imported glass so Ritz ordered them in blue color (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010).

Discussion

Gold Standards

This is the base on what The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. stands. They cover the values and philosophy on what the hotel bases its operation:

The Credo

The Motto

The Three Steps of Service

Service Values

The 6th Diamond

The Employee Promise

1. The Credo

At Ritz-Carlton Hotel genuine care and comfort of guests is of highest importance. Emphasis on providing the finest personal service and facilities for guests is important. Guests are offered a refined ambience which they can experience while relaxing. In their words ” The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests” (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010).

2. Motto

At The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” This motto exemplifies the anticipatory service provided by all staff members (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010).

3. Three Steps of Service

A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name.

Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs.

Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest’s name. (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010)

Service Values: I Am Proud To Be Ritz-Carlton. These include:

I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.

I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.

I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.

I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.

I own and immediately resolve guest problems.

I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met.

I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.

I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.

I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.

I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets.

I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment. (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010)

The 6th Diamond

Mystique (service value 1 to 3),

Emotional Engagement (service value 4 to 9) and

Functional (service value 10 to 12) (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010)

According to Coffman (2006), who led the Ritz Carlton team to define new service value, the middle piece of the Sixth Diamond is reviving the emotions and memories of guests by genuinely caring and making them feel recognized, important and unique. Creating the Mystique happens when we hear guests’ requests even before the guest knows them, going so above and beyond the call that folklore (“wow” moments) spreads throughout guests and hotels.

The Employee Promise

At The Ritz-Carlton, our Ladies and Gentlemen are the most important resource in our service commitment to our guests. By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company. The Ritz-Carlton fosters a work environment where diversity is valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and The Ritz-Carlton Mystique is strengthened. (Ritz Carlton Hotel Company LLC, 2010)

The Lineup

In Ritz-Carlton new employees learn the Golden Rules and they spend every day of their employment discussing one of the 20 Basics. This is done during “The Lineup” which is considered as the hotels most important tool.

To illustrate the working of this tool we can imagine an employee who works with the kitchen staff and for initial 10-15 minutes of the day speaks with their team. They like others in the hotel, discuss one of the 20 Basics. A day’s discussion could center on Basic 10 which states that each employee is empowered. Therefore, when a guest needs help or suggestion, employees should break away from regular duties, address and resolve the issue immediately. Similarly, senior management meets with their top executives and respective teams. Dishwashers, doormen, and maintenance staff meet their groups respectively and discuss the meaning of Basic 10. The discussion revolves around situations, both hypothetically and in present reality. All 25,000 Ritz-Carlton employees act similar in their respective locations. So when the discussion cycle is completed with all Basic 20, the next day, everyone starts all over again, with Basic 1 (Lamton, 2003).

Employee Empowerment

The word “empowerment” is believed to be originally thought by the Ritz-Carlton. An amount is fixed on the employee’s resources for solving a problem immediately, without checking with a supervisor. An employee can use up to $2,000 to find an instant solution to a guest’s problem. An employee cannot avoid difficult situations by saying that it’s not their job. One cannot be limited with ones job descriptions when guest satisfaction is at stake. Employees need to step outside job boundaries, and no one questions them when they do so because it is more important to solve the issue (Lamton, 2003).

Ongoing Employee Feedback

Employees are empowered when occasional problems comeup and the hotel’s executives support, and reward continuous employee input. The hotel believes that employees are aware of what is happening, and the management must listen to them. The new employees might be asked about their opinion on improving service several times a month. Decisions are made by a small number of management staff and their reports are put into practice without any difficulty. The selection of employees is a team effort too. A supervisor does not hire an employee without taking opinions of candidate’s potential colleagues nor does Human Resources hire a new employee without group consultation (Lamton, 2003).

Telling Wow Stories

Stories can be used promote the culture and values of a company. In Ritz Carlton during the lineup, someone reads a “wow story” of the day. A story is communicated to all hotels in different countries. An employee in New York will hear the same story as an employee in Bali; same for one in Shanghai. These stories focus on a staff person who performs beyond his/her job description and offers a perfect service which creates an aura that alters luxury one time guests into repeat guests.

There is a wow story of a family which stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, Bali. This family had carried with them special eggs and milk for their son who was suffering from food allergies. When they arrived they noticed that the eggs were broken and the milk had gone bad. The Ritz-Carlton manager and dining staff tried to look for alternatives in the local market could not find the any suitable items. Luckily the executive chef at this particular resort knew of a store in Singapore that sold them. He immediately got in touch with his mother-in-law, and asked her to buy the products and fly to Bali to give it to him at the hotel. The family was extremely happy. After such an experience, this particular family was definitely converted into a repeat customer.

These stories have two functions. The first is to identify an employee’s dedication in front of colleagues and second is to emphasize a service value. In the above story of a family in Bali the intension was to reinstate service value No. 7: Use teamwork to meet the individual needs of our guests. This can be considered as an ideal way to express what is expected from the employees. Each story restates the way Ritz expects employees to act and shows how each employee contributes to the service values.

Gallo compared two lineups; first a general one and second a more specific meeting for the housekeeping staff on the morning shift. Gallo noticed about both meetings that there was a keen interest these employees showed had outshined the enthusiasm that was observed in other companies. Employees were enthusiastic to share. The stories served as teaching tools. Two, 15-minute lineups across 61 hotels, 365 days a year. The hotel offered many hours of training to its employees but it all will not result in anything concrete unless employees were connected on an emotional level. Sharing stories helps in this matter (Gallo, 2007).

Focus on Service

Every single Ritz-Carlton staff member is entrusted to use up to $2,000 on a guest. That’s not per year but per incident. It is not used often, but it shows a deep trust in the staff’s decision. They could use more than the designated amount after the general manager’s permission. The notion is to create an extremely amazing stay for a guest. It is not necessary that there is a problem, it could be something as simple as a guest’s birthday, an employee arranging champagne and cake in the room. Many times $2000 is to create an outstanding experience.

The stories include instances of a carpenter being hired to construct a shoe tree for a guest; a laundry manager who when not being able get a stain out of a dress after trying two times took a flight from Puerto Rico to New York and returns back the dress personally; or in Dubai when a server overhears a guest speaking to his wife, on a wheelchair, that he felt bad that he was not able to take her to the beach. The waiter informs the maintenance, and the next afternoon a wooden walkway was created down the beach leading to a tent set up for dinner for them. The general manager was not made aware of this until it was complete (Reiss, 2009). Listening to customers makes it easier to personlize the service. Computers make it easier today. Ritz has a guest recognition system that has data on clients’ individual preferences (Janelle & Maul, 2000, p.225).

In an interview conducted with Diana Oreck, Vice President Ritz Carlton Leadership Centre, she throws light on how Ritz Carlton executes service culture.

Following are the points made by her:

Determine Culture

The credo has to be clear and easy to understand. The hotel has “steps of service” that shows the attitudes toward interactions between employees and customers. The Ritz-Carlton’s three steps are:

Greet guests warmly and sincerely, and use their names.

Anticipate and fulfill the guests’ requests.

Bid guests a fond farewell, and use their names.

From the above, the most difficult is the second point. One can easily provide service if asked directly. It gets challenging when one has to develop an attitude that enables one to be sensitive enough to clients to foresee their needs (Jankowski, 2008).

Surprise and Delight

Wanda Jankowski states that recently she had stayed at a Ritz-Carlton to give her presentation. She was losing her voice and was surprised to notice that within five minutes of her arrival, the front desk person who received her during check-in sent to her room a handwritten note and a tea bag in the envelope. The note stated that hot water, lemon, and honey was coming. Hotels can train employees to anticipate client’s needs. It can range from being able to sense whether a client needs more information or a suggestion regarding a storage facility while their house is being remodeled. The key is to surprise and delight customers. Employees are not expected to be on autopilot when clients’ needs are to be anticipated. It is important management and owner of the company to practice what they preach. If they’re not practicing service-centric values, they can’t expect it from their employees (Jankowski, 2008).

Reinforce Values Daily

Ritz Carlton has a two-day formal orientation for its employees. 15 minute meeting are then held daily so that employees can register the cultural values. The company’s values and ways to apply them in different situations are discussed. The attendances for these meetings are nonnegotiable. Every Monday and Friday, outstanding examples of customer service are discussed. These examples help in motivating employees and help them absorb service values. These examples include how each employee can treat another employee and guests. An example stated in Ritz -Carlton Atlanta, is of a guest who was asked his preference in a newspaper he would like in the morning. The guest replied that he did not need a paper, but desired a pizza right that moment. Within half an hour a sizzling hot pizza was delivered in his room. Ritz-Carlton has been able to measure through research that satisfied customers spend more money. On average employees have 40 hours to find a solution and make an impact on the customer (Jankowski, 2008).

Conclusion

Ritz Carlton is a hotel chain that signifies excellence. The service culture that was created in the first hotel in Boston was used as a model to replicate in other branches. Going beyond their call of duty is what Ritz Carlton’s employees pride themself on. The Gold Standards created by the hotel is followed in all its branches and any one is expected to be discussed every single day. The execution of service culture as stated by the Diana shows how the hotel chain considers it as an integral part of the hotel. Ritz-Carlton’s success has be in effectively using the information provided by its customers. Treating customers like guests and providing an unforgettable experience is what Ritz-Carlton believes in.