Book Summary Preview : The New Gold Standard

The Big Idea

When it comes to refined service and exquisite hospitality, one name stands high above the rest: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Thanks to its ceaseless attention to every luxurious detail, the company has set the bar for creating memorable customer experiences in world-class settings.

Now, for the first time, the leadership secrets behind the company’s extraordinary success are revealed in this groundbreaking book, for which author Joseph Michelli was granted unprecedented access to the company’s executives, staff, and award-winning Leadership Center.

Why You Need This Book

This book presents practical how-to advice, proven leadership tools, and the wisdom of experts to help you create and embed superior customer-service principles, processes, and practices in your own organization, similar to what the staff and management at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company have done at theirs.

Principle 1: Define and Refine

The Ritz-Carlton’s success is ultimately rooted in well-defined Gold Standards and extraordinary discipline in keeping those Gold Standards alive in the daily lives of the Ladies and Gentlemen of the company.

These Gold Standards define the company, differentiate it from the competition, and serve as the beacon for sustainable service excellence.

THE CREDO

In its most elegant form, the Ritz-Carlton has defined the “ultimate guest experience” in three easily remembered stanzas:

The Ritz-Carlton 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 ambience.

The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfils even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

THE MOTTO

At first glance, The Motto of the Ritz-Carlton, “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen” may appear overly staid and outdated, lacking refinements to make it relevant to a modern workforce.

Yet packed into its formal language is a clear understanding of the relationship between, and implicit respect for, both the employee and guest.

THE THREE STEPS OF SERVICE

The leadership at the Ritz-Carlton weaves these three steps into the core of the culture:

1. A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name.
2. Anticipation and fulfilment of each guest’s needs.
3. Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye, and use the guest’s name.

Guests at Ritz-Carlton properties probably are not consciously aware that they are experiencing these Three Steps of Service. However, customers do express the emotional impact that these steps have on them.

Whether a company has established brand equity that it must reposition or is in its early development phase, leadership must define its culture and “always keep pushing” to refine the business’s relevance to a changing marketplace.

While there is always a risk of pushing too hard for business refinement, more often the ultimate risk is complacency that emerges from past success. Once-excellent businesses have crumbled before their leadership realized that they had become irrelevant to the changing consumer.

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