The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
Discover the secrets of world-class leadership! When it comes to refined service and exquisite hospitality, one name stands high above the rest: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. With 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. The New Gold Standard takes you on an exclusive tour be
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A great, if somewhat older book; recommended along with a newer “ritz management” book,
“New Gold Standard” is a super, if slightly older, book on a really important subject: The Ritz-Carlton is one of the organizations whose methodology has truly transformed our understanding of what customer service quality and consistency can be.
I recommend “The New Gold Standard, especially if you’re in the hotel business; Michelli, who also wrote The Starbucks Experience, is a consultant who did a great job writing it. I don’t agree with the catty comments on this page that its writing style is sleep-inducing, etc. — I guess they’re complaining because it’s written in an academic style and is maybe overly deferential to the owners of the Ritz (hey, it is an “official” history). Nonetheless, in my opinion it is still full of many well organized details and a helpful book for anyone in hospitality. Some of the strong points in particular are the historical overview and the interviews Michelli includes.
(One note to be aware of: There’s now also a newer book on practical applications of Ritz-Carlton customer service and management techniques that’s just come out this May; I really enjoyed it a lot. I got a lot out of this newer book (“Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit”); it’s by the founder of the Ritz Carlton Leadership Center along with Horst Schulze, the Founding President of The Ritz. They collaborate with an entrepreneur/systems expert from *outside* of the hospitality industry; this allows them to cover management issues in a lot of depth and in fields that are often far removed from just hotel-industry topics. Here’s the link: Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization.
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|IBM Competitive Edge Book Club Selects Book in Q3 2008,
The IBM Competitive Edge Book Club is open to all Sales professionals at IBM. “The New Gold Standard” was our Q3 2008 book club selection. Overall feedback from the members was good. In the feedback from the members, we ask them the question – “What will you do differently in your job since your study of this book?” Some of the replies directly from the members included:
- “I will try to apply the concepts around exceptional customer service. Delivering ‘wow’ means extending our thought process beyond delivering just what is the basics and looking to over-deliver to our clients every day.”
- “Focus on instilling and maintaining a service culture within my organization”
- “IBM has its own “ladies and gentlemen” – particularly pertaining to “dedicated to our client’s success”. What we can do better is help each other reinforce this with our local teams on a daily basis.”
- “The book has given me good ideas for how to take customer service to the next level in our business. Some of the concepts and ideas in the book will help me when dealing with, or, selling to customers.”
- “I think the book applies itself very well to anyone that deals with customers.”
Thank you to Dr. Joseph Michelli for being apart of the IBM Competitive Edge Book Club experience and for writing a book that is interesting to read. The book drives home the importance of providing great customer service while balancing and recognizing those internally that create that experience for your clients/ customers.
Best Regards,
Brien Convery
IBM Global Workforce Partner and Competitive Edge Book Club Leader
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|I Will Read This Book Again,
I have to say that parts of this book were so cloying and some of the anecdotes so over the top that I felt like throwing it away, except … except for the fact that the Ritz-Carlton is one magnificent Brand founded on a great product.
As I continued to read, I began to appreciate why the Ritz-Carlton is so successful. The stories of over the top customer service and attention are so common, the attention to detail is so … well … detailed: these are the reasons why the hotel chain has become in the author’s words – The New Gold Standard.
In this well researched book, Michelli identifies five key principles that ensure success for this great hotel chain and which of course everyone can learn from. There is nothing new about the five principles, but very few companies implement them properly
The principles are:
1) Define and refine
a. Communicating Core Identity and Culture
b. Be Relevant
2) Empower through Trust
a. Select – Don’t hire
b. It’s a matter of Trust
3) It’s not about You
a. Build a business focused on Others
b. Support Frontline Empathy
4) Deliver Wow!
a. Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience
b. Turning Wow into Action
5) Leave a Lasting Footprint
a. Aspire, Achieve, Teach
b. Sustainability and Stewardship
In writing book reviews, I don’t normally re-run the basic contents page but in this case it is appropriate, because any one of the principles outlined above will help you grow your business. The challenge of course is how to do it. If there is one key lesson I take from the book it is – Reinforcement: Reinforcement of values, Reinforcement of culture and practices.
The hotel chain is constantly reinforcing its culture and ideals with its employees – “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” Sure this might seem twee, corny, outdated but the chain appreciates that to maintain its success it must also “Be Relevant.” Thus it has successfully targeted key demographics such as “Discerning Affluents,” many of whom might not dress or act in the same manner as the “Classic Status Seekers” which was the core market for the Ritz-Carlton.
Michelli apparently had great access to company strategy. He highlights research conducted which found that four factors account for 85% of overall guest satisfaction. These are
1) Sense of well being
2) Anticipation of guest needs
3) Room condition and
4) Room assignment.
These four predictors – `drivers of engagement’ – are reinforced through approximately 250 hours of training annually for each hourly employee including 15 minutes for daily briefing.
Bottom line: Some of the customer service anecdotes must have developed legs in the telling, but the fact is these anecdotes are part of the culture which is continuously reinforcing itself while also developing. This book will not change your culture overnight, but implementation of some key aspects will change your chances of business success over a period of time.
I’ve keyed into my database to read it again in 4 months time. That’s the best testimonial I can give.
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