Ritz Training & Development

Editor's Notes

• #3: Introduction Speech Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, and Training Magazine has called it the best company in the nation for employee training. Its unique culture starts with a motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” One of its remarkable policies is to permit every employee to spend up to $2,000 making any single guest satisfied. Ritz-Carlton codifies its expectations regarding service in “The 12 Service Values,” “The Credo,” “The Three Steps of Service,” “The 6th Diamond” and other proprietary statements that are taught to all 38,000 employees throughout 73 properties in 24 countries
• #6: 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 ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests. 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. 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.  Service Values: I Am Proud To Be Ritz-Carlton 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.   The 6th Diamond MystiqueEmotional EngagementFunctional 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.
• #8: A lot of companies have a notion that employee orientation really needs to be a data dump of the company, and statistics and who’s doing what. It really isn’t. What we are looking for at orientation is passion. We want to make sure that that new person feels they made the right decision in joining us. It’s all about them and it’s all about culture. We feel that orientation needs to be significant emotional experience. Because think about it – you are making a very big decision in your life to either start a job or change a job. So our two days of orientation, they are solely revolving around our culture, which we call the gold standards. And the reason we do that is we know that the culture creates passion advocates of our employees. Raving advocates of our brand and we don’t think that it’s realistic to ask that your customer be passionate, raving fans if your employees aren’t first.
• #10: At Ritz-Carlton, training was an ongoing process. After the 21-day certification, employees were assigned their jobs, and formal on-the-job training continued till day 365. On the 365th day, the new employees were recertified after a written test, interview, and role-play session. The employees were recognized for their service and presented with ‘service pins’ indicating that they were now a formal part of the team.
• #11: How do the ladies and gentlemen focus on service? We entrust every single Ritz-Carlton staff member, without approval from their general manager, to spend up to $2,000 on a guest. And that’s not per year. It’s per incident. When you say up to $2,000, suddenly somebody says, wow, this isn’t just about rebating a movie because your room was late, this is a really meaningful amount. It doesn’t get used much, but it displays a deep trust in our staff’s judgment. Frankly, they could go over that amount, with the general manager’s permission. The concept is to do something, to create an absolutely wonderful stay for a guest. Significantly, there is no assumption that it’s because there is a problem. It could be that someone finds out it’s a guest’s birthday, and the next thing you know there’s champagne and cake in the room. A lot of the stuff that crosses my desk is not that they overcame a problem but that they used their $2,000 to create an outstanding experience. There are stories about hiring a carpenter to build a shoe tree for a guest; a laundry manager who couldn’t get the stain out of a dress after trying twice flying up from Puerto Rico to New York to return the dress personally; or when in Dubai a waiter overheard a gentleman musing with his wife, who was in a wheelchair, that it was a shame he couldn’t get her down to the beach. The waiter told maintenance, who passed word, and the next afternoon there was a
• #12: Training Evaluation: The Gallup organization (a leading agency providing research, analytics, and advisory services) sends out 38 percent of guests that stayed the month before. It’s done randomly with the hope we will get 8-10 percent return. We live and die by that guest engagement number. This is the sum of responses to about 30 questions, including How likely is that guest to recommend Ritz Carlton? Were they delighted and satisfied with their stay? If there was a problem, did we take care of their problem? We know that if that guest engagement number goes up, we know that our training programs have been successful. Training Budget: The company invested sizeable resources in developing the potential of its employees (as of early 2007, the company invested ten percent of its total payroll expenses in employee training3
• #13: The Beginning of Our Journey After receiving the second Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1999, the media and companies around the world wanted to know how The Ritz-Carlton became the first service organization to receive two Malcolm Baldrige Awards. There was so much interest about how we do business—that it was distracting us from running our business. Thankfully, training is an important element of the culture of The Ritz-Carlton, and we opened a public university so that organizations in all industries—such as healthcare, automotive, finance, transportation, legal, energy, technology, retail, fitness, insurance, and human resources—have the opportunity to benchmark with us. Launched in 2000, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center has welcomed thousands of senior executives, managers and staff from leading companies and healthcare organizations around the world. Individuals and organizations have requested speaking engagements, partnered with us to change organizational culture, and enrolled in our courses on customer service, employee engagement and leadership.
• #14: Executive Education By exploring The Ritz-Carlton myriad strengths and global leadership principles in legendary service, quality sciences, talent management, engagement, strategic planning, execution and accountability—you will learn how to create a sustainable customer-centric culture. Cascading your strategic plan to every employee in your organization to create operational alignment and purpose Creating strong leadership, execution and accountability to drive organizational results. “The Fire Within” – Igniting Passion for Ritz-Carlton Performance Excellence By learning the tools that the world-renowned Ritz-Carlton hotel company uses to inspire their staff to bring their passion to work every day and volunteer their best, you too can create passionate advocates of your brand. Employees must be raving fans of an organization before customers are. There is no greater resource than an employee who is emotionally aligned to your brand. These employees personally engage with customers and turn them into. customers for life. Presentation Highlights By benchmarking the proven strategies of The Ritz-Carlton, you’ll collect new insights that can be applied to your organization. You will be introduced to The Ritz-Carlton methodologies for: Transcending transactional competence and fostering authentic customer engagement that promotes loyalty Cascading your strategic plan to every employee in your organization to create operational alignment Sharing each employee’s “function vs. purpose” to instill pride throughout your organization Tapping into your emotional intelligence to inspire passion in your employees and drive profitability “Radar On-Antenna Up” The Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton take service excellence to the highest levels every day. You must have your “Radar on-Antenna Up” and stay in the moment to extend personal service. This customer service course shows you The Ritz-Carlton method for fulfilling not only the expressed but also the unexpressed wishes and needs of your customers. You will be introduced to the skills needed for authentic customer engagement. You will learn about the importance of personalized experiences that will surprise and delight your customers and can impact your bottom line. Presentation Highlights This course will show you how memorable customer service can generate word-of-mouth and help you stand out from your competition. You will be introduced to The Ritz-Carlton service model for: Providing anticipatory service that creates passionate advocates of your brand Crafting unique, memorable and personal experiences that prevent your customers from feeling like they are simply another transaction Developing a written service strategy to ensure consistency and cultivate loyalty Avoiding missed opportunities and loss of sales by ensuring your employees are not on auto-pilot Back to Basics: Ritz-Carlton Style When should your customers receive excellent service? Always. This is the most important word in service. No matter how long employees have worked in the service industry, they can always benefit by going back to the basics. Your employees must be experts in the fundamentals of customer service—offering genuine, caring service consistently. This highly interactive program focuses on The Ritz-Carlton five golden rules as well as the essential components of customer service. Every customer interaction impacts your brand, and each employee can help move your organization down the path of service excellence. Presentation Highlights By reviewing the most important skills of customer service, you will be prepared to consistently meet the expectations of your customers. You will be introduced to The Ritz-Carlton road map for: Practicing etiquette, civility and manners to promote a positive and engaged environment for customers and colleagues Determining when to apply extra effort in order to create personalized service Accepting personal accountability and responsibility for the success of your team Understanding how your appearance and communication skills impact your organization’s brand Embracing safety, conservation, and cleanliness to create a hygienic and accident-free workplace