How the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Is Redefining the Gold Standard

From Chapter One of The New Gold Standard by Joseph A. Michelli

The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company represents a follow-up to my book The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary. Where Starbucks leadership took an ordinary product like coffee and significantly added value by staging it in an environment of affordable luxury, Ritz-Carlton has elevated the luxury experience to a true art form.

The New Gold Standard is primarily intended to help managers, owners, and leaders understand the driving principles, processes, and practices that have generated unusual staff loyalty, world-class customer engagement, and significant brand equity for Ritz-Carlton. However, it also provides perspective on those same principles from the viewpoint of frontline workers (both customer facing and non–customer facing), customers, and other stakeholders. Whether you wish to attract, hire, and retain the "right" employees, are interested in producing transformational customer experiences, or are looking for ways to maintain the relevance of your product and service offerings, The New Gold Standard shares the wisdom of Ritz-Carlton leadership.

Ritz-Carlton leaders are responsible for stewarding an icon in the luxury market, through a constant quest for excellence, to continue its success in a changing global economy and with changing customer needs. Even in areas of international growth, succession planning, finding the best location for your business, or determining meaningful quality enhancements, Ritz-Carlton offers a rich tapestry of leadership successes and breakdowns that can help you shorten your path to greater success.

So what is at the essence of this iconic company? What is the Ritz-Carlton experience? While the answer reflects some variability based on the source you ask, there is a striking consistency of opinion.

For Robert E. Watson, managing director of Protravel International, Inc., the experience is characterized as "service value. What sets Ritz-Carlton apart is its service. Ritz-Carlton partners with us in the travel industry to get the most for our client. If we don't perform the service together, if we don't get that little extra something for the client, if we don't come up with that nugget, that little bit of something new, what would a client need us for? People are spending a lot of money today. And they don't mind spending it, provided they get value for their dollar. In today's world, however, value doesn't always match price. The experience at Ritz-Carlton is true value for us as travel partners and for our clients."

For community agency partner Colleen T. Brinkmann, chief marketing officer of the North Texas Food Bank, the Ritz-Carlton experience "is like a Lexus—they set the standard in their industry. But through their volunteer efforts with us, I would say the experience is very personal, very real, and colorful, but above all else respectful and gracious, even to the point of their Ladies and Gentlemen thanking us for providing them with the opportunity to participate in volunteer service."

Ritz-Carlton General Manager Tony Mira describes the Ritz-Carlton experience as "a Wow experience, like no other. It's one that you walk in and you know, whether you're a guest or an employee, that you are going to be treated like nowhere else in our industry. It's taking the genuine care and comfort of our guests to the highest level. That, to me, is the Ritz-Carlton experience."

Maybe the best way to demonstrate the unique value proposition achieved by Ritz-Carlton is to offer an example from a family that happened upon empowered Ritz-Carlton staff. Natalie Salazar, age 12, was a champion figure skater who began noticing pain in her legs while preparing for a regional competition as a step toward the Olympics. While originally thinking it was joint inflammation, the condition was ultimately diagnosed as a type of cancer known as osteosarcoma. Her chemotherapy treatments were unsuccessful, and at age 13, Natalie was told she was going to die.