Ritz Carlton Case Study
Ritz Carlton Case
The Ritz Carlton experience is more than just staying at a hotel. It is experiencing luxury service that exceeds expectations of guests from the second they arrive to the second they leave. Its a feeling of being catered to by professionals not in the hotel business, but the service business with the best resources available. The Ritz Carlton sells service and by doing so incidentally sells hotel rooms, food, and drinks. They charge their guests for excellent service because they believe that they are professionals at it.
The concept of Ladies and Gentlemen came from Schulze, who explained that employees are not servants but are Ladies and Gentlemen, just as the guests are, who we respect as Ladies and Gentlemen. In order to create “Ladies and Gentlemen” in only 7 days, Ritz Carlton starts their 7-Day Countdown with a staff orientation. The first day is rather relaxed, where over 400 employees gather to understand the culture and values of the firm, along with meeting prospective new employees of various other divisions of the Ritz-Carlton family. The second day involves grouping the new employees in their respective functional areas, where Schulze explains to the different groups the importance of the high quality of service they should establish in each of the functional areas. The day itself was about making the employees see the Ritz-Carlton vision of making guests feel so comfortable that felt as if they were home. Day three and four involved scheduling uniform fittings to the employees and introducing the daily lineup procedures. On day four they also went over certain difficulties that the guests may face, and how an employee should tackle those situations. The last three days involved employees practicing a “day-at-work” with trial runs that included people checking in, serving meals to guests, and preparing rooms for guests. After this, they would get feedback from the corporate