Utilities Can Learn
from the Ritz-Carlton Commitment to Employees, Customers and Service
By David Saxby
“Puttin’ on the Ritz” is a well-known
expression for high quality and utilities could learn much from this gold
standard when it comes to their customer service.
The Ritz-Carlton knows how to take care of its employees and customers and
the upshot is that it has amazing customer service. Why should utilities
care? In an independent survey, 99 percent of guests said they were
satisfied with their Ritz-Carlton hotel experience and more than 80 percent
were extremely satisfied. How satisfied are your utility’s customers?
To help you improve your customer service, I will highlight the following
aspects of Ritz-Carlton’s approach to employee and customer relations.
•
Ritz-Carlton makes employees feel valued to encourage them to provide
quality service. The company’s training managers and senior hotel executives
give personal two-day demonstrations of “Gold Standards” to all new
employees. Three weeks later, orientation units reconvene for follow-up
sessions, after which employees are considered “Ladies or Gentlemen at The
Ritz-Carlton.”
• The hotel chain teaches employees how to provide world-class service.
First-year managers and employees receive 250 to 310 hours of training.
• To cultivate customer loyalty, Ritz-Carlton has a rule that any employee
who receives a guest complaint owns the complaint. After training,
first-line employees such as housekeeping staff, busboys, etc., have the
authority to spend up to $2,000 to immediately correct a problem. Managers
can spend up to $5,000.
• The hotel chain is detail oriented. Steps for all quality-improvement and
problem-solving procedures are documented. For example, to meet its goal of
total elimination of problems, Ritz-Carlton has determined there are 970
potential instances for a problem to arise during interactions with
overnight guests and 1,071 such potential instances during interactions with
meeting event planners. Customer service standards have been established for
every instance.
Utility executives who aspire to achieve the
customer service success of Ritz-Carlton don’t need a big budget. The hotel
chain achieved its success over time and any utility can do the same if it
commits to the processes involved. To polish their customer service,
utilities should do the following.
-- Require
managers and senior executives to “walk their talk” about service both in
informal presentations and in daily interactions.
-- Define your service standards.
-- Train every employee to provide the service the company desires and to
uphold the company’s standards.
-- Empower staff members to resolve problems and make it clear how much
authority they have.
-- Identify specific steps and provide documentation for improving your
service and problem-solving procedures.
-- Measure, measure, measure. Collect data and analyze it to support
documentation and problem-solving procedures. Pay attention to the details.
Ritz-Carlton officials know their efforts
create a win-win-win situation. Employees feel good about themselves, guests
are happy and the company stays in business. The hotel chain is a shining
example of cultivating loyalty by building positive relationships one
customer at a time. Loyalty-focused companies outperform their competitors
two to one. Loyal customers are more pleasant, they purchase more products,
they refer new customers and they are more forgiving when problems occur.
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David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix,
Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in
customer service and sales skill training for utility companies. He can be
reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
