Chapter 11Services Need Marketing
Nonrandom Acts of Hospitality: Service with a Style
Today’s full-service luxury hotels face stiff competition from new micro-hotels and limited-service lodging establishments. Many of the competitors in the lodging industry offer rooms that are not a lot different from the room offered by the luxury hotels. Also the lower-priced properties frequently offer free continental or hot breakfast while full-service luxury hotels offer a breakfast buffet that costs from $9 to $20. Full-service luxury hotels can set themselves apart from the competition with the unique service they offer. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago has guest service down to a science.
When a cab pulls up to The Ritz-Carlton Chicago, an attendant surges forward to open the taxi door, take charge of the guest’s luggage, and welcome the unannounced guest by name. How does the hotel attendant know the guest’s name? Employees atThe Ritz-Carlton Chicago look for clues, such as guests’ luggage tags, in order to give guests a personal touch of service. Lobby attendants at the hotel will go out of their way to make sure a customer finds the store or special souvenir from Chicago. They will actually lead the guest to the store where the gift can be purchased. The nonrandom acts of hospitality demonstrated by The Ritz-Carlton Chicago have earned the hotel the top Condé Nast Traveler magazine’s Readers’ Choice award seven times.
The Ritz-Carlton Chicago does not have as high a profile as many other luxury hotels in the United States and is often confused with a Four Seasons located a few blocks away. The convention/shopping atmosphere of Chicago has no shortage of luxury hotels. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago is not as hip as the Park Hyatt, Sofitel, or Hotel Monaco.Still, the hotel earned five AAA diamonds and five Mobil stars for 2007. The hotel’s lobby with a splashing fountain and a bronze sculpture of three wing-flapping herons has the elegance of the Old World. Although the 32-year-old hotel has marble floors and crystal chandeliers in its lobby, its dated furnishings and décor in the hotel rooms include a wide array of colors. Room televisions are still the old-fashioned type that sit in bulky armoires. The hotel does offer plug-in Internet access, but Wi-Fi users must go to the lobby for service. The Ritz-Carlton Chicago sits above the Water Tower Place shopping center, and guestsmust take an elevator up to the 12th-floor lobby. This location can be classified as convenient or slightly tacky, depending on the guest’s point of view.
Be Our Guest
Loyal guests agree that the #1 rating for The Ritz-Carlton Chicago can be attributed to consistent outstanding guest service. Hotel guests rank the staff as top-notch because they actually care about customer service. The 435-room hotel has 544 employees; 40 percent of the staff have been with the hotel for a decade or more and 20percenthave served 20 years or longer. Jon Winke (the chief concierge at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago) goes way beyond making hard-to-get reservations. He set up a practice session in the hotel ballroom for a visiting NBA team that wanted to keep plays secret and helped parents of preteens track down $375 eighth-row seats for the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert.Winke began working for The Ritz-Carlton Chicago at age 21 as a bellhop with no hotel experience. Thirty-two years later, Winke is still a valuable employee at the hotel.
People from the Midwest have a warm, genuine approach that works well for the hotel. What makes the big difference in high-end hotels is service (the interaction with the staff). Many lodging facilities have spent the last few years working on hard goods such as beds, bathrooms, and televisions. They are now focusing on the more important element for success—personalized care. For example,a room-service dinner,with its restaurant-quality food,arrives to the hotel room in 29 minutes—one minute earlier than promised—on a linen-draped table with a heating compartment.
The Ritz-Carlton Chicago takes customer service to the next level.
Think Critically
- Why are guests willing to pay more for hotels like The Ritz-Carlton Chicago?
- How does the customer service offered at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago stack up against today’s customer service standards at other hotels and retail establishments?
- Why is it important to call a customer by his or her preferred name?
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