Ritz-Carlton has been keen to match-up with competitive hotels in this industry. This firm has developed various strategies through which it can meet customers’ needs in a special way, and deliver high customer value. The firm has been keen on developing memorable customer experience in its normal operations.
It has developed 3 steps of value delivery and 12 guiding principles in its service delivery. According to De (2011), in order for a firm to match-up to the market competition, it is important for the management to define its organizational culture that would help guide the way employees serve customers.
This scholar further states that success of a firm is always based on the activities of its employees. This is because they are constantly in contact with customers. The value that customers will get is based on the actions of the employees. The management of this firm is well aware of this, and has developed polices that empowers employees to do everything that is within their powers to offer customers maximum value for their money.
One of the 12 principles that this firm uses among its employees states, “I am empowered to create a unique memorable and personal experiences for our customers,” (Kurtz & Boone, 2009). This means that this firm has been keen to appeal to emotions of the customers in a way that would deliver maximum value to them. In several occasions, this firm has gone out of its way to ensure that it offers its customers a unique value in their services. The services are personalized to meet specific needs of the customers.
One of the cases that clearly demonstrated the extent this firm can go to offer quality service was when an executive in this firm order a special product for a customer who needed it but was unavailable in the stores. The product had to be flown 1000 miles away to the hotel. This is a clear demonstration that Ritz-Carlton is committed to delivering value to its customers. A number of factors make the difference between the strategy used by this firm, and that of its competitors in offering value to the customers.
One of the differences is that this firm has set aside up to $ 2000 that any given employee can use to ensure that customers receive maximum satisfaction. The management has also been keen to sacrifice profitability for the sake of offering value to its customers. Each customer of the firm is treated as unique, with unique needs from other customers. The ‘wow stories’ has also been a unique strategy that has been useful in motivating employees to give the best value to their customers.
The management of Ritz-Carlton has created the ‘wow stories’ as a strategy that is used to motivate employees to go out of their way in delivering value to their customers. De (2011) says that it is always necessary to create an environment within a firm that would encourage competition among employees.
This scholar says that when employees are made to compete in service delivery, they will always make an effort to ensure that they offer the best service that is within their capacity. The ‘wow stories’ seeks to share exceptional performance exhibited by some of the employees in their normal operations.
In this strategy, the firm would always record exceptional performance of its employees on a daily basis with the view of getting to know how some of the employees went out of their way to offer value to their customers. On each particular day, all the wonder stories would be collected and the most exceptional one would be published for other employees. The firm will identify the employee who delivers such an exceptional service as a valuable person among other employees.
The strategy seeks to convince employees of Ritz-Carlton that they have all the powers to act uniquely in order to meet customer needs. The strategy has been very important in customer service for this luxury hotel. The strategy has created an environment for creativity and innovation within this firm. For instance, there is a case where the maintenance crew of this firm decided to construct a wooden walkway from the hotel to the beach and then developed a tent for a couple.
The couple was worried that they could not go to the beach because one of them was on a wheelchair and could not use the existing stairs (Kotler & Keller, 2012). This action pleased the customers so much that it was easy to predict the likelihood of them making another visit to the facility once again. This strategy makes the employees believe that it is within their powers to offer value to their customers in a special way. This has also helped employee remain motivated in this firm.
References
De, B. S. (2011). Managing cultural diversity. Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Kurtz, D. L., & Boone, L. E. (2009). Contemporary business. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.