Professionalism at the Ritz-Carlton

               On Tuesday, our Managing the Customer Experience class traveled to Chevy Chase, MD to visit the corporate offices of Ritz-Carlton.  Our class had the opportunity to receive a presentation by the Vice President of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center and observe a daily lineup.  A daily lineup is a ‟process of daily reflection on values and shared storytelling”.  Each day a Service Standard is selected to serve as the theme for the message prepared for the lineup.  All Ritz-Carlton locations receive the same message.  The experience really drove home the concepts in Joseph Michelli’s, The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, required reading for the course.

               The one common theme through the entire visit was one of pure professionalism.  I was the first to arrive from our group.  When I introduced myself to the gentleman at the front desk he knew exactly why I was visiting and proceeded to escort me to the conference room.  Upon entering I met the Vice President of the Leadership Center who had the conference room setup with notepads, pens, Credo Cards, and Quality Guest Preference Sheet examples (see picture).  After brief introductions, our class headed to the daily lineup.  I was not sure how the staff would react to the eleven extra people attending the lineup.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when the staff arrived and we were greeted with warm smiles and either a ‟hello” or ‟good morning”.  The lineup was a phenomenal way to align thoughts and actions to continue performing up to the Ritz-Carlton standards.  I even felt more motivated for the day and this was my first lineup!  Overall, it was refreshing to experience the enthusiasm and professionalism of the Ritz-Carlton staff and a culture all businesses should strive to achieve.

-Brett