"If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering." — Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: As business leaders, there are many priorities vying for our attention. Where we invest our time and energy, or "focus" as Jeff Bezos refers to it, will always reap the most reward. When our focus strays from the customer, doors open for competitors to move in. As long as we remain customer-focused and provide perfect service, no matter what any competitor does—our customers will not be easily swayed. The Ritz-Carlton believes in consistent customer focus, and our Ladies and Gentlemen challenge themselves to WOW our guests with every interaction. Our service values empower them to provide unparalleled, anticipatory service for our guests, which helps us fulfill our mission to create Ritz-Carlton guests for life. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Customer-focused appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Would you trust your child’s care to someone you didn’t research? There are many services in life that people are willing to pay for to receive a better experience. For example, many parents/guardians out there (myself included) would be wary of handing over their children to free childcare. With the growing amount of free services popping up out there, it begs the question: is free always better? It can be, but I recommend you do your homework, whether you’re looking for a free or premium service. And you thought you escaped homework after graduating! The biggest issue I see with online services is definitely security. Trusting your data to a company that is going to keep it safely in the cloud is a big deal and not one that users should take lightly. Anyone who’s ever lost a document that they had spent long hours on knows how crucial it is to find a service that keeps your precious data safe while you’re on the go. Use the checklist below to find exactly what to look out for (and steer clear of) when selecting a free or premium cloud service. Homework Checklist: When researching online, pay close attention to: Media reviews User reviews Social media User experience Interface Security Service quality Customer service quality Engage in free services with your eyes wide open. Ask your friends and/or colleagues what they are using. Make sure you’re willing to lose your data if things go haywire. Lastly, look for a service that is geared towards businesses, not individuals. Doing your homework is a hassle, but it’s better than the alternative. Leaving your data with just any company is like trusting your kids with free childcare or childcare you’ve neglected to research. It may save you some time and hard-earned cash, but at what risk? When you do find a cloud service that meets your business, quality, security and financial needs, pull the trigger - you’ve found a winner! Photo credit: cobalt

Dear Ritz-Carlton: What is scenography, and how does it impact customer service? Answer from Diana Oreck, Vice President at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Author Michael Eagan writes the following about scenography: "The term ‘scenography’ includes all of the elements that contribute to establishing an atmosphere and mood for a theatrical presentation: lighting, sound, set and costume design." We have adopted this concept at The Ritz-Carlton because we want to create integrated guest experiences. Many people believe that service is just about the interaction with service professionals. There is much more to it. Great service is about the people, the physical plant and the five senses. These three elements must work together to create an atmosphere that enhances the surrounding and consequently, heightens the customer’s experience. It’s important to choose elements—sounds, visuals, tastes and smells—that harmonize with the backdrop. For example, having classical harp music playing in our public areas at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach in Florida would be out of place. South Beach has a very vibrant, Latin/salsa vibe. So salsa music would better fit the atmosphere—the scenography—of The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach. Scenography ensures that we do not forget the importance of the five senses in service. We create memories with our five senses. What our customers, see, hear, touch, taste and smell is all part of creating unique, personal and memorable emotional experiences for our guests. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: What is scenography? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce 2012 was nearly twice the size of last year’s conference, with more than  90,000 attendees, 800 sessions, 350 exhibitors and 200 analysts and members of the press in attendance - not to mention the 100,000 who watched live on Facebook. The in-person event ran from Sept. 18-21 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, and Citrix was lucky enough to have a booth on the show floor. Our Citrix team, composed of Joe Cox, Johnny McGee, Joe Kondroski, Fred Leung, Bryan Barrett and Ana Ruvalcaba, got the chance to speak with many attendees and prospective customers about our simple-to-use cloud services. Dreamforce also provided the perfect opportunity for attendees to see first-hand how integrated apps can make Salesforce even more useful. During the event, one of our customers, Avigilon, a leading manufacturer of high-definition surveillance solutions, led a breakout session about how they’ve boosted productivity and cut down on customer response times with multiple Salesforce apps - including the Citrix GoToAssist Corporate for Salesforce app. According to Amir Javidan, vice president for customer service and IT at Avigilon, "GoToAssist Corporate with Salesforce integration helps our support team consistently achieve industry-leading customer satisfaction levels while optimizing productivity and efficiency." Want to learn more about how Avigilon benefits from GoToAssist Corporate and our integration with Salesforce? Read the Avigilon customer case study. Available from the AppExchange, GoToAssist Corporate for Salesforce lets customer service teams instantly deliver remote support to their customers’ computers with a simple click from a Salesforce case record. This much-needed app for contact centers and support professionals enhances the customer support experience while increasing agent productivity, further reducing costs and improving customer service levels. Not familiar with remote support technology and its benefits or want to see a live demo of the GoToAssist Corporate for Salesforce integration or receive a free trial? Visit our website.  Photo credit: justinlevy

Each month, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center (RCLC) features an interview with an employee — a Lady or Gentleman of The Ritz-Carlton — in order to share an insider’s view of the organization. This month’s interview is with Sue Stephenson (@RitzCarltonCSR), Vice President of Community Footprints. Community Footprints® is The Ritz-Carlton social and environmental responsibility program, focused on benefiting the communities where the company operates. RCLC: What is your role as the Vice President of Community Footprints? Ms. Stephenson: As the Vice President of Community Footprints and a direct report to our company’s President and Chief Operations Officer (COO), I lead the development of our Community Footprints global strategy. With operations in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, our approach is to merge our global strategy with local execution and perspectives. This ensures our employees’ volunteer efforts are relevant, impactful and can be adapted to meet local pressing needs. ` RCLC: Was there a moment in your career when the idea of social responsibility clicked for you or was it a slower, less obvious process? Ms. Stephenson: I’ve worked for The Ritz-Carlton for 24 years, and it’s been an organic process. A commitment to the community and environment was embedded in our mission statement when our company was founded with a statement that "The Ritz-Carlton Hotels will be positive, supportive members of their communities and sensitive to the environment." Our philosophy of service translates into reaching out to others, beyond the walls of the hotels, and I’ve been fortunate to play a role in evolving that commitment into Community Footprints—which is now one of the strategic pathways of The Ritz-Carlton Long Range Plan. RCLC: How does Community Footprints fit into The Ritz-Carlton culture? Ms. Stephenson: Community Footprints is woven into the Gold Standards of The Ritz-Carlton through Service Value 4: "I understand my role in … embracing Community Footprints …" Every employee acts on our Service Values so it’s a natural process for our Ladies and Gentlemen to want to be engaged in projects that support their local community. Community Footprints provides a platform for our employees around the world to play a role in tackling serious community issues. They don’t see it as a corporate program, they see it as their program. They make it work and are tremendously proud of their efforts. RCLC: How do you determine which projects to take on? Ms. Stephenson: Our initiatives are multifaceted and focus on child well-being, hunger and poverty relief, and environmental responsibility. At every Ritz-Carlton hotel, club and residence around the world we have a Community Footprints Team and at the beginning of each year they plan out how they will support their community and submit a comprehensive Community Footprints Annual Plan. The report details scope and frequency of all planned volunteering and fundraising activities for the year and an overview of their Community Footprints local non-governmental organization (NGO) and community partners. Targets are set for our properties with the results integrated into our company’s Business Priority Metrics and leadership performance measures. We are proud of our year-over-year improvements with, as an example, over 150,000 hours contributed to our Community Partners in 2014 and $5.6 million in cash and in-kind donations. RCLC: Are there any brand-wide programs that all your hotels participate in? Ms. Stephenson: Yes. Our Succeed Through Service mentoring program is deployed in over 100 middle and high schools in low-income communities around the world and is designed to make a positive impact on young people. The curriculum brings students to our hotels and takes our Ladies and Gentlemen into classrooms to teach critical career and life skills and introduces the idea of students contributing to their own communities. Since the 2009 launch, we have worked with over 18,000 middle and high school students across the U.S. and around the world. To encourage others to get engaged in helping students flourish, we’ve made our Succeed Through Service materials available on an open-source non-proprietary basis. RCLC: Can you give us examples of individual projects going on in local communities? Ms. Stephenson: One of my favorite aspects of my role is that every day I receive images of the Community Footprints projects that are happening in different parts of the world. One example of the multitude of programs taking place to help children flourish occurs weekly at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, where, in addition to many other Community Footprints activities, 20 employees volunteer in the John A. Cumber School Reading Buddies Program. Last year they contributed 1,963 volunteer hours reading to the young students. In the area of hunger and poverty relief, we provide skills training, make food and supply donations and provide volunteer support. As an example, for over six years our employees at The Ritz-Carlton, Denver have been cooking and serving meals on a monthly basis at Urban Park, an organization that helps homeless youth reach their potential and achieve a successful life. In the area of environmental responsibility, we focus on reducing our carbon footprint and protecting the environment. A local example is taking place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Center where the employees are planting and helping conserve the Ghaf tree, a rare desert plant species of culture and ecological significance. RCLC: How is Community Footprints evolving? Ms. Stephenson: We’re broadening our volunteer focus to have more of a skills-based focus. We challenge ourselves to ask, "If I am contributing two hours of my time, how can I incorporate any of my business skills into that work?" For example, our chefs could help to plant trees in a local park but what’s even more beneficial is if they help a local hunger relief organization plan well-balanced, cost-efficient and nutritious meals. With this skills-based approach, our Public Relations teams help nonprofits develop their social media strategy; our Human Resources teams teach interview skills at community centers; while our front desk staffs teach social skills to members of the community re-entering the workplace. The possibilities are endless. There’s a reward when you help beyond what your muscles can do — you then engage your mind and heart and those skills are invaluable to a nonprofit or NGO! RCLC: Are there any recently launched initiatives? Ms. Stephenson: Yes! Just last December at the United Nations, Herve Humler, our President and COO and I participated in the introduction of IMPACT 2030, a global collaboration between the U.N. and the private sector. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is the first Founding Partner of IMPACT 2030: The Global Initiative for the Advancement of Corporate Volunteering. We are partnering with many global companies, including IBM, Google and Tata Consulting Services, to launch the program in September 2015. IMPACT 2030 will help corporations leverage their volunteer programs to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We’re all very excited about the possibilities of this global program that will help address the most critical issues for our planet and bring about global change. RCLC: If you could capsulize Ritz-Carlton’s social responsibility efforts, how would it read? Ms. Stephenson: Our Community Footprints Mission Statement says it best. "At The Ritz-Carlton we have built a legacy of extraordinary service. This tradition extends into our Community Footprints program and inspires us to positively impact the lives of others. Every contribution we make is an opportunity to leave an imprint on our community. It is through this collection of imprints that we can make a meaningful difference." ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Sue Stephenson appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In a recent Vanity Fair article, Barack Obama explains why he only ever wears grey or blue suits. It’s about conserving decision-making energy.   I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia. I was very interested to read on Quora that Mark Zuckerberg also uses a very limited wardrobe - although in his case, it’s usually a brown or grey Facebook T-shirt. According to a Facebook intern on the site, Zuckerberg explained that "it makes for one less thing to think about in the morning."   It’s safe to assume most of us aren’t faced with decisions of the same magnitude as the POTUS or the founder of the world’s largest social network. However, we do all face a multitude of daily decisions, each of which consumes our time and energy.   What can we learn here?   Clearly, we should all start dressing in monotone (well, maybe). Perhaps more importantly, we should take steps to reduce the haze of decisions we’re confronted with every day. Do this, and we’ll free ourselves to focus on the things that really matter.  Snap out of the sleepwalk. The daily commute is something many of us could do in our sleep; we’ve stopped noticing that it is full of energy-consuming decisions. Walk to the station or take the bus? Does our public transit card need to be renewed? Do we take this passenger car or the next one? And so on. Sidestepping the commute altogether would enable us to save not just time but also valuable decision-making energy.  Be ready to go. So, what do you need to work effectively from home or a remote location? Preparing could be as simple as having the right equipment (laptop and smartphone, for example, along with respective chargers), trusted flexible working solutions such as GoToMeeting and knowledge of a good local working space or two. If you know beforehand what you need to maintain productivity and stay in touch, all the small decisions you’d usually make before escaping the office (how, where, when?) are reduced to just one: is it feasible to work flexibly today?   Stay focused and keep shipping. Before you dive deep into the day’s work or transition from one project to another, make it a habit to pause and review your to-dos. It’s easy to drift from key tasks - and the key decisions they hinge on. This is your chance to stay focused and keep shipping.  Don’t micromanage. Trust your people. Legendary entrepreneur Richard Branson has written persuasively about why micromanagement is counterproductive. He attributes Virgin’s success to giving his staff autonomy and encouraging them to take calculated risks. Giving my employees room to work has often meant my moving out of the business’s headquarters. In the early days I used a houseboat as my office, and later my home in Holland Park, to give my managers the space and authority to make their own decisions. There you have it. What will your decision be?  Photo credit: sixsensesslowlifesymposium

When you’re up against a deadline in a noisy environment, what do you do to get into the zone? We’ve all been there. The clock is ticking, and an important piece of work - perhaps a client presentation or proposal - needs to be delivered, but incessant buzz and chatter makes it impossible to concentrate. The minutes are slipping away. What to do? One option is to pack up your things and go elsewhere, but sometimes that just isn’t feasible. This is when I often reach for my headphones and a favorite Spotify playlist or two. Accompanied by my own personal soundtrack, I’m able to block out distraction and focus on the work at hand. For me, this works perfectly. But is it really a viable strategy?  A recent study at the University of Miami looked at how music affects workplace performance. It found that people who listened to music worked faster, more efficiently and more creatively than those who didn’t. Researcher Teresa Lesiuk concluded that music helps people work for the simple reason that it boosts mood. "When you’re stressed, you might make a decision more hastily; you have a very narrow focus of attention," she said. "When you’re in a positive mood, you’re able to take in more options." Other studies have cited the "Mozart effect," a hypothesis that classical music can boost our ability to solve complex, long-term problems.  However, personal choice is clearly important. What works for me (the debut album from The xx, for instance) may not work for a colleague who happens to prefer Wagner’s "Ride of the Valkyries." If you share a workspace, this is worth keeping in mind next time you compile a playlist of your all-time classic hits. Productivity may decline if you force everyone else to listen to "Eye of the Tiger."   So, does music work for you? What do you listen to while you’re working? If you’re at a loss, perhaps this handy flowchart may help you find the perfect working jam.   Photo credit: meyerfelix

"Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning." — Denis Waitley, motivational speaker and author The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: At the intersection of opportunity and preparedness is success. Those who work hard enough (and smart enough) will eventually get there. As leaders, we need to equip our team with all the tools necessary to rise to any occasion. Investing in training and showing genuine interest in each of your colleagues’ development will ensure that your workforce has the ability to give that extra push when the time comes. In our case, that extra effort is often the difference between reactionary service that yields satisfied customers and the anticipatory service that engages the customer and bonds them to your brand. This translates to the difference between the revenue of a customer who appears once and awhile and indulges a moderate amount versus a customer who comes frequently, for longer periods of time, urges others to join and utilizes all of what you have to offer. In order to move our customers to that level of full engagement, The Ritz-Carlton facilitates constant training and sharing of best practices for both individuals and teams according to their goals. By engaging employees in this personal way, we produce Ladies and Gentlemen who will go the extra mile not because they have to, but because they want to. Following up with self-audits and teachable moments, our leaders inspire and push our Ladies and Gentlemen to win over our guests every day! ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Secret of Winning appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

The current remote exploration of Mars via the Curiosity rover reminds us that with the right tools, IT pros can explore anything, from the surface of Mars to the Mariana trench - to remote computers! In fact, GoToAssist has a lot in common with Curiosity - except it’s faster to set up and costs a lot less. View and remotely control technology Just as Curiosity is controlled by NASA technicians on earth, GoToAssist lets you view and control your customers’ and employees computers from anywhere, using two-way screen sharing and remote control technology. You see what they see - their desktops are like the landscape photos Curiosity sends back. Gather diagnostics to solve complex problems The mission of the Mars rover is "to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes." It takes pictures, gathers samples and performs tests to provide scientists with data they can analyze. Similarly, using GoToAssist IT pros can gather diagnostics to determine what’s happened to a remote machine. Access environments where no human is present It’s a pretty safe bet that Mars is "unattended" - at least by humans. With a little setup, GoToAssist users can also access an unattended computer (no person present at the keyboard), which can save a lot of time and enable updates to be made after hours. Work from the comfort of your own atmosphere To put it politely, not every customer’s office is as congenial as your own. Some might as well be on Mars for the comfort level they offer. But when you’re providing support remotely, you get to control your work environment. You can even take your work on the road, using a free GoToAssist Remote Support mobile app on your iPad or Android device.  To explore a distant planet, you’d need a $2.5 billion rover and 2 years to set it up. To explore a distant computer (on Earth), all you need is GoToAssist and a couple minutes. Visit our website to learn more about GoToAssist and our proven support solutions for contact centers and IT departments.   Photo credit: tjblackwell

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do you convert a mindset of profitability from nickel and diming people to profitability by loyalty? The above question is from an attendee at the "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. The following answer is from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: We no longer live in a transactional economy. We live in a relationship economy, or as author Joseph Pine describes it, an "Experience Economy." This means we are developing relationships with customers and patients and meeting each person’s unique needs. While there are a few businesses like Walmart that thrive simply based on low prices—most organizations will find greater profitability by offering outstanding service, building authentic relationships and cultivating customer loyalty. One of the best ways to convince decision-makers to join the relationship economy is to share data that supports a customer-centric approach. According to research by Bain & Company, it costs six- to seven-times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one, and yet, many organizations devote more of their efforts to acquisition rather than loyalty. At The Ritz-Carlton, we have found that our fully engaged guests—our most loyal customers—stay more room nights in a year and spend $25 more per day. When you see customers as transactions, you try to collect "nickels and dimes" from them, but when you see customers as relationships, your organization wisely spends "nickels and dimes" on the customers. An example of this took place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. A guest was sent an amenity of scotch and cigars that cost the hotel $36. The guest was so impressed by this small gesture of kindness that within the next year, this same guest spent over $150,000 at The Ritz-Carlton. When you consider other service organizations—such as Apple, Starbucks and Amazon—it seems obvious that adopting a customer-centric mindset leads to brand loyalty—and that is the foundation for a strong financial performance. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Profitability by Loyalty? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.