"Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." — Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: As leaders, we must believe we can constantly improve the customer experience and provide those in our workforce a career path that allows them to fulfill their personal and professional goals. At The Ritz-Carlton, many of our leaders started as bellmen, front desk agents or other entry-level positions. Their belief in themselves—along with The Ritz-Carlton standards of service—fueled their career path. Don’t ask yourself if something can be done, focus on why it should be done and then go make it happen. You’ll surprise yourself by what is possible. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Believe appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How does The Ritz-Carlton support leadership growth and development? Answer from Jennifer Blackmon, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Continuing education and leadership growth is central to The Ritz-Carlton culture. On an annual basis, we personally commit to a development plan based upon interests, desires or gaps—and that plan becomes part of the annual review process. Additionally, we have access to a monthly publication focused on topics that tie directly to our key success factors and culture. This publication, known as The Commitment to Leadership, serves as a training tool for new leaders or a reminder for veteran leaders. The key to the program’s success is found in how it is brought to life. A best practice is to rotate communication responsibilities to each leader within the organization to be shared at a monthly leaders’ meeting in the form of a presentation. The process ensures that all leaders understand the information and that each leader is responsible for sharpening their communication and presentation skills—which are paramount to any successful leader. ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence" at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Learn more about The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Leadership Growth appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

It’s a new year, which means new goals and new opportunities. Although this can be very exciting, taking on new initiatives requires more attention, thought and planning than simply sticking to an old routine. Often people accept new responsibilities without eliminating any prior commitments. All of this has the potential to increase stress. A report commissioned by the American Psychological Association found that "48% of Americans consider stress to be having a negative impact on their lives. And over 70% of Americans report that they regularly experience physical and psychological symptoms of stress." Senior leadership has the greatest potential to reduce stress. However, leaders must begin by ensuring they can effectively handle their own stress—the stress of leadership. When leaders demonstrate and model effective stress management, their example inspires others to do likewise. STRESS MANAGEMENT TIPS TO HELP LEADERS Here are five simple ways that leaders can moderate stress: Set Realistic Goals and Priorities: Ensure the goals you set are achievable and you have the resources you need to achieve them. Encourage Good Time Management Techniques: Plan for important activities and projects, schedule them in advance, follow up with others, and keep good records to help get things accomplished. Don’t Procrastinate: Procrastination and delay breed more stress. Eliminate items that can’t/won’t get done and do those that are most important first. Maintain a Positive Attitude: Think of stressful situations as a challenge to your creative thinking. Be confident that everything will get done. Get Sleep: Studies show that sleep deprivation can impact your judgment, your mood and your health. Besides being an example for others, leaders have the opportunity to help employees feel less pressured. The Employee Promise at The Ritz-Carlton pledges to "enhance the quality of life" of our employees, our Ladies and Gentlemen. STRESS MANAGEMENT TIPS TO HELP EMPLOYEES Managers can reduce stress for their teams by applying and practicing the following: Improve Communication: Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty when possible. Clearly define roles and responsibilities to ensure accountability and make communication friendly and efficient. Consult Your Employees: Be sure the workload is appropriate to the employee’s ability and resources. At The Ritz-Carlton, Service Value 9—I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me—encourages involving employees in the planning stages of projects. Offer Rewards and Incentives: Praise good work performance. This can be done through verbal praise (public or private), written praise (emails and cards), small gifts or other acts of kindness and appreciation. Another great incentive is to foster learning, growth and career development for your employees. Cultivate a Friendly Social Climate: Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees. For example, joining an organization’s softball team is a great way to have fun with your colleagues and relieve stress. With the new year upon us, we will be tempted to accomplish more. Yet as Mahatma Gandhi so wisely reminds us, "There is more to life than increasing its speed." Let’s make 2015 memorable, and let’s achieve this by focusing on quality as well as quantity. ∞ 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 Stress Management Tips for Leaders appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." — Colin Powell, 65th United States Secretary of State The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: It’s vital that leaders not only know where the breakdowns are in their organizations, but they must also have the skills to address these challenges. As Colin Powell notes, employees lose confidence in leaders who do not have problem solving skills, and this creates a dangerous environment. If leaders are unaware of challenges, the problems could grow to unmanageable proportions. Leaders have the opportunity to be "problem solvers" and work with their teams to reach solutions. Effective problem management creates an environment of trust and respect. The Ritz-Carlton cultivates a "lead by example" style that encourages the employees of The Ritz-Carlton—our Ladies and Gentlemen—to bring problems and at the same time offer solutions. This democratic approach to leadership creates a continuous improvement cycle where everyone becomes stronger. What is your leadership style? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Leadership Problem Solving appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the United States. According to Hospital Safety Score, new research estimates up to 440,000 Americans are dying annually from preventable hospital errors. In addition, medical errors are very costly. The Institute of Medicine has estimated that medical errors cost $17 billion to $29 billion per year. One method of reducing errors and increasing safety is to improve the patient experience. To many, the patient experience means expressing kindness and making patients happy. However, patient experience is more than just niceties. The Ritz-Carlton has built a brand based on service, and we know it is the systems we have in place—the systems behind the smiles—that ensure our service is effective and the guest experience is a positive one. Healthcare leaders must focus on better service and adopt systems that will support an improved patient experience. This is especially true for hospitals in the United States that are participating in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). HCAHPS measures the patient perspective on care, and it focuses on key aspects of the patient experience such as communication with doctors and nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff, cleanliness and quietness of the hospital environment. The research below shows how communication, responsiveness and cleanliness lead to improved safety. COMMUNICATION Miscommunication can occur during patient handoffs. Three studies provide evidence that poor communication impacts safety. A study on quality and safety of hospital discharge concludes that "Lack of knowledge, understanding and interest between hospital and community care providers are important causes for ineffective and unsafe discharge." The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shared a study that found that "nearly 20% of patients experience adverse events within 3 weeks of discharge, nearly three-quarters of which could have been prevented or ameliorated." A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association notes that when hospitals adopt standardized communication systems for patient transitions, they can significantly reduce medical errors. The statistical evidence showed that "medical errors decreased from 33.8 per 100 admissions to 18.3 per 100 admissions." RESPONSIVENESS Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of Johns Hopkins University’s Quality and Safety Research Group, has devoted much of his career to improving hospital safety. In his life-saving book, Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out, Dr. Pronovost shows how a lack of teamwork can impede responsiveness. By studying liability claims and substantially harmful errors at various hospitals, he found that in nearly 90% of instances a team member knew something was wrong, and either kept silent, or spoke up and was ignored. When Memorial Regional Medical Center in Richmond, VA—part of the Bon Secours Richmond health system—began working with The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, the medical center had all of their staff—including the environmental services team—go through training to become more aware of patients’ needs. Not long after this training, one of the maintenance workers was in a patient’s room and noticed the patient’s face was turning blue. The maintenance employee quickly found medical staff and they were able to save the patient’s life. Before the training this employee rarely noticed the patients, but once he understood that patient experience was part of his role he was empowered to take action, which consequently, saved a life. Adopting a more patient-centric approach resulted in a decreased mortality rate at Memorial Regional Medical Center. In two years, the mortality rated dropped from 2.84% to 2.62%. CLEANLINESS An article in Consumer Reports titled, "How Safe is Your Hospital?" asserts that "about one in 20 hospitalized patients will develop an infection. They can be devastating, deadly even, and many can be prevented. Dirty instruments, improperly sterilized catheters or needles, and the contaminated hands of doctors, nurses, or other healthcare workers are common causes." A blog post about medical errors by Bob Ruche, president of a healthcare consulting company, notes that "Hospital infections kill as many as AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined in a given year. The most prevalent hospital induced infection, known as MRSA—accounting for 60% of all hospital induced infections—is generally spread through direct contact with the hands of a healthcare worker or a patient who is infected or carrying the organism." Patient Experience Impacts Safety The patient experience goes beyond courtesy. When healthcare organizations become more patient-centric—when they empower employees and increase employee engagement—they have the foundation for improving communication, becoming more responsive to requests, and maintaining an efficient and clean facility. These improved standards not only affect the overall patient experience, they impact safety and save lives. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center is offering "Excellence in the Patient Experience" on February 10th at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, VA and on August 13th at The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne, Miami. This presentation is also available as an onsite speaking engagement. We also offer advisory services to guide healthcare organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Patient Experience Impacts Safety appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others." — Martin Luther King, Jr., American pastor and activist The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: When emotions are running high, your team will look to your leadership and strength. Leaders need to project confidence, remain fearless and focus on the most important issue at hand. All industries face times of conflict, uncertainty and crisis, and it is the integrity of the leader that determines how well an organization navigates difficult circumstances. Leadership at The Ritz-Carlton is always focused on protecting the team. Although our employees—our Ladies and Gentlemen—give their best effort every day to create an outstanding guest experience, mistakes happen. The Ladies and Gentlemen need to know that leaders will take care of them. Leaders who risk themselves for their team create loyalty, and loyalty leads to dedication, which in turn leads to success. Have you ever worked for a leader who had the courage to stand up for you? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Leadership and Strength appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

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 Roberto van Geenen, General Manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. RCLC: Your experience as a General Manager has included transitioning properties from independent hotels to Ritz-Carlton hotels. When Ritz-Carlton takes over the management of a hotel, how do you help individuals transition from being "employees" to "Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," especially in a foreign country? Mr. van Geenen: I start by explaining our Gold Standards. It can take a long time for people to understand the philosophy behind them, but it’s critical to delivering first-class service. Prior to becoming the General Manager at a new hotel, I research the culture. Next, I get to know the people and their environment. If you are a guest in someone else’s country, study their culture and be genuinely respectful of it. You can’t just impose your thinking on them. Lastly, I do whatever I can to help them succeed. It’s important to focus on what they are good at and slowly strengthen their skills. RCLC: How do you inspire employees? Mr. van Geenen: The first step is to select the right employees. They have to have the right level of positivity, passion and focus. Then, after providing them with a significant emotional event through orientation and training, we engage them in setting goals for the organization and for themselves. Finally, we inspire them by applying strength management—focusing on the 90% they excel in rather than the 10% they need to improve. And of course, we cheer them on as they achieve excellence! RCLC: What do you appreciate most about working for Ritz-Carlton? Mr. van Geenen: The values. They are completely aligned with my personal values. I’ve always been driven to work for the best and to create incredible experiences for everyone. Our Ladies and Gentlemen are just as important to me as our guests are. If employees are as excited as the guest, the guest experience is excellent. RCLC: How did you become interested in the hospitality industry? Mr. van Geenen: My father was in the wine business. One of his businesses was a 17th century wine cellar that became a restaurant where I helped fill wine bins and siphon sherry out of large barrels imported from Spain. As I became older, I started waiting tables and ultimately became the sommelier. My parents went to many social gatherings. One time my parents brought me to a classic luxury hotel where they attended a black tie event. Being in that hotel, I thought to myself, "Someday, I would like to run a place like this." RCLC: How did that instinct lead you to where you are today? Mr. van Geenen: After college I served my home country and the Queen in the Netherlands’ Royal Marines. Out of 3,000 candidates they accepted only 25 individuals and out of those 25, only 17 of us became officers. It was quite a challenging experience. So, early on I valued striving for excellence, which I do every day at The Ritz-Carlton. RCLC: What was your first position at a hotel? Mr. van Geenen: My first official job was at the historic Savoy Hotel in London where I was a Front Desk Manager. I appreciate that my experience includes working in one of the hotels where César Ritz was the General Manager. It’s following in the footsteps of individuals like Ritz and the renowned Chef Auguste Escoffier, as well as all the other expert craftsmen after them … they allow me to stand on their shoulders and to own a small piece of history in creating excellence. RCLC: What advice would you give someone who wants to become a hotelier? Mr. van Geenen: Make certain you are sincerely passionate about the business, because the road to becoming a true hotelier is long and arduous! However, if this is true for you, you are most fortunate because it is truly one of the most interesting and fulfilling professions. ∞ On Monday, April 13, Mr. van Geenen will be a member of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel at the Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence in Dallas.    The Blog Post Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Roberto van Geenen appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." — Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: The members of your leadership are the foundation of your organization. They are role models. When leadership lives, expresses and demonstrates the values of your organization, they are letting employees know that these standards are not just words. At The Ritz-Carlton, we often say, "Walk the Talk." Managers lead the way by their actions, and employees are inspired by sincerity and honesty. When employees spot hypocrisy, when they see leaders saying one thing but doing another, they lose respect for their managers. If leaders fall apart in times of crisis, employees will also lose respect. Leadership needs to be seen as stable, secure and genuine. When employees witness these qualities, it fosters loyalty and trust and makes the whole organization stronger. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Integrity and Leadership appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How does the company provide leadership training to new leaders? Answer from Joseph Quitoni, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Being a Leader at The Ritz-Carlton is unlike anywhere else. Each Leader, whether new to position or new to the brand, embarks on a learning journey that we call On Site Leadership Certification. This program allows our Leaders to be on-boarded in a planned fashion that produces The Ritz-Carlton Leader that we expect them to be. Due to the unique, well-defined culture of our Gold Standards, it is important that we provide a thorough leadership certification for their success. This program is a learning experience designed to connect the new Leader to the tools and resources that they need to be successful. In addition, we also provide a robust annual performance management process, utilize daily person-to-person relationships and weekly leadership meetings to ensure our leaders’ success. Personal growth and development for our Leaders is at the forefront of what we do to continue to ensure that we nurture and maximize the talent to the benefit of each individual and our company.  ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. This special Symposium takes place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Leadership Training appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

The trick to unique, memorable and personal service is to meet the customer’s unexpressed and expressed needs. This can be achieved through grand acts that surprise and delight, and it can also be achieved through small gestures of thoughtfulness. The following guest story illustrates how kindness, engagement and a little extra effort can create a "wow" moment. A Cultural Escort A Server was setting up a beautiful buffet presentation at The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, Pacific Place, when a husband and wife arrived for lunch. The Server knew that the husband and wife were traveling abroad and were first-time guests of the hotel. She offered to accompany the husband and wife through the buffet to explain the different dishes and ingredients. The guests were relieved to have the dishes described to them and were excited to try many of the new and unique foods. After sampling many of the dishes, the wife told the Server that she particularly enjoyed the unique taste of the traditional dessert, Bika Banjar. The wife expressed to the Server how much she would love to be able to make the dish for her family back home, but after the wife searched on her phone, she could not seem to find a recipe. The Server knew how to make the traditional dish and happily explained the process to the wife. The Server was pleased that the wife was enjoying many of the Indonesian dishes, and she wanted to do something extra for the wife to help her remember her culinary experience in Jakarta. Knowing the wife particularly enjoyed the Bika Banjar, the Server decided to send a taste of Indonesia back home with the guest. The Server stopped at a traditional Indonesian market that evening and found the specially designed baking pan used to form the dough for the dessert. She carefully wrapped the pan, and wrote the baking instructions in beautiful lettering on a keepsake recipe card. On the last day of their stay, the Server presented both gifts to the husband and wife as a fond farewell. The wife was delighted and amazed at the gift and reviewed the recipe with the Server so she would know exactly how to make it once she returned home. The wife was truly ecstatic to have a piece of Indonesia to take home with her. Exceptional Customer Service To provide memorable customer service, your employees must take the time to genuinely engage with customers. They must uncover the unexpressed desires of the customers, and then, if you have empowered your employees, they can respond quickly and creatively. When your employees listen and respond, customers will feel sincerely cared for and will remember your exceptional customer service. ∞ 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 Buffet Tour Guide appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: What if a guest were harassing employees? Answer from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Part of The Ritz-Carlton mission statement, also known as our "Credo," states "that the genuine care and comfort of our guest is our highest mission." The Ritz-Carlton strives to provide for all employees a professional and congenial work environment and will take all necessary steps to ensure that the work environment remains pleasant for all employees. An integral part of this type of work environment is for all employees to treat each other with courtesy, consideration and professionalism, and we expect the same from our guests. The Company will not tolerate harassment of any employee by any other employee, supervisor, vendor, guest, client, or customer. Harassment for any discriminatory reason, such as race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, or other basis protected by applicable law is prohibited by state and/or federal laws and may subject the Company or the individual harasser to liability for any such unlawful conduct. With this policy, the Company prohibits not only unlawful harassment, but also other unprofessional and discourteous actions. At The Ritz-Carlton, we treat our Ladies and Gentlemen (employees) the same way we treat our guests. The Ritz-Carlton motto, "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," defines who we are and how we should behave. The motto emphasizes mutual respect for one another and respect for ourselves. It creates a positive work environment and is an attitude that can be accepted or appreciated by anyone from any culture or walk of life. We remind our guests when appropriate of this powerful statement. ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. This special Symposium takes place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Customer Harassing Employees? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

At the end of 2014, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center sent out a 15-question survey about holiday shopping and customer service. The SlideShare below shows the customer service survey results, which indicate that customer service influences buying decisions and fosters customer loyalty. A couple of the most noteworthy stats include: 81% of respondents shopped at specific stores or online venues because of a past experience with customer service 92% of respondents avoided shopping at specific stores or online venues because of a past experience with customer service Thank you to all our subscribers, past customers and social media followers who took the time to share their responses. Customer survey results 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 Customer Service Survey Results appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"Service, in short, is not what you do, but who you are. It is a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do, if you are to bring it to your customer interactions." — Betsy Sanders, Author The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Legendary service is about excellence and consistency. It’s about passion and really living customer service and not just pretending you care. You cannot give great service one day and be in a bad mood the next day. You have to deliver first-class service at all times, and everyone in your organization has to embrace this same standard of excellence. When service is done right and from the heart, your organization can leave a lasting impression with customers. The Ritz-Carlton realizes that if our guests stay with us for one night, one weekend or a just a few hours - we have the opportunity to stay with them long after they leave. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Living Customer Service appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do you handle lying customers? Answer from Diana Oreck, Vice President at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Your customer lying puts you in a very awkward and uncomfortable position. You must handle this delicately. As a refined professional, you never want to come right out and say to your customer, "we know you are lying!" Use phrases such as: - "Our research shows us the following." - "After speaking to the people who saw or heard the event, they understand the situation differently." - "Do you believe there could possibly be a different explanation?" Hopefully, at this point the customer will realize that in your mind their story is suspect and will retreat from the situation. If not, and the customer wants a refund or compensation, you have two choices. If it is a small amount or item, you might decide it is not worth the time or emotional investment and give in. If it is a much more complex and expensive situation, you can respectfully explain to the customer that due to the facts you disagree and will not be honoring the request. ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Lying customers? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

In 2014, Money magazine cited banking as an industry that is "regularly bashed for not putting customers’ needs first on the agenda," and the 2014 J.D. Power study on U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction found that poor customer service was the number one reason customers switched banks. Banks and financial institutions need to offer consistent customer service in order to earn customer loyalty and trust. Customers do not want to feel like just another transaction, and they do not want to be shuffled from person-to-person. Banks and financial advisors must ensure customers feel safe and valued. Whether your financial institution is worldwide or local, there are several customer service strategies you can employ to earn the good favor of customers. 1) Little "Things" Matter Finance is an industry where relationships are everything and in most cases will be the reason why a client chooses one advisor or bank over another. Focus on the small details that the client provides—his or her preferences and favorite things—and commit a random act of kindness to follow-up with those details. For example, if your customer goes through the drive-through teller window with a dog in his/her car, you might include a dog treat with his/her transaction. Show your client that you genuinely care about him/her. After the post office bumped up the price of stamps again, one financial advisor sent all his clients a roll of penny stamps to make up the difference until his clients got used to the new rate. Small gestures like this can be very powerful and meaningful. Part of The Ritz-Carlton Credo pledges that "The Ritz-Carlton experience … fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." Each thoughtful act contributes to a sense of genuine caring and fosters loyalty. 2) Emphasize Security With all the recent hacking of sensitive information, customers need to be reassured of their privacy and security. At The Ritz-Carlton, one of our service values is "I protect the security and privacy of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets." This is important for any business, but obviously, this is paramount for financial institutions. Clients want to believe, feel and know that their money is safe. When Home Depot credit card and debit card numbers were hacked, banks had to decide the best way to respond. Many banks charged customers for replacement cards, but several banks—such as Dollar Bank in Pittsburgh—reissued 100 percent of the cards that were impacted. PNC Bank communicated with customers as they determined the right step and ultimately chose to replace debit cards for all customers. Taking extra measures to ensure your customers are safe leaves the impression that you are looking out for them. 3) Connect with Community One of the perceptions of financial institutions is that they charge too many fees and are greedy. To combat this viewpoint, organizations should consider becoming involved with their communities. In 2014, Illinois National Bank celebrated its 15th anniversary  with 15 acts of charity, and Chelsea Groton Bank commemorated its 160th anniversary by completing 160 acts of kindness. These are two great examples of community outreach by local banks. However, global financial institutions can embrace local communities as well. Hervé Humler, President and Chief Operations Officer at The Ritz-Carlton, notes that "our global company is aligned around the issues that are important to the communities where we operate." Each Ritz-Carlton hotel around the world connects with their local communities through our Corporate Social Responsibility program, known as Community Footprints®. When your employees invest their time and energy in the local community, they are demonstrating that your organization is altruistic and genuinely caring. 4) Make Technology a Helpful Tool Technology is often needed for efficiencies and convenient access. Many of your customers don’t have time to actually get to know anyone at the bank or in the loan department, and sometimes a financial institution is too large to give single point-of-contact service. This means your customers are either visiting your website to obtain information, or they are at the mercy of the dreaded 1-800 service center. However, if these resources are managed correctly, they can be useful assets and add to the customer experience. To discover if technology is helping or frustrating your customer, consider these questions: If a customer calls in at 7 pm West Coast time to find out information, is someone there to answer that call? Can customers get help outside of normal business hours? Are your account notes diligently updated? Will an online customer service representative have access to the information needed in order to have an intelligent conversation with your customer Is your staff empowered and knowledgeable? Are employees willing and able to involve managers when needed? Or do customers have to recognize when additional assistance is needed? Are your processes tight and trained to? Would everyone give customers basically the same answer and have about the same solutions? Customer Service Strategies for Banks & Finance Customer service is not the job of a few people. Everyone in your organization should be customer-centric, and you should embed a customer service mindset in your organization’s culture. Ray Davis, the CEO of Umpqua Bank, commented in a recent article "Banking executives always ask, ‘How do you get your people to do that?’ It’s the culture we’ve built over the last 10 years. It doesn’t just happen. You don’t wake up one day and say, gee, look at this great culture we’ve got here. Our culture is our single biggest asset, hands down." Remember, along with having a great culture, you need to have adequate staffing and systems to support your culture like easy-to-navigate ATM machines and online banking that is fast and easy to navigate. When your financial institution focuses on providing excellent and genuine customer service, you will differentiate yourself from your competition, improve your brand’s reputation and create customer loyalty and trust. Aren’t these long-term dividends worth your time and investment? ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel.   The Blog Post Customer Service Strategies for Banks and Financial Services appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. Joy comes from surprise and connection and humanity and transparency and new. … If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low." — Seth Godin, marketer and author The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Focusing exclusively on cost effectiveness and efficiency eliminates the possibility of creating joy. If your employees must adhere to specific policies, if you have set them up to tell customers "There’s nothing I can do," then you have lost the chance to earn long-term customer loyalty. You have to establish a culture that puts the customers’ need first, but more than that, you have to ensure that your workforce embraces your purpose. Your employees are the ones building meaningful, long-lasting relationships with your customers, and they must have the flexibility to create moments of surprise and joy by going above and beyond. The Ritz-Carlton believes in empowering our Ladies and Gentlemen to serve our guests completely. We build relationships, we strive to amaze customers, we create Ritz-Carlton guests for life. ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Amaze Customers appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Dear Ritz-Carlton: I’ve heard the term "systems behind the smiles." What are some of the systems that need to be in place to support customer service excellence? Answer from Diana Oreck, Vice President at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: The Ritz-Carlton is famous for its deep-rooted culture and consistent level of service at its properties around the globe. Having a wonderful organizational culture that inspires pride and passion is extremely important. However, your organizational culture is only part of the equation. In order to "live" your organizational culture you must also have what we refer to as "systems behind the smiles." Your employees must have robust processes they can rely on in order to deliver your brand promise. Some of these "systems behind the smiles" include but are not limited to: Websites that are fast and easy to navigate A talent selection process that allows you to hire the right talent and fit for your organization Written empowerment guidelines so employees do not have to run and get a manager every time there is an opportunity to wow a customer or resolve a problem Adequate staffing so that your employees can give your customers their undivided attention. For example, your phones will be answered within three rings If you have systems and processes in place that support your culture, your employees are enabled to provide unique, memorable and personal service! ∞ On Monday, April 13, 2015, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center presents "Your Journey to Service Excellence," The Ritz-Carlton approach to legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. Learn more about the keynote speaker, the presentation speakers, and the members of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: What are the systems behind the smiles? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

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 Janet Souter, Vice President, Quality at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. RCLC: Describe what your role is as Vice President of Quality for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Ms. Souter: My team and I conduct research to learn how we can provide resources and tools for our hotels. Our findings tell us our customers’ wants, needs and desires. We share those insights with General Managers so our team can help facilitate problem-solving or possibly change a process. RCLC: Describe what that looks like at the hotel level. Ms. Souter: Our team acts like consultants gathering data. For example, if there’s a water line break in a hotel, they prompt the engineers to ask, "Why is this happening?" They don’t solve the problem, they lead employees to help them find the solution. Throughout that entire process we’re focused on operational excellence. RCLC: When it comes to customer service, how does The Ritz-Carlton culture of caring for employees translate into exceptional guest experiences? Ms. Souter: As we care for our employees, we empower our employees. We let them know, "We didn’t hire you just to do a task. We hired you for a purpose; for your brain and your heart. You’re important to us." That makes a difference to our Ladies and Gentlemen. They take that message and it impacts the service they deliver. Each interaction our Ladies and Gentlemen have with a guest makes or breaks the experience. RCLC: How do you gather data from your guests? Ms. Souter: We use a "Report Card," or guest feedback card, via an email survey. Our survey questions are based on The Ritz-Carlton Credo. RCLC: How do you help employees use the information from the surveys to ensure the guest experience is consistent across the brand? Ms. Souter: We work on the processes everywhere. We measure the level at which guests are engaged. We ask questions like, "What are the key drivers of guest engagement?" and "How can we deliver The Ritz-Carlton Credo if we’re doing something that doesn’t align with it?" We don’t only ask for feedback from our guests; we talk with our Ladies and Gentlemen, too. We’re not asking anyone to do anything different than deliver on The Credo. Even the greatest people in the world can’t be effective unless they are working from the same set of values and standards. RCLC: Would you share an example of how your work impacts guests? Ms. Souter: We discovered that our hotel guests who were staying as part of a group had lower engagement scores than any other segment of our business. We conducted focus groups with group attendees to understand their specific needs and desires when staying at the hotel. We also interviewed the internal Ladies and Gentlemen to learn what they thought the group attendee wanted. The findings showed two things: Our Ladies and Gentlemen were disconnected from what the group attendees actually expected from their stay. The group attendees wanted the same level of personalized service when staying as an individual guest but gave different examples of how that could be brought to life. The solution was that we studied the best practices taking place in our top performing hotels and shared those practices among all of the hotels, enabling our Ladies and Gentlemen to deliver first-class service to every guest regardless of whether they were traveling as a group attendee or individual traveler. RCLC: Employees of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company recognize the company "Gold Standards" as foundational to their success. Which Gold Standard in particular resonates with you and why? Ms. Souter: My favorite is Service Value 9: "I’m involved in the planning of the work that affects me." This Service Value helps our Ladies and Gentlemen know what they’re facing. If we involve them in the conversation, we can solve anything. ∞ On Monday, April 13, Ms. Janet Souter will be a member of The Ritz-Carlton Executive Panel at the Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence in Dallas.  The Blog Post Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Janet Souter appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

"Service standards keep rising. As competitors render better and better service, customers become more demanding. Their expectations grow. When every company’s service is shoddy, doing a few things well can earn you a reputation as the customer’s savior. But when a competitor emerges from the pack as a service leader, you have to do a lot of things right. Suddenly achieving service leadership costs more and takes longer. It may even be impossible if the competition has too much of a head start. The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding service." — William H. Davidow, Author, Marketer, Venture Capitalist The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Standards are constantly evolving—company standards, employee standards and customer standards. Your organization must adapt and change in order to stay in business. However, raising the bar to meet the latest standards is not the same thing as taking the extra step to separate your brand from the "noise." The winners are those who can not only perform the standards consistently, but also do the unexpected—going "above and beyond" for their customers. As Mr. Davidow points out, creating a reputation for outstanding service does not happen overnight. Leadership must value the customer experience and see it as a day-to-day priority as well as a long-term investment. Organizations like Amazon, Rackspace, Umpqua Bank and The Ritz-Carlton have created a service culture that puts the customer front and center at all times. The Ritz-Carlton takes great pride in servicing guests. Our Ladies and Gentlemen—our employees—know they are empowered and expected to take that extra step and create unique, memorable and personal moments. What does your organization need to change in order to differentiate itself from the competition and rise above the "noise"? ∞ The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Service Leadership appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Maintaining learner engagement is the covenant of instructional design. John Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivational Design suggests a 4-step process for establishing and maintaining motivation by directly addressing learner attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. I find the ARCS model most useful when I correlate each step to an intended "state of mind." In other words, by how I want to influence the internal dialogue the learner is having with the instructional experience. In the table below, each step corresponds to a learner state of mind: Don’t think of the ARCS model as an establishing event of instruction, but rather as an ongoing series of interventions. There is no one-and-done to maintaining attention and motivation. Beyond plenitudes of distractions, learner concentration naturally wanes over time. In his book Brain Rules, John Medina presents the 10-minute attention span rule. Accordingly, learner attention must be re-engaged in regular time intervals. Learner attention and motivation are lost without ongoing support. Instructional designers must uphold the covenant. The ARCS Model of Motivation provides a starting point to this quest.

Baseball has been eliminated from the 2012 Olympics, making it the first sport to be voted out of the Olympics since polo in 1936. This is a crime. The only way I know to protest this move is to write a baseball-themed post on Enspire’s blog. Take that, IOC! Here we go… Baseball and instructional design… what’s the connection?… I got it… Ahem… An interview with Charles McDowell in Ken Burn’s Baseball sums up game balancing perfectly. He reflects on the distance between home plate and first base in baseball by saying: "That’s so interesting that that would come out 90 feet. That somebody sat down, Mr. Cartwright [the father of baseball] or whoever said "Hey it oughta be 90 feet, it just sounds like a logical number." The fact of the matter is, in retrospect if it was 88 feet the game would be very different. Think of the plays at first base. Think of the double plays that wouldn’t be completed on an 88 feet first base, and second base. If it were 94 feet we’d be throwing people out all over the place. Batting averages would drop remarkably." I imagine that the first games of baseball were not played with first base placed 90 feet from home plate. In fact, the players probably experimented with distances until they landed at 90 feet. It would be too difficult to arrive at that distance without playtesting. As McDowell said, "So if 90 feet was something somebody said, "Hey that’s a good number" that was a pick from heaven." Designing educational games is no different. Playtests are the key. We recently designed an in-person game for a workshop on matrix management structures. The game involved throwing paper objects at a target, including airplanes and footballs, and negotiating with other teams for resources. During our playtests, we discovered that it was too easy for teams to negotiate themselves into a tie. That is, if they cooperated too much, they lost. That was not our goal. So, we added an additional "bonus throw" that served to break the tie and increase the importance of players’ negotiations. Every subsequent playtest resulted in a close match that was determined by the final bonus throw at the end of the game. The point is, whether you’re designing a national pastime or an educational game, you have to playtest. It’s impossible to design a game without playing it first. Also, an Olympics without baseball ain’t right.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUSTIN, Texas - Aug. 2, 2012 - Enspire Learning, a leading provider of leadership development simulations and custom learning solutions, announced updates today to its premier leadership simulation, Executive Challenge. First released in 2006, Executive Challenge has been run over 200 times worldwide in corporate and university classrooms. Executive Challenge is a simulation-based leadership development program designed to develop leadership, communication, and teamwork skills in a competitive marketplace. Within the past 12 months, the multiplayer online simulation has been converted to HTML5, allowing Executive Challenge to be played on a larger variety of devices, including tablets. The simulation can now also be run wirelessly and the interface has been updated to be more modern and user friendly. More than 6,500 people have played the simulation in more than 50 companies around the world. Due to global demand for Executive Challenge, the simulation had been translated into eight languages: Dutch, French, German, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The simulation experience includes unexpected adverse events which occur during gameplay to test players’ decision-making abilities. Enspire has added several new events to the pool of standard events so that clients can closely tailor the the learning objectives of their program. Adverse events are based on difficult situations that players often face in the real world including a hiring freeze, FDA regulations, change management, and layoffs. Enspire has also developed a new tool for clients that maps each of the Executive Challenge learning competencies to the corresponding debrief session and adverse event. This tool will help clients create a targeted leadership development program that fits their specific learning and development goals.

Enspire Certified Facilitator and Partner at First Order Consulting Dr. John Gillis, Jr. will be speaking at the Austin ASTD monthly chapter meeting on Friday, August 17. John’s program, "Preparing For Tomorrow: Building a Global Leadership Pipeline," will address how to design programs for future leaders in a global context. From Austin ASTD: As our world "shrinks" and globalization increases, companies are changing operations and strategies. And developing future global leaders is an essential component for successfully carrying out those changes. Because of the increasing demand for global leadership, there is currently a significant shortage of prepared leaders. Therefore, strong global leadership development (GLD) programs are urgently needed to address this gap. In his doctoral dissertation, John Gillis Jr. describes the deficiencies of current GLD programs, and summarizes the disjointed research on this topic. In this presentation, he covers the key issues you should consider when designing a global leadership development program. Attend this session and learn: How personality traits and global leadership competencies are primarily idiosyncratic to job function, but not to company type Which leadership competencies are the same for domestic and global leaders, and which competencies are more critical for global leaders To create a list of competencies that is manageable, clearly defined and comprehensive To develop learning and development methods that map to the global leadership competency to be developed Visit the Austin ASTD website to register for the event.

In 1997, I worked in a development job about as removed from web-delivered content as one might imagine. I sat in a gray expanse of cubes, and programmed microcontrollers. My computer interface looked like this: $_ One day I got an email - a novelty still in 1997 - that contained a link to this site on the World Wide Web. Back then one could click on links with impunity, so I did. I saw this: That probably doesn’t look like much today, but to people accustomed to all the web you could cram through 28.8 dialup (viz.animated GIFs, flashing HTML text, etc) this early appearance of Flash was pretty cool. To my eye, accustomed to command-line compilers and pointer arithmetic, it was a complete revelation. Thus began my journey out of embedded development, through the peripheries of the video game industry, and into the world I inhabit today at Enspire Learning. Until recently, Flash figured prominently in Enspire’s business. That’s changing. That happens; technology evolves, and sometimes evolution is assisted by an asteroid impact that stirs things up. This asteroid was launched by Steve Jobs at Adobe Systems. Big corporations are like empires: they have only interests, not allies, and Apple interests have been in the mobile world for years. We’re there, too. In the custom services arm of Enspire, our job is simple: deliver great learning solutions, make customers happy, and serve as many of them as is consistent with quality. To better serve our customers, over a year and a half ago we began to develop a new set of tools built around the trinity of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. Though we still deliver simulations, learning content, and other media in Flash, most of our new business is now built around these tools. It’s a welcome change. Why? HTML allows us to serve our traditional desktop/laptop customer base while at the same time addressing mobile and tablet users. Far from complicating development, the shift has simplified it. Our instructional designers and writers are able to use the tools they’ve become accustomed to, and we’re not constrained by native application development concerns. The heydey of Flash was a wonderful time, but the future is brighter, still.