The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company / Edition 1

by Joseph A. Michelli

Overview

Discover the secrets of world-class leadership!

When it comes to refined service and exquisite hospitality, one name stands high above the rest: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. With ceaseless attention to every luxurious detail, the company has set the bar for creating memorable customer experiences in world-class settings. Now, for the first time, the leadership secrets behind the company's extraordinary success are revealed.

The New Gold Standard takes you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Granted unprecedented access to the company's executives, staff, and its award-winning Leadership Center training facilities, bestselling author Joseph Michelli explored every level of leadership within the organization. He emerged with the key principles leaders at any company can use to provide a customer experience unlike any other, such as:

• Understanding the ever-evolving needs of customers
• Empowering employees by treating them with the utmost respect
• Anticipating customers' unexpressed needs and concerns
• Developing and conducting an unsurpassed training regimen

Sharing engaging stories from the company's employees—from the corporate office and hotels around the globe—Michelli describes the innovative methods the company uses to create peerless guest experiences and explains how it constantly hones and improves them.

The New Gold Standard weaves practical how-to advice, proven leadership tools, and the wisdom of experts to help you create and embed superior customer-service principles, processes, and practices in your own organization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071548335
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	06/29/2008
Edition description:	List
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	75,814
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., is an internationallysought-after speaker and business consultant whose clients include Bridgestone Firestone, Nokia, TheHartford Insurance Group, and UCLA HealthSystem. The author of the bestselling The StarbucksExperience, he has appeared on The Glenn Beck Show and CNBC’s On the Money.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Simon F. Cooper     ix
Acknowledgments     xiii
The Ritz-Carlton Experience     1
Define and Refine
Set the Foundation: Communicating Core Identity and Culture     19
Be Relevant     44
Empower through Trust
Select-Don't Hire     73
It's a Matter of Trust     94
It's Not about You
Build a Business Focused on Others     119
Support Frontline Empathy     146
Deliver Wow!
Wow: The Ultimate Guest Experience     165
Turn Wow into Action     187
Leave a Lasting Footprint
Aspire, Achieve, Teach     207
Sustainability and Stewardship     228
Conclusion: A Lasting Impression     256
Notes     265
Sources     273
Index     277