Ritz Carlton / Ritz Carlton: What is so different about it? Began in 1898, the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company has grown to be one of the well-known luxury hotels all over the world. It was named after its founder, Cesar Ritz, who came from Switzerland. After working in the finest hotels of his time, he formed the Carlton Hotel, which would later be known as the Ritz-Carlton. The hotel has built a great name for itself through the years, specializing in personalized services. It, however, has also had its share of challenges, including surviving the great depression, the first and Second World War and the closure of all, but one of its branches. In 1983, its North American rights were purchased by the Johnson Company, when only one branch remained in America, which was the Boston branch. It again changed hands when the Marriott International Company bought it out in 1997. At the beginning of the millennium, the company had 38 outlets around the world. These included resorts and hotels.

Excellence of Service

The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company makes an effort to provide a memorable experience by anticipating its customer expectations and actively working to exceed them. This not only reinforces the customer's choice of the hotel, but also raises the chance for a return visit and a positive recommendation. Every visitor is given a high-end customer experience (Estis, 2).

One of the ways that the Ritz Carlton accomplishes it superior service is by operating a constant improvement of the services that they offer to customers. They try to be extremely personalized to the extent that they hire staff to engage in customer recognition. This recognition goes to the point of even monogramming the pillows on which repeat guests lie, so that they feel like they are coming to something familiar. Through these efforts they try to create a robust emotional attachment with the aim of bringing the customer to a point where he or she does not choose any other place to stay (Estis, 2).

Thus, rather than being fixated on the profit margins, they focus more on the customer experience and the actively engaged staff. These efforts in the end are reflected in the bottom line.

Human Resource Management, "Ladies And Gentlemen," Management of Employees

Human Resource Management

The engagement of staff...

All the human resource processes employed by the company are geared towards providing a pool of staff that is the most competitive. These processes are not arranged in any specific order. The company has a mode of staffing in its organization that they refer to as benchmarking. It is targeted at making a selection from a pool, and thus, cannot be assigned the term 'hiring'. The applicants are subjected to a comprehensive process with various stages that thin out the pool. Interviews carried out by telephone, questionnaire filling, and interviews with various section managers form part of the selection process (SucherandMcManus, 6-16).
The things that the Ritz-Carlton looks out for include: the readiness to smile, the general outlook and the ability to empathize. The high number of stages in this selection of staff communicates the expectation of a high quality service level. In addition to all these, there will be an educational program under the supervision of managers and trainers. Resources are availed to managers to ensure comprehensive training of these applicants. The training program covers areas such as standards, way of thinking, requirements, ideals, history of the organization as well as the benefits to the applicant (SucherandMcManus, 6-16).

The training that lasts just short of a month enables the applicants to familiarize themselves with the attitudes and expectations of the position. Standards inculcated include those concerning encounters with customers and how to go about these, including the acceptable way to address them. At the end of this period, the candidates are tested on how well they comprehend all they have learnt, including their practical skills. The Ritz-Carlton then retains those who excel in this (SucherandMcManus, 6-16).

Ladies and Gentlemen in Seven Days

The Ritz-Carlton has a system called the 'Seven Day Countdown', which came about in the late eighties and early nineties. This was for the new recruits just before a new hotel was opened. This was the first encounter that new employees had with the organization after being hired. In the initial two days, the new employees were introduced into the organizational culture and values, and in the remaining days, required skills were imparted to…