Four Seasons Paris Expansion: Culture, HR, and Service

Four Seasons' Luxury Positioning and Customer Segments

The Four Seasons is positioned as a luxury hotel brand. Its properties are mid-sized and often located downtown, which excludes the company from the boutique category, though it is not specifically a resort hotel either. The luxury segment for hotels is defined primarily by the level of service offered. Luxury hotels focus on a very high-end service experience, and the properties themselves are luxurious in terms of their décor. Staff-to-guest ratios are higher, and these hotels pay considerably more attention to staff training and to operational detail.

There are a couple of distinct customer segments that the Four Seasons caters to. The wealthier leisure traveler is the primary one, especially in the vacation segment. These are travelers who have sufficient financial means and the taste to always demand luxury and a high level of service. The other major customer segment is the high-end business, corporate, and government segment, where higher-ranking individuals are the guests and somebody else is covering the cost. The Four Seasons is not designed for the average business traveler, but rather for the executive-level business traveler.

The company's organizational culture supports the pursuit of these customers. That culture emphasizes perfection in performance and delivering a high level of customer service. Excuses are not accepted, and there is a very formal articulation of the universal service standards to which all hotels must adhere. Both elements are important — at the luxury end, a hotel needs to be operationally as close to perfect as possible, because guests pay a great deal of money and demand excellence. Customer service has therefore become a core value that helps the company deliver on its service promise.

Worth noting is that in this category, excellent service is essentially a baseline expectation. The customer expects it, and the hotel will lose the customer if it is absent. However, all major competitors in this industry operate with similar cultures with respect to customer service and operational excellence, which means that service quality alone is not a sufficient differentiator.

Adapting to International Markets and Cultural Differences

Four Seasons seeks to adjust its approach in foreign markets to reflect different visions of hospitality in those markets. Some changes are also made at the management level. What the company does emphasize, however, is that its global operating standards are mandatory and cannot be compromised. Within that constraint, it allows the hospitality tone and theme to be appropriate to the region, provided it meets a high-end standard. The company assumes that some degree of flexibility is necessary when operating in international markets, and this is also something the customer values. The Four Seasons customer is typically well-traveled, so the company may be correctly reading its clientele — they can appreciate different expressions of luxury, as long as the quality standard remains constant.

Cultural differences — particularly among staff — are among the biggest challenges Four Seasons must navigate. The company has to retrain some staff members with respect to the aspects of its culture that specifically support its business strategy. The example of putting the customer first is especially relevant here. Managers are told that they may need to retrain their staff, but also that they might need to retrain themselves, given that there will be legal and cultural differences for any foreign manager working overseas.

Human Resource Strategy and Global Service Standards

The Four Seasons human resource approach emphasizes bringing everyone to a clear understanding of the high standards expected in service. As noted, service delivery is allowed to retain its local character, but all employees are expected to adhere to the global service guidelines. Foreign managers typically arrive to ensure those standards are being met.

Four Seasons also imposes certain elements of its home-country policy in international markets. One example was the use of female concierges and male housekeepers at the Paris property, which ran against French tradition. This practice is very much aligned with the company's Canadian traditions, however, and the French hotel industry ultimately adapted to the idea. Four Seasons also modified its approach to hiring a chef in Paris: it normally develops talent in-house, but in this case hired a distinguished local chef. This decision was made because, in Paris specifically, this was seen as a key success factor (Hallowell, Bowen & Knoop, 2002).

These examples illustrate how the company maintains standardization in some areas while remaining willing to adapt to local needs in others. The distinction between non-negotiable global standards and flexible local expression is central to the Four Seasons international model.

References

Hallowell, R., Bowen, D., & Knoop, C. (2002). Four Seasons goes to Paris: "53 properties, 24 countries, 1 philosophy." Harvard Business School. In possession of the author.

Heskett, J., Sasser, W. E., & Schlesinger, L. (1997). The cycle of capability. In possession of the author.

Heskett, J., Jones, T., Loveman, G., Sasser, W. E., & Schlesinger, L. (1994). Service-profit chain. In possession of the author.