Ritz-Carlton is a brand that represents a luxury chain of hotels, as well as resorts, with properties spread across major cities and countries such as Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and even Spain. It is a subsidiary of Marriot International. This case examines the processes at Ritz-Carlton, its systems, technology, leadership, and people as they strategize to achieve goals set for the long term. Fraiman, Green, Heching, and Van Ryzin (2010) affirm that the hotel chain won the top industry prize in the US for excellence in services offered and quality of the products in 1992. The company has not been able to continue its legacy due to growing competition that has grasped the industry as well as increasing customer demand for value.
Fraiman et al. (2010) state that the biggest issues addressed include how the company should be able to remedy defects in service to customers, achieve the goal of retaining the customers, and maintain that good culture of duty while at the same time experiencing growth. In an industry that has grown so competitive, it is not easy to keep a distinction as one premier provider of luxury. Companies are managing in the environment of uncertainty, which makes it difficult to come up with a long-term goal of eliminating defect in customer services and retention of the best customer groups (Fraiman et al., 2010). It has become challenging to maintain the legacy as it was set by Cesar Ritz where patrons are provided with the highest available standard quality in a setting of excellence and elegance. If this has to continue, then it would mean that the hotel chain’s profitability will be compromised.
What defects were the most problematic? What caused them? Were some defects inevitable?
Ritz-Carlton recognizes the fact that at some point there could be errors in service delivery, and this is the reason why they have managed to coin an acronym, Mr. BIV. This is in their quest to get recognized for the biggest prize for quality service delivery (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality). The most problematic defect includes the fact that there were guests who were forced to walk from the hotel in which they had been reserved for into Ritz-Carlton. They were obliged to walk to Carlton probably due to lack of a standby car that would transfer them to Ritz-Carlton. Fraiman et al. (2010) explain that this defect can be avoided if the reservation department in the other hotel liaises with Ritz-Carlton on how such customers would be picked and taken to the hotel safely rather than be left to walk all the way from the other hotel as it has been indicated.
The other consistent customer’s problem is that they could not get the PBX to answer as well as they could not get any response from the caf? after they attempted to call. It was caused by a shortage of staff to respond to all the requests made by the customers. Communication from rooms has to be responded to in the fasted way since it is the core of customer experience while staying at the hotel. This is because the customer in the hotel rooms called using the hotlines they have been provided with. This problem can be easily avoided by ensuring that there are enough PBXs to respond to the client’s calls promptly. It is worth noting that none of these defects was inevitable as they could have been easily avoided.
If you were to select a category of defect to address from the data in the spreadsheet, which category would you address first? Why?
It is important to understand that Ritz-Carlton quest for service excellence is an ongoing process started by the founder Cesar Ritz. When difficulties are continuing the legacy established by the founder, it is paramount that corrections have to be made by all the stakeholders responsible for seeing that such changes are implemented. Fraiman et al. (2010) explain that guests expect to be pampered through meticulous and luxurious elegant services. This is a well-known big hotel with branches in different countries meaning that it would be highly embarrassing to have customers walk. What makes this defect more disturbing is that it is not only one customer but many of them.
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This is a category of error that would have been selected because it is not created by internal deficiencies but shortfalls created by the other hotel reservation. It is impossible to witness Ritz-Carlton brand fail due to default by other partners. Fraiman et al. (2010) agree that it is, therefore, important to ensure that policy is created with external reservations to make sure that there is always a proper arrangement with a possibility to guarantee that the customers get appropriate means of transportation from one point to another. It would be easy to deal with a case of one or two customers as it can be seen as a simple mistake, but thirteen is a huge number that can be viewed as negligence on the side of the management.
This defect has to be eliminated not only because it is recurrent enough but because it poses a challenge of terrible negative publicity especially if most of the affected customers can share such experience with others. The trademark name of the company has been built on elegance and finesse, and walking among some of the customers is not what would build a brand.