Hasta La Creative!

Back in ad school, one of my first assignments was The Ritz-Carlton. So my art director and I went over to the Ritz and talked to one of the concierges, who told us story after story of the things the staff does for their customers.

Providing great customer service is one of the best forms of advertising a brand can do, and that’s the lesson you’ll get in The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Service Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph A. Michelli.

Michelli outlines how Ritz-Carlton has defined its mission and kept it relevant; how it chooses (not hires) its employees and empowers them to take care of guests; how the staff focuses on verbal and even non-verbal cues to accommodate its guests to ultimately create a “wow” experience and create a lasting impression, and how the company tries to create goodwill in each of the communities it has a hotel.

Obviously, this is a very positive book; it’s not a journalistic look at the company. But Michelli captures the essence of a well-run company, and provides hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of anecdotes of what the Ritz and its employees does for guests, many of which will blow your mind as to how awesome, in every sense of the word, these gestures are.

We’re living in an age in which “customer experience” is more of a buzzword than an actual component of marketing. And in the ad industry, we need to focus on more than creating ads to help brands. So I’d recommend “The New Gold Standard” to anyone who wants to help a client achieve greatness.

Special thanks to FSB Associates who provided me with a copy for review.