Critical Mass

By Dan Gelernter

Peter Sanders’ June 23 Wall Street Journal piece, “Takin’ Off the Ritz,” reports that the Ritz-Carlton hotels, in a quest for modern-day relevancy, are scrapping their time-honored set of 20 guide-rules for staff, and replacing them with 12 “service values.”

The original “Ritz-Carlton Basics” were a concise list of simple does and don’ts – the sort you’d expect to find in an etiquette guide. They included items like:

“Our Motto is, ‘We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen.’”

“Use words such as, ‘Good Morning,’ ‘Certainly,’ ‘I’d be happy to,’ and ‘My pleasure.’”

“Don’t use words such as, ‘O.K.,’ ‘Sure’, ‘Hi/Hello’, ‘Folks,’ and ‘No Problem.’”

“Escort guests rather than pointing out directions to another area of the hotel.”

The Ritz now wants employees to “think for themselves” and has replaced the 20 rules with 12 suggestions that read like little motivational aphorisms. These contain items such as:

“I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.”

“I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.”

“I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve the Ritz-Carlton experience.”

“I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.”

Note the self-centered use of “I” at the beginning of each phrase, as well as the nervously restless focus on “continuously” moving somewhere (forward?).

Whereas the former 20-point set of rules gave staff a clear guide for courteous behavior, the 12-point is of no practical value. When an employee meets a guest who asks him where the bathroom is, the employee may now think, “Well, I am empowered to create unique experiences for our guests, but should I walk him to the bathroom or just point him in the general direction?”

Though the management decisions of a luxury hotel may seem relatively removed from a standard blog post, this is merely another illustration of our modern fear of making a definite statement about anything (even courtesy) compounded with a general tendency toward sloppiness. I’m sure that the above sort of drivel (“I can do this and a empowered to do that…”) will remind our student readers of the stuff that issues from many a college administration. It remains to be seen whether the Ritz will be able to “continuously learn and grow” – can they do both?