“Anyone who wants to get to the top 1% of customer satisfaction and loyalty needs to go beyond ‘service’ to the heart of creating a superior customer experience. And the way you get there is through customer engagement.”
These are the words of Ricard Casimiro, whom I had the opportunity to interview recently. Casimiro is Director of Operations at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s Penha Longa Resort.
Ricard Casimiro
“Every single day," Casimiro continues, "I speak [with my employees] about what you might call ‘customer service.’ But what we’re discussing, really, is engagement with the guests. I’m not asking my employees ‘did you put the doily under the glass?’ but “did you find out how your guest was feeling and work on making a connection with them?’”
In working toward customer engagement, Casimiro makes a distinction between scripted service and authentic engagement. “We are not about the script here. True, sometimes it’s initially helpful to rehearse in a standardized way with an employee who’s just starting out or is trying on a new role. But by the time that employee is facing a guest at one of our properties, they’ll be speaking from the heart, using the language that sounds natural to them. They’ll be respecting our standards of service, but in a way that’s truly coming from them.”
Of course, this is more challenging than doing things by rote: challenging for the employee and challenging for their manager. You can’t directly teach an employee what to say, because great customer engagement depends on every employee engaging with guests in a way that works for them (the employee) authentically–as well as conforming to what the particular guest is looking for at the time (this latter can be determined based on the signals the employee picks up from that guest–a knack that The Ritz-Carlton calls “radar on, antenna out”). But you can talk to employees about the goal—engagement—and you can share your excitement and passion on the subject, as well as examples of when this has worked well for other employees in similar circumstances. All of which Casimiro and other Ritz-Carlton leaders do in the daily lineup at the start of each shift, as well as throughout the day
You might not think that simply speaking to employees can make all that much of a difference. But there is no neutral in the customer experience; as a leader you are either contributing or detracting from the behavior of your employees. In other words, the reality is that you’re always talking to your employees, with and without words: telling them stories, modeling behaviors, praising and critiquing what goes on in your organization. The question is what you say to them. At Casimiro’s property, he talks about what is important. He models what’s important. He repeats what’s important, until the message gets across (and stays that way).
And that can make all the difference.
Micah Solomon is a customer engagement consultant, customer experience consultant, customer service keynote speaker and trainer. He is based in Seattle and works nationally and worldwide.
Forbes readers: Get two free chapters of Micah Solomon’s books here. Reach him directly here.
