We took the 90-minute drive from our home to The Ritz-Carlton with great expectations for a pleasant and quiet (!) 24 hours. Upon our arrival, a day of unexpected pleasures began.

We arrived about 4:00 in the afternoon and were greeted by delightfully professional staff, a glass of champagne and an efficient and friendly check in process. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the front desk staff had clearly been trained to serve international guests (which we were not) as evidenced by the way they politely handed me my credit card using two hands (standard operating procedure for service providers in Asia). According to Michelle Valle, the Marketing Manager for the hotel, the front desk staff is trained in this technique to comply with a company-wide standard even though they have a relatively small percentage of customers from Asia.

Upon completion of the check-in process, the clerk came out from behind the counter to us point us towards the elevator and wish us an enjoyable stay. When we arrived in our room our 470 square foot deluxe, lake front room turned out to be a 700+ square foot executive suite with two balconies, two televisions, 1 ½ baths, but no partridge in a pear tree.

I was curious as to why I had been upgraded to an executive suite. Was it the non-discounted rate I was paying or something else? Ms. Valle said that staff members empowered to WOW their guests. They are trained to discreetly profile customers to determine customer preferences and special occasions, and the hotel has well defined policies on what staff members can do to delight customers in the moment without management approval. By determining that my wife and I were here for our anniversary (customer profiling during the check in process) and empowering staff to upgrade guests to the next higher category of rooms (clear policy), the front desk staff were able to provide my wife and I with an unexpected surprise.

The guest profiling goes into even greater detail. For example, a question about wine might lead to a welcome gift of a bottle of chardonnay as opposes to merlot. This attention to detail and customization of the service experience is in stark contrast to other hotels that may have a standard welcome gift (like chocolates) for frequent guests that may not be appealing to everyone.

Staff members capture customer preference data in a CRM system. This allows for preferences to be viewed from hotel to hotel. For example, the CRM allows customer preferences to be tracked at such a level of detail that a guest staying at another Ritz-Carlton might receive a soda without ice upon seating for dinner without asking for it based on preferences learned in a previous service encounter at a different hotel.

We had 3 hours to wait before our dinner reservation so we took a walk around the property and decided to have a drink and a snack by the pool. The bartender was quite friendly and having a good time doing his job, but needed work on his jump shot because in the process of throwing away a piece of fruit his shot was a little off and it hit the rim of the trashcan and splattered a bit of liquid on the bar. Nothing hit us or the other guests at the bar (nor was anyone offended by his actions), but he paid for our drinks anyway.

Ms. Valle explained that the service recovery philosophy of the Ritz-Carlton is that in order to justify charging premium rates, they must deliver a superior customer experience. For them, this means giving staff the latitude to do what they believe is appropriate to turn a potentially negative experience into a pleasant one. Said in the language of customer loyalty, they focus on converting potentially negative word of mouth about an experience into positive word of mouth about the service recovery effort.

Every service recovery incident is documented in a Commitment to Quality Report. The staff member is responsible for completing this report at the end of his/her shift in which he/she explains the incident and the recovery action taken. The next morning the reports are shared with the entire hotel shift! They use these incidents as learning opportunities for the entire staff to discuss ways to prevent these incidents from happening in the future.

Part of the reason I decided to stay at the Ritz-Carlton was the restaurant, Normans’s. Norman Van Aken is one of North America’s super chefs and was voted as the best chef in Florida by the New York Times. As my wife and I were wandering around the hotel, we stopped to look at the menu. It had a fascinating variety of flavors and fresh seafood, but what jumped out at us was the Foie Gras terrine with brioche. Yum!

Our light snack by the pool turned out to be a bit too filling thus the idea of putting on a suit for dinner and leaving our suite lost out to having room service so we did not get to enjoy the cuisine at Norman’s. Believing that if you don’t ask, the answer is no, I decided to call Norman’s to see if the were willing to deliver the Foie Gras to our suite. Norman’s menu, mind you, is not the room service menu, but I figured I had nothing to lose. “Absolutely, sir”, was their response to my request.

What struck me about this was that Norman’s approach to service was at the same level as the Ritz-Carlton. Norman’s leases space in the hotel and has its own selection process, but, buy contract, their staff members must attend service training provided by the Ritz-Carlton—a brilliant way to help ensure similar quality of service. The hotel tracks guest satisfaction with the Norman’s to ensure that the restaurant maintains the same high quality standards as the hotel and regularly provides this feedback to the restaurant.

My impression of the Ritz-Carlton’s motto of “Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen” is that it is more that a tag line. It is an operating philosophy that is driven through every aspect of the hotel’s processes ranging from hiring to training to customer service to performance management and measurement. It is this comprehensive integration of the philosophy into the day-to-day actions of management and staff that creates and sustains a differentiated customer experience.

Our day escape ended far too quickly yet in less than 24 hours the Ritz-Carlton Orlando left a lasting impression on me for their quality of service and attention to detail in seemingly every aspect of the customer experience. I never thought $400 dollars could be a bargain. If you are planning to travel to Orlando, I encourage you to check out the Ritz-Carlton. A truly exceptional service experience awaits your arrival.