What Elite Hotels Can Teach us About Client Service

It’s that time of year when summer holidays are in the mind. A big part of this process is finding the perfect place to stay – cut to scenes of fevered scrolling through accommodation sites to check out pictures, specs and feedback to inform our choices.

Sitting at the top of the holiday list are luxury hotels, which take the concept of staying away to the next level. Inevitably the room specs are much higher, the food is more sumptuous and the surroundings possibly more opulent. However, what really makes a top hotel stand out is the overall experience and how that makes us feel.

Inevitably an incredible amount of work goes into running an elite hotel which doesn’t get noticed. It’s the constant succession of micro actions, ingrained in the culture of the institution, which make you feel as if you are more than just a guest being shepherded towards your check out (by 10am at the latest please!).

At the heart of this is a customer service which goes above and beyond in order to make guests feel personally catered for. As such there is much that can be learned from this kind of approach with elements that are relevant to the legal profession where many firms roll out the platitude about putting the client at the heart of everything they do but struggle to bring weight to those words.

So in this vein, I’d like to use the Ritz-Carlton as an example of how a superior hotel goes above and beyond (as Joshie the Giraffe can attest).  The hotel chain has forged a legendary reputation for its gold standard customer service, because Ritz staff have a brief to fulfil even the unexpressed wishes and needs of guests, creating memorable experiences in the process.

When thinking back on one’s holiday, all those days beside the pool or in the restaurant may end up blurring into a single image, but just as indelible a memory is how we were greeted. No doubt we arrived through the front door feeling rather bothered and uncomfortable from the stress of the journey and the anxiety of the unknown. In those first moments the Ritz-Carlton goes out of its way to instil a sense of calm, reassurance and working on forming a genuine relationship.

Now substitute a guest’s arrival at a holiday hotel for a client’s arrival at a law firm; bothered, stressed, anxious. The emotions are not dissimilar, and neither are the client’s craving for calm confidence and reassurance. That first impression will stick in the mind.

The psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Fredrickson, identified a shortcut the brain takes to judge an experience based on emotions at an intense point (peak) of an experience and at its conclusion (end).

Another highly commended business practice a Ritz-Carlton hotel employs is that if a member of staff is approached with a complaint, then that member of staff is expected to ‘own’ that complaint and do whatever is in their powers to resolve it.

Setting the ‘complaint’ aspect aside, taking ownership is hugely significant in business relationships. If you want to go down as a good memory, controlling that ‘peak’ is essential. Words a client does not want to hear are “I don’t deal with that aspect” or “that’s one for another team”. The best advisers remove friction from the client experience, accompanying them on every aspect of the journey and smoothing the way.

So, as I draw to a close, I would like to thank you for taking a few moments to acknowledge my thoughts today.  I have many readers but I must say your engagement with this article means so much to me…

Ah yes, the ‘end’! The second piece of the Kahneman and Fredrickson jigsaw relating to the creation of favourable emotional experiences that encourage us to return. Signing off an experience in a way that makes the other person good is another key marker in building positive memories. There’s a reason that elite hotels still thrive after all these years. They know that positive memories are the foundations on which repeat business is formed, not to mention word of mouth recommendations.

So when you’re setting off on your holiday this summer, pack a notebook and observe how hospitality treats you – good or bad, there are always lessons to be learnt in how to better build relationships.