Quality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Discussion questions 1.

In what way could the Ritz-Carlton monitor its success in achieving quality? Q u a l i t y i s n o t s o m e t h i n g t h a t c a b b e q u a n t i f i e d , yo u c a n n o t t o u c h o r f e e l q u a l i t y. When a customer is satisfied by the services of Ritz hotel and comeback next time, that can be used as a great measure of a c h i e v i n g q u a l i t y. Success can also be measured in the number of complaints, whereas the lesser the complaints the more the success.

2. Many companies say that their goal is to provide a quality product/service. What actions might you expect from a company that intends for quality to be more than a slogan or Buzzword? This can only be achieved through setting the companies operational s t r a t e g y a r o u n d t h e s l o g a n , t h i s w a y, e a c h a n d e v e r y u n i t o f t h e company would be working towards fulfilling the slogan/brand promise. Taking the scenario of Ritz hotel as an example, the company has clearly put more meaning behind its quality efforts to organize its e m p l o ye e s i n t o s e l f - d i r e c t e d w o r k - t e a m s w h e r e a s e m p l o ye e s teams determine work scheduling, work to be done and also monitor w h a t t o i n t h e i r p a r t i c u l a r a r e a t o a d d r e s s t h e i s s u e o f q u a l i t y.

3. Why might it cost the Ritz-Carlton less to do things right the first time? This all revolves around the concept of brand image. If a guest s first time experience at the Ritz does not meet his/her expectation. The Ritz hotel risks losing that customer and his contacts to the competition. And through not doing things right at the first time Ritz could end up spending millions advertising in different media

whereas this cost could have been avoided and invested more into t h e t r a i n i n g a n d e m p l o ye e m o t i v a t i o n t o i n c r e a s e t h e p r o d u c t i v i t y and quality of the workers at the hotel. By making the first time experience of the customer at the hotel magical, Ritz could save a lot of money and also boost their revenues through increase in customer obtained through recommendations and returned business from the same customer.

4. How could control charts, Pareto diagrams and cause and effect diagrams be used to indentify quality problems at a hotel? Pareto Diagram Is a graphical overview of the process problems in ranking order of the most frequent in descending order from left to right. Therefore the pareto diagram illustrates the frequency of fault t yp e s . U s i n g t h e p a r e t o d i a g r a m , yo u c a n d e c i d e w h i c h f a u l t i s t h e most serious or most frequent offender. 80% of the total problems incurred ar e caused by 20% of the p r o b l e m c a u s e t yp e s . U s i n g t h e p a r e t o c h a r t a s a b a s i s t o d i v i d e a n d c o n q u e r p r o b l e m s . I t t e l l s yo u w h a t yo u n e e d t o w o r k o n f i r s t . A f t e r yo u h a v e w o r k e d o n t h e p r o b l e m f o r a w h i l e , u s e t h e d a t a o n the same techniques to collect data again and create a new pareto c h a r t . T h e n e w c h a r t w i l l b e r e f i n e d a n d w i l l t e l l yo u m o r e c l e a r l y h o w yo u a r e d o i n g i n t e r m s o f q u a l i t y i n yo u r o f f e r i n g o f s e r v i c e s . The data on the new chart to identify and target the most significant problem. Cause-effect Analysis T h i s g i v e s yo u a u s e f u l w a y o f i d e n t i f y i n g q u a l i t y p r o b l e m s w h i c h c o m b i n e s b r a i n s t o r m i n g w i t h a t yp e o f t h i n k i n g t h a t p u s h e s yo u t o consider all possible causes of a problem rather than just ones that are most obvious. Hence expands the horizo n to exploring more c a u s e s t h a t a r e a f f e c t i n g yo u r b u s i n e s s . Control chart

A c o n t r o l c h a r t i s a t o o l yo u c a n u s e t o m o n i t o r a p r o c e s s . I t graphically depicts the average value and the upper and lower control limits of a process. Control chart can help to distinguish between variations in a process and compare with the standard that is being benchmarked.

5. What are some nonfinancial measures of customer satisfaction that might be used by the Ritz-Carlton? The following nonfinancial factors can be used as measurements of customer satisfaction at the hotel. Number of bookings and over bookings The advance time used for setting a reservation The number of returned customers The number of referrals Customer feedback from survey E m p l o yi n g a n e x t e r n a l f i r m t o c o n d u c t a q u a l i t y a u d i t .