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Lesson #3: Take Care Of Your Customers And They Will Take Care Of You
Article Overview: More than anything else, the Four Seasons chain of luxury hotels is known for exactly that – luxury. But, it isn’t luxury in the normal sense. “Our competitors interpreted luxury chiefly as dazzling architecture and décor, but how important is that to our customers?” Sharp asks. “They are mostly executives, often under pressure, fighting jet lag, stress and the clock. We decided to redefine luxury as service.”
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Lesson #3: Take Care Of Your Customers And They Will Take Care Of You
More than anything else, the Four Seasons chain of luxury hotels is known for exactly that – luxury. But, it isn’t luxury in the normal sense. “Our competitors interpreted luxury chiefly as dazzling architecture and décor, but how important is that to our customers?” Sharp asks. “They are mostly executives, often under pressure, fighting jet lag, stress and the clock. We decided to redefine luxury as service.”
In each and every one of its worldwide locations, the Four Seasons tends to set the top hotel price for the area, and it is usually about 20 percent higher than its closest competitor. How can Sharp risk such a pricing policy? He guarantees that “guests get a fail-safe experience so that a company is eager to pay the extra $50 to ensure a hassle-free trip for an executive who might be working on a $50 million deal.”
To this end, Sharp has initiated a quality of service that goes almost unmatched in the industry. From offering large bars of soap and shampoo in every room, to non-smoking floors, to fitness rooms, and real live people who answer the phones, Sharp has striven to ensure that each Four Seasons hotel is equipped with whatever it needs to make its customers happy. After all, happy customers come back, and they bring their friends with them.
When he opened his first Four Seasons in Toronto almost half a century ago, Sharp might not have had a grand plan, but he did have a consistent thread, which was to provide great service. “The essential question for us in the early days was: ‘What did guests value most?’” says Sharp. “Market research said luxury, not necessarily elegant surroundings and gourmet meals. The greatest luxury is time, and service can help you make the most of that. Give greater productivity, greater enjoyment – what better luxury can there be?”
Of course, Sharp knew that designing service was no easy task, especially in the hotel business where it is generally just a few moments of service delivery that Sharp calls the “make or break point, when reputation is either confirmed or denied.” In order to ensure that the employees at the very front of that service delivery were motivated and committed, Sharp implemented a number of initiatives, such as a profit-sharing plan and two “stress breaks” every day.
“Whether purchasing a yacht, a diamond, a sports car or a handbag, luxury consumers expect the experience of making the purchase to be as rewarding as the purchase itself,” says Sharp. “A company's ability to provide that kind of experience depends on its employees.” To this end, Sharp also paid his front desk clerks twice the average rate; he knew that unsatisfied employees would almost guarantee unsatisfied customers.
In 1967, one Four Seasons employee went to the extreme in demonstrating the kind of service Sharp was trying to encourage. A bellboy for the hotel, Roy Dyment discovered that a dignitary guest had left his briefcase behind after checking out. The guest soon called from Washington stating that the contents of the briefcase were essential for an upcoming meeting. Feeling responsible, Dyment bought a plane ticket at his own expense and personally delivered the briefcase to the former guest.
Today, the Four Seasons name has become synonymous with service, and that is where its true value is found. “Profit directs our focus toward short-term market gains,” says Sharp. “As long as we can keep on creating customer value, profit is unlikely to be a concern.”
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