This past week, my husband and I had the opportunity to celebrate a milestone birthday sailing with the The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection . Since I write books and speak about talent and customer service for a living, my standards are understandably quite high.
What is the highest compliment I can pay? RCYC treated us as though we were their only guests. Obviously, this is not true since there were 298 passengers aboard. There were many other guests celebrating special occasions too: weddings, honeymoons, birthdays and retirements. From my observation, I think they were all treated just as special.
Was it perfect? No. I have never had a perfect travel experience. But, because they are pursuing perfection, when something isn’t just right, it is still excellent. Any recovery exceeded my expectations and made me forget the imperfection.
One morning, I was on deck and overheard the staff meeting of one of the restaurants. They were discussing in detail the evening before - what went right and what they could improve. After the meeting, I talked with their leader. He explained that those little details separate them from the competition and that is why they focus so intently on them. Most do the big jobs well, but the details are the differentiator.
For example, on the day of my birthday, there were no tables available for outdoor dining. The hostess went and found a table and placed it in the spot with the most beautiful view. We sailed that day on a catamaran and they delivered a birthday cake and champagne to the catamaran. When we returned, our suite was decorated with balloons and rose petals and they had placed our favorite wine and our favorite desserts in the room. They certainly had to pay attention to notice our favorites. Crew members wished me a Happy Birthday. As we arrived at dinner that evening, the entire restaurant staff came out to sing Happy Birthday and usher us to a specially reserved table with the best view.
When we departed the cruise, there were genuine “thank you’s,” hugs and fond farewells. I mentioned to one of the managers that this was my best cruise experience and that I had sailed with one of their competitors 4 times in the last few years. He asked me with whom I had sailed. He was surprised when I told him, and said, “They have been in business for 30 or more years and we have only been sailing for two.” I replied, “Well, think how good you will be in 28 more years!”
Amazing customer experiences include the elements we experienced aboard the Evrima: Warm welcomes, lots of smiles, awareness of guest preferences, service that anticipates needs, an ability to quickly address and resolve concerns, fond farewells and that very special quality of making a guest feel as if they are the only one. And that is exactly what the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection provided.
P.S. Sailing out of San Juan and I was thrilled to learn that Puerto Ricans LOVE their 5 Chick-fil-A Restaurants.
#customerservice #leadership #talent
Congratulations Sanaa, we are so lucky to have you on the team.