Four primary elements make the difference between other hotels or resorts and a Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts property: service, quality, culture, and brand. All four defining characteristics are on display and in practice daily in the ritual of the morning meeting.
In most cities, the meeting begins with our guest relations manager recapping who is staying at the hotel. He or she goes over the hotel's new arrivals, extended stay guests, VIPs, and special attention guests. Because of the caliber of our guests, the rates they pay, the expectations they have, and how much we drill down to get it right for them, we couldn't live without this position.
At the Four Seasons New York, Johannes Waltz is the senior guest relations manager. Johannes has an amazing rapport with our returning guests (and there are a lot of them). Whenever they arrive, he makes them feel welcome. He gives them a sense of home when they come here, that they don't have to worry. He is also very proper. You could lock him in a room with a Daily News reporter, and he wouldn't give up a word of good gossip.
The guest relations manager runs through the VIPs who are coming in that day as well as a recap of return customers. Then we go through the special attention guests. They might be people who need gluten-free food or are allergic to peanuts or want us to empty out the minibar and put only bottled water in it. We really don't stop short of anything here. A different mattress, more pillows or hypoallergenic pillows, extra hangers, a special shampoo if they're allergic to what we routinely stock – it doesn't matter: we go out and get it.
Next up is a review of the previous day's mistakes in something we call the Glitch Report. Every department in the hotel is represented at the morning meeting, and each has a printout detailing what's gone wrong and what steps may have already been taken to correct course. The Glitch Report ensures that every hotel department knows what happened and which guest it affected. We might have missed a guest with something as simple as turndown service, and everybody listens to the department head responsible as he or she articulates what went wrong. That person will go to the root cause of the problem and tell everyone what will be done to fix it in that guest's eyes.
Whatever the issue, making it right starts with a sincere apology. It can also mean trying to do something else for them later on in their visit. It can mean an amenity such as flowers or fresh fruit skewers or a bottle of wine. It can mean an appropriate adjustment or consideration on their bill. For each guest, we strive to find the right approach in the apology.
Our employees continually do amazing things, going beyond what anyone would normally expect from customer service.
I'm reminded of an event at Four Seasons Chicago, about six months after it opened in 1989. The event was a small black-tie fund-raiser for sixty people hosted by President and Nancy Reagan to support Children's Memorial Hospital. Every gentleman in the room wore black tie – except one. Hans Willimann, now a 30-year veteran of Four Seasons, overheard a man off to one side speaking with his wife as donors lined up to get their pictures taken with the former president and first lady. “You could have told me that it was black tie!” he complained to her. “If you had, I wouldn't feel like an idiot.”
Hans moved close enough to hear this, and he approached in classic Four Seasons fashion. “I'm sorry,” he said, “but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I work here. I understand your dilemma, and I think I can help.”
Hans invited the man to follow him to the uniform office.
“Khaled, this gentleman doesn't have a tuxedo. Can you help him?”
Khaled invited the gentleman to have a seat in his office, excused himself, changed out of the tuxedo he was wearing, put on his civilian clothes, and rushed to the laundry to press his very own tuxedo for the guest to wear. The pants were a little bit too big, so the staff seamstress came up and fixed them, and the gentleman rejoined the party.
The next day Hans received a lengthy and effusive letter of praise from Mr. Fred Steingraber expressing his gratitude. The letterhead indicated that he was the chairman and CEO of a major global strategic consulting firm, A.T. Kearney. And he felt that if his consultants had the kind of attitude that Hans and his banquet manager had demonstrated, the company could be twice their size. This company has since spent millions at the Four Seasons on food and beverages for many years. From that time forward, all of A.T. Kearney's functions were held at our hotel. And, at every one that once-tuxedoless gentleman would rise and retell his Four Seasons story so that his colleagues would never forget what the standard was for exceeding expectations in providing a service.
From: Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp. Copyright © Four Seasons Hotels Limited 2009. Reprinted with permission of Penguin Group (Canada).
