Roger Dow knows his guests deserve more than a mint on a pillow – and with the help of Marriott’s employees, he makes sure they get it. With the opening of J. Willard Sr.’s first Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, 40 years ago, the company made customer service a primary target – and judging from their success, they have hit the bull’s eye. The idea is simple: Make the customer number one to make Marriott number one – and VP of Sales Dow, who has mastered the art of superior sales and service, won’t settle for anything less than putting people first. Dow firmly believes that you have to build concern for people into the company culture. At Marriott, taking care of guests starts with taking care of employees: empowering them to solve problems, setting a good example for them, offering them good training and opportunities, listening to their ideas and recognizing their role in the company’s success. The first time he met direct sales cosmetics queen Mary Kay, Dow learned that recognizing your employees’ contribution starts with recognizing them as people.

“The thing that struck me about Mary Kay was that when she talks to you, she looks right at you. She told me that she once worked for a multilevel company and had a chance to meet the company president, a man she idolized. She waited in line to shake his hand, then when it was her turn to meet him, he looked right past her as she spoke. And she was heartbroken. She said to herself, ‘Mary Kay, if you are ever at the front of that line, the person you’re speaking to is most important.’ And I started applying that lesson to my customers and salespeople. When you pay 100 percent attention to one person, that shows respect.”

Marriott also respects employees by letting them handle problems that call for management intervention at other hotels. When a guest is unhappy, staff members can act to solve the problem instead of asking supervisors for permission. By allowing staff members to act on their own, Marriott multiplies its power to keep customers happy and makes the entire staff responsible for taking care of them.

Compensate top performance

While caring for employees helps motivate them to care for customers, Dow knows the value of an effective incentive program, and what goes into one. To get your salespeople to give 110 percent, Dow says, you have to reward the actions you say are important.

“You have to promote the people you celebrate,” he says. “If you say you like people who value customers, then promote people who focus on bottom line dollars instead of customers, your team gets frustrated. You have to match your priorities to the actions you reward.”

To motivate people at all levels, Dow advises tailoring incentives to different individuals. When you set the same goals for everyone, he says, they may be too easy for some and out of reach for others. Don’t reward based on big numbers alone – sometimes reaching a small goal represents a bigger personal achievement. Rewards based on individual improvement give everyone a chance to win.

Dow also knows that a small gesture can make a big impression on employees. Every month, company President Bill Marriott, Dow and Marriott’s executive vice president call top performers to congratulate them personally.

“When Bill first started calling people,” Dow says, “we had a problem because they didn’t believe it was him on the phone. Many of them held junior positions and would never in a million years expect a call from the chairman of the board. What many people in upper level positions don’t realize is how much we can motivate people simply by thanking them for a job well done. Whether you’re 5 years old or 50 – you want somebody to recognize you.”

Learning

To improve and keep up with customers’ changing needs, companies need a steady flow of information from clients, employees – even other businesses. At Marriott, that means staying open to employee suggestions and ideas from other companies, and using customer feedback to make positive change.

“To get more accurate feedback,” Dow says, “we developed customized surveys for each market segment (leisure, frequent travel, meetings) and sent a certain number to each one based on the size of that segment. If 50 percent of our guests are business travelers, we want 50 percent of our feedback from them. That gives us a better idea of what each segment wants and how much business it does with us.”

Of course, customer input doesn’t begin and end with comment cards. Marriott takes the time to research what their customers want so that the Marriott lodging experience matches guests’ actual wants and needs as closely as possible.

“When we first developed Courtyard Hotels, we got a warehouse, built hotel rooms and put people in them to tell us what they liked and didn’t like about them,” says Dow. “We moved the walls and asked them if the rooms felt large enough. Eventually we had a room with everything our guests wanted, but to provide it all would cost $84 a night and the room rate was only $50 a night. We argued about what to change, then gave the guests play money and let them decide what they were willing to pay for the features they wanted. If they wanted a bigger bathroom they had to pay $5. Bigger locks on the door cost $1, a swimming pool cost $2. This experiment helped tell us exactly what our guests wanted for their money.”

While knowing his customers gives Dow new ideas for improving the hotels, he says you also have to know the people who run them. “Time after time,” he says, “I see a correlation between hotels that have great finances and great customer satisfaction, and general managers that know their people’s names and know something about them personally. Knowing your people well tells you how to manage them and shows respect for them as individuals.”

Customer relations

Knowing customers well helps keep them coming back – and in the hotel industry, repeat business keeps companies in business. If you sell cars or copiers, you might not see the same customer more than once a year. A single guest, though, may visit one hotel dozens of times a year. With so much repeat business at stake, customer relationships are critical. To form stronger ones, you have to stay focused on the customer – wherever you are.

“On one overseas business trip,” Dow says, “someone asked me if you should sell your product differently depending on where you sell it. I answered that I didn’t think the product was as important as understanding the customer. Regardless of what area you’re in, you need to understand the culture and what your customers are looking for.”

Customer relationships thrive on flexibility, open-mindedness and compromise – especially when negotiating or trying to placate dissatisfied customers, Dow says. Also, he says it’s easier to find common ground with your customers when you both know what you really need from one another.

“Several years ago I got a call from the White House saying that they needed to use our hotel for the upcoming Reagan/Gorbachev summit meeting. The person I spoke with requested the entire hotel with all meeting spaces for three weeks. I told him that was impossible, then found out that what he really needed was enough space to accommodate 1,800 press people and 1,200 separate phone lines for a day and a half. We had to move some people but we ended up pulling off a seemingly impossible situation once we found out what we really needed from one another.”

When you can’t give your customers what they want, Dow says, it’s important not to turn them off when you turn them down.

“People shouldn’t be arrogant just because business is going well. Remember who you’re saying no to. Also, when you can’t work with a customer, give them an honest explanation. Just because you can’t provide what they want today does not mean you won’t need their business tomorrow, so don’t alienate them.”

Customer service

When similar hotels have similar rates, great service separates the average from the outstanding. Marriott backs up its commitment to superior service with staff members who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“Our mission,” says Dow, “is to provide a terrific lodging experience for people. That mission is the same no matter where you go: that every guest leaves satisfied.”

To illustrate his point Dow relates the story of a woman who wrote to Bill Marriott to share her experience at his hotel in Anaheim, California. In the letter the woman says that after checking in, she ordered room service and that her order was delivered by a young man named Charles. As she signed the check, Charles asked if she’d been crying, and the woman explained that her brother had just called to tell her that her terminally ill sister had died. The woman explained that the first flight home wasn’t until 8 a.m., so she was stuck in the hotel for the night. Charles expressed his sympathy and told the woman to call on him if she needed anything. She writes that about 45 minutes later, Charles arrived at her door with a complimentary pot of coffee and a piece of apple pie. Then he pulled out a sympathy card with seven signatures from his friends at the hotel and told the guest that she wasn’t alone and that he and his friends cared.

“One person can make a huge difference,” Dow says. “That’s a lesson I keep learning over and over again. Because of Charles’ gesture, this guest wrote that she would always try to stay at Marriott hotels, and that she’d tell her friends to do the same.”

Dow also cites the value of service that’s customized, not cookie-cutter. Take the time to remember your guests’ unique preferences, provide service on their terms and you’ll help build customer loyalty that even lower room rates can’t dissolve.

“Several years ago at the Atlanta Marriott,” says Dow, “we had a room service captain named Albert ‘Smitty’ Smith, who got to know every sports team that stayed at his hotel. When the new Hilton opened up, half the teams that had been with Marriott left. When Smitty found out, he started calling his friend at the Hilton to find out when a particular team was arriving, then met them in front of the hotel. On one encounter with former Marriott guests, Tommy Lasorda and the Dodgers, Tommy said, ‘Smitty, are you working for Hilton now?’ and Smitty said, ‘No, I just wanted to say hello and wish you luck at tonight’s game. I’m going to bring you your usual order from the Marriott – two cheeseburgers, double onion rings and one of our strawberry milkshakes.’ And Tommy said, ‘Smitty, what a memory! But why would you do that?’ and Smitty said, ‘I want you to know that even though you can’t afford to stay with us anymore we still love you.’ Thanks to Smitty’s attention to detail, the next baseball season we had every single team back.”

Measure performance

Whether you’re trying to improve customer service, strengthen customer relationships or motivate employees, you need a way to measure your progress. It’s easier to meet goals and move forward when you can see how far you’ve come and how far you have to go. With Marriott’s “We Care” cards and their balanced scorecard system, both guests and Marriott executives have a chance to measure a hotel’s performance.

“I think measuring is critical,” Dow says. “I’m a big believer in having three or four measurements in a particular area. To be a successful general manager at Marriott, for example, you have to succeed in three areas: revenue, customer satisfaction and associate satisfaction. Regional managers get a report on all of their hotels and how they’re doing in each of these three areas. The reports feature red, yellow and green lights that reflect the hotel’s performance in each area. This method of measurement lets our managers know just what they have to do to succeed at Marriott.”

Some businesses seem to operate on the theory that sacrificing people can help save a company. Marriott, on the other hand, succeeds not at the expense of people but because of them. Even when the company faced financial crisis in 1990, Dow says Bill Marriott’s first concern was for his 200,000 employees and the crisis they’d face without a fast solution to the cash flow problem. That “people first” philosophy has brought Marriott four decades of success, and is likely to bring them many more. In Chairman Bill’s own words, “This company starts and ends with people” – an idea that should help keep any business lodged at the top.