The Ritz-Carlton Way: Lessons in Leadership and Customer Service from Horst Schulze

Legendary hotelier Horst Schulze joins Lee Benson to discuss his decades of experience creating exceptional customer service and building high-performing teams. Schulze shares his insights on leadership, culture, and the importance of providing value to both customers and employees.

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t just hire employees, invite them to join your dream. Horst emphasizes the importance of giving employees a sense of purpose and belonging, rather than just assigning them tasks.
• Customer service is about creating trust. Horst believes that trust is built through genuine care and respect for the customer, leading to long-term loyalty.
• The subconscious expectations of customers are the same everywhere. Horst shares how he found universal principles of customer satisfaction across cultures and industries.
• Excellence is no accident. Horst stresses the importance of high intent and hard work in achieving excellence, and how it can be operationalized through processes and systems.
• Leaders have the opportunity to positively impact people’s lives. He reflects on the fulfillment he finds in mentoring and developing leaders, and the importance of serving both customers and employees.

Quotes:

“Excellence is no accident. Excellence is the result of high intent and hard work.”

“Don’t come to work. Come here to create excellence in what you’re doing.”

“You define yourself not when you’re at home watching TV. You define yourself when you’re at work.”

Mentioned in this episode:

• Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise by Horst Schulze

Additional Notes:

This episode is packed with valuable insights for business leaders and anyone interested in creating a culture of excellence. Horst’s stories and anecdotes are both inspiring and practical, offering actionable advice for improving customer service, employee engagement, and overall business performance.

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