A Story of Excellence: Horst Schulze and The Ritz-Carlton

00:00:10
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, a story by Horse Schultzi, who is the co-founder of the Rich Carlton Hotel and knows more about customer’s customers service and how to really take care of business. When it comes to taking care of customers, nobody, nobody is better. Here’s Horse to tell the story about what he taught a bank about its own customer service. Here’s Horse.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: You define yourself, if you know, and I’ll forgive me, anybody who does it. But let me tell you. If you, as a young man, spike your hair a Colum Crean and look like a bum, you’re defining yourself as a bum. Period. You know. Forgive me, but that’s a fact. You define yourself, and it’s up to you. But you define. I’m not telling you what you have to do, but understand, you define yourself every moment. I tell the story about the bank in the book, and I lived in Chicago, and I knew the bank very well. The advertise. I’ve never been in the bank. But in the meantime, I was have started here in Atlanta. I was invited by them, by that bank, to talk to the three hundred managers. And I’ll forget it about customer service, customer satisfaction service, because the day before I still have my apartment that was trying to rent. And when the look at the apartment go around again, I knew them well. They advertised service all the time on the radio station. I’ve sat in my car. But the day before, I thought, “Gee, I’ve never been in that bag!” Tomorrow somebody is bound to say, “Have you been in our bank?” And I’d better be able to say yes. So I went to that bank.

Now, walking into this, outside the building already magnificent, stately. And you walk in—I mean, marble floor, marble pillars. You can feel the money all around you. It is very impressive, very wow. And all the way over there, a long counter to tell us, and in front of the maze. So I walk into the maze. Now, what is service? We have to establish here of what is service? One more time? It starts with welcome, compliant to the visious, and farewell. That’s service. Welcome, comply, farewell. What’s the expectation of the customer when they’re coming by anything? We must understand that you, or I, or anybody has the same subconscious expectation, no matter what you buy. If it is legal service or a bottle of order, or a car or radio, you have the same subconscious expectations. You want no defect. You want your product to be right. You want timeliness. You don’t want to wait for your bottle of order. You wonder when you want it, and you want the people who give it to you to be nice to you. Those are the three things that. So, if I know as an as a business, this is what people expect from me. I build processes to deliver it. So I’m in the enemies. No, not long. I’m timeliness. Now I’m number one. I look left, and somebody on the ryon screams, “Next!” That was the first step of service. I come to her teller. Was a woman. By the way, men are usually worse in service. Was a lady. As I reached her teller, she looks down, finishes some transaction. From one second or two, I see her face. I don’t know how, see, she doesn’t know me. But when she looked up. It was very clear that she hated me, and she said, “Yes, yes.” I said, “Just one change, fifty dollars.” She exercised, and she said, “Ten, twenty, forty-five to fifty.” “Next!” And look at my product. My change is a product: not defect. The timeliness was good, but the individual service was nonexistent. What could she have done? She could have said, “The next gentleman, please, come to tell her.” “Welcome, sir, how may I help you?” “Just want to change fifty dollars.” “That’s my pleasure, ten, twenty, forty-five to fifty. Have a wonderful day, paying.” What happened to me? I was dissatisfied. Or there could have been a third way of serving me. She could have said, “The next gentleman, please,” when I come to her teller. Ideally, she would have called me, “Welcome, Mr. Schultze.” Now, in this case, she would not my name. I understand that, but that is the ideal service. Personalized: “Welcome, Mrs. Shultzer, how may I help you?” “Just want to change fifty dollars.” Ideally, she would have sent ten, twenty, forty-five, and here are four coined five coins, because I know you collect coins. Individualized to me. Now, that is great service. Then I would have moved immediate to a level of trust and loyalty. But what should she do? She did the first thing that I explained. She said, “Next,” and she treated me as if she was angry that I was there. So what did I do for the next fifteen years? I used them for an examples as lousy service. What happened here? She defined the bank. She defined her fellow workers. That can’t happen. You can’t let that happen in an organization that one employed defines you. And I didn’t say Susie mistreated me. I said that bank as a poor bank.

00:06:35
Speaker 1: And thanks to Greg Hengler for the production and editing on the storytelling, and a special thanks to Horse Schultzy for sharing his wisdom with us. “Excellence Wins,” a no-nonsense guide to becoming the best in a world of compromise, is his book. By the way, we have a bunch of stories by Horst on our website. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and just type in his name. Just put to Hrst, and you’ll get story after story, including his life story, which is a stemliner and a real beauty about the American dream and about excellence, and it’s so hard to find these days. When you can just be really good at something, it stands out. The story of how to treat people. Porse Schultze here on Our American Stories. Liehibibe here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we’re bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can’t do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they’re not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give.