The Ritz-Carlton has a goal of 100% customer satisfaction and quality has been the center of everything that the hotel does ever since. The process improvements implemented led to numerous positive ramifications. There are 20 Ritz-Carlton "basics," which are instilled in every employee. One of those basics is "MRBIV," which stands for mistakes, rework, breakdowns, inefficiencies, and variation. MRBIV visits each hotel in the chain from time to time, and employees strive to create programs that respond effectively to MRBIV and that keep MRBIV from arriving in the first place. The company collects a large amount of data every day, emanating from customer surveys, employee reports, and financial measures. Lists of top defects are compiled from the daily quality production reports, and then initiatives are developed to keep those defects from occurring again. Hourly employees are trained in TQM tools, and the hotel uses a lot of self-directed work teams, which perform some traditional management tasks such as scheduling workers. The firm has found that the employee empowerment created by these self-directed teams has helped its quality efforts tremendously. Employee ideas are encouraged, and a cost-benefit analysis is employed to determine the viability of those ideas.

Questions: 1) Write down any memorable service level experiences that they or their families or friends have had at hotels, resorts or motels.

2) For the negative experiences, in particular, how did the staff respond? Did it seem that providing a high-quality service was the top priority of staff members at that hotel?

3) Using cost-benefit analysis in a service business might be more difficult than it sounds. For example, if a new idea makes customers happier but costs $5 more per customer, how do we measure the benefit of "happiness?"

4) What are potential downsides of using self-directed work teams. Will they work in every company or industry? If not, what might be some pre-conditions that would make them successful?