The Story of How One Bad Employee Harmed a Bank's Reputation (Told by the Ritz-Carlton Founder)

On this episode of Our American Stories, Ritz-Carlton founder Horst Schulze reshaped how service and hospitality are defined in business. He tells a short story about how great service wins - excellence wins - and bad service kills businesses.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
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,

(00:31):
who is the co founder of the Rich Carlton Hotel
and knows more about customers, 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.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
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 bumb you're defining yourself as a bum. Period.
You know. Forgive me, But that's a fact. You define

(01:16):
yourself and it's up to you what 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,

(01:40):
by that bank to talk to the three hundred manager.
And I'll forget it about customer service, customer satisfaction service,
because the day before I still had my apartment that
was try to rent. And when the look at the
apartment go around again, I knew them well. They advertised

(02:01):
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,

(02:23):
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, the tellers, and in front of the maze.
So I walk into the maze. Now what is service?

(02:44):
We have to establish here of what is service? One
more time? It starts with welcome, complying to the visious,
and farewell that 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

(03:05):
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
not the effect. You want your product to be right.
You want timeliness. You don't want to wait for your

(03:26):
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,

(03:49):
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,

(04:12):
finishes some transaction. For 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 chan fifty dollars. She exercised, and she said
ten twenty forty five to fifty. Next, and look at

(04:34):
my product. My change is a product, not defect. The
timeliness was good, but the individual service was non existent.
What could she have done? She could have said, the
next gentlemen please come to tell her. Well, come sir,
how may I help you? Just one chan fifty dollars.

(04:57):
That's my pleasure, ten twenty forty five fifty have a
wonderful day paying. What happened to me, I was dissatisfied,
or 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,

(05:17):
mister Schultze. No, in this case she would.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Not my name.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
I understand that, but that is the ideal service, personalized welcome,
missus Schultzer, 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

(05:41):
is great service. Then I would have moved immediately 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 were there. So what did I do for the

(06:04):
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.

(06:27):
And I didn't say Susie mistreated me. I said that
bank as a poor bank.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
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

(06:55):
Ouramericanstories dot com and just type in his name an
Hrst and you'll get story after story, including his life story,
which is a stem winer 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

(07:16):
good at something, it stands out the story of how
to treat people. Porse Schultze here on Our American Stories.
Liehbib here the host of Our American Stories. Every day
on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this

(07:39):
great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
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