What types of things made you feel this extra special feeling? The state-of-the-art amenities, gorgeously appointed lobby, lavish hotel room, the star level and rating of the hotel, their other centered approach to assisting you, a customized & personalized stay or added bonuses such as breakfast, towel service by the pool or the mini-bar in your room (my personal favorite J).

I am guessing, by personal experience, that it has been a mixture of all of these.

The Ritz-Carlton brand of hotels, which is currently one of the top rated in the country, has this motto:

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.

We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.

The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

The Ritz also commits to Three Steps of Service that they strive to provide for each of their guests.

A warm and sincere greeting. Using the guest's name; Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest's needs. (Both spoken and unexpressed); and a Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest's name.

Sounds a little like Cortland, right? All about creating an experience and building value for a better life.

Did you know we can provide this same experience to our clients? We actually can achieve it to a higher degree due to the fact that we have more time than a weekend or a week-long stay to build on a customer centered focus and relationship with them.

How do we do this?

We must begin by taking an oath ourselves to ensuring that our Clients whether they be prospects, vendors or residents are our number 1 focus. This would include knowing their names and using them often, providing ample communication to them, and going out of our way to ensure the time they spend with us doesn’t only make them feel at home, but also a like they are on a continuous vacation.

We must understand our client’s wants and needs, both expressed and unexpressed, and ensure we take care of them. Understanding our market, property, and competitors also helps us to better sell our property and believe in our product. All of this information will also ensure confidence in making suggestions to better our properties and company to the very best we can be.

Implement new things onsite such as custom follow-up, a well-defined resident appreciation program, an in-depth resident retention program, unparalleled resident functions, superior customer service and maintenance service guarantees. These are things no one else in our industry has a 100% focus on. All of these help to drive what could be our 5 Star customer experience.

To get us to a 5 Star experience, it all begins with us individually. The first step today would be to look at our company motto and build a personal statement for yourself today to begin “creating value for a better life”.

My personal motto is: “In all you do leave people better than you found them.”

What’s your personal motto today?