“Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen”
One of our residents invited me to a Buckhead Rotary meeting this year to hear Horst Schulze. Our resident is a retired Marriott executive, and Mr. Schulze was cofounder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Mr. Schulze talked about the origin of his now legendary saying: “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
Mr. Schulze relayed the story of wanting to be in the hospitality business ever since he was about 14. And how, at that early age, he left home and went to work as a dishwasher at a 5-star hotel about 100 miles away from his German village. As he started his studies in hospitality there, he was asked to write a paper about the concept of “service.” In his paper he challenged his first supervisor’s advice that employees were and should stay essentially invisible to guests, and stay out of their way. The supervisor wanted employees to understand they were inconsequential compared to the hotel’s fine guests.
In contrast to what he had been told, Mr. Schulze recalled that when the hotel’s Maître Di entered the dining room, everyone took notice – not just the dining room staff, but even the hotel’s finest guests. He saw how the Maître Di personally interacted with the guests and how each showed respect for the other. It was obvious that although the Maître Di was an employee, he was neither invisible nor inconsequential. In fact, as a youth, Mr. Schulze could tell that the guests assigned the Maître Di a high level of importance.
To Serve is to Care and to Care is to Serve
Mr. Schulze is big on the word “serve.” He’s a big believer that in hospitality you serve. But he believes, as do I, that you are not a servant– if you perform your job with excellence. That’s what’s at the foundation of his philosophy of “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
What continues to intrigue me about his philosophy and slogan is the importance placed on the word “serving.” In developing a way to bring this message to our associates, I have wrestled with reconciling the negative connotations that can also come with the words “serve” and “serving.”To me, to serve is to care. We make it a point to select associates who innately have a sense of caring because caring is fundamental to providing excellent service to our residents. We are a community with 500 residents and nearly 300 associates. Caring is essential to a true community, from my perspective. And, having Mr. Schulze’s story as an example, has allowed me to align what I knew in my heart, but was having trouble articulating clearly to our associates.
Competency, Responsiveness and Caring Equal Professional Excellence
Another key concept I took away from Mr. Schulze’s talk was the thought that if you serve your guests with excellence, you are a professional at what you do. While your job may be to “serve guests,” you are a professional when you serve guests with excellence. At our community, The Lenbrook Way emphasizes the three core traits of caring, competence and responsiveness as the basis for achieving professional excellence in what we do. It shows when associates and residents greet each other daily by name. Or when you catch a conversation ensuing when one person asks another, with sincerity, “How are you today?”
Taking Pride in Presentation
I was reminded again of quickly you can elevate someone’s impression of you before you ever say a word. It was at our latest new employee orientation where the best dressed person in the room was our new dishwasher. He came wearing a dress shirt, a tie and pressed khakis. I bet Horst Schulze showed up for his first day on the job looking his best too. It makes an impression, and good one at that.
My first job as a teenager was as a bellman at the flagship, 500-room Holiday Inn on Clearwater Beach. Our first responsibility was to greet and welcome the guests, and help with their bags. But every hour, we had to clean all the front windows – to keep them looking fresh, clean and inviting. The owner understood how good presentation helped to create good first impressions.
To this day, I’m a stickler about clean windows and I can now see that the hotel owner cared enough about the small details that would ensure a positive visit for his guests. And now, after listening to Horst tell his story, I am convinced that we not only have caring associates at Lenbrook, I believe we are “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
Chris Keysor is President and Chief Executive Officer of Lenbrook. His passion for the senior living industry began early in his career as a CPA with KPMG Peat Marwick. Chris progressed in executive responsibilities over the years, working for a senior healthcare provider, healthcare financing organizations and senior living consulting groups. Chris is also a nationally ranked Ironman triathlete, which he says comes in handy raising his two young children with his wife here in Atlanta.