Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise

“Orientation must never become routine—a chore to be endured, a box to be checked off. It is crucial for establishing the platform on which all future success can be built.”

“much as possible!—but without sabotaging Objective Number One. 4.​In all of the above, keep working toward more and more efficiency.”

“An organization can’t please every human being every time. But it never hurts to try.”

“We must not be distracted from the four supreme objectives of any organization that wants to succeed: 1.​Keep the customer. 2.​Get new customers. 3.​Encourage the customers to spend as much as possible!—but without sabotaging Objective Number One. 4.​In all of the above, keep working toward more and more efficiency.”

“After analyzing hundreds of thousands of comment cards over the years (with the help of the esteemed J.D. Power research firm), I learned that if a customer’s first four contacts with our hotel go well (for example, the phone reservation clerk, the doorman, the bellman, and the front desk), there will be virtually no complaints thereafter. But if something goes amiss in the beginning, the complaints will sprout quickly:”

“No sound on earth is as sweet to a person’s ears as their own name.”

“the more accurate truth is this: Do what the customer loves, and the money will follow.”

“When we identify an operational function and then go looking for a warm body to fill that function, we are being shortsighted. We’re treating people as just another category of things.”

“Elegance without warmth is arrogance.”