Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand into World-Class Excellence

Chapter 6

Engaging Employees for Service Excellence

Service-focused behaviors—P2, people, in the context of the World Class Excellence Model (see figure 4-1)—will make or break the experience for the employee. As Elizabeth Norberg, senior vice president of human resources for Dolce Hotels and Resorts, explains, "the internal culture gives the identity to the experience and the brand. Our culture is defined by our talent who really are the 'faces, arms, and legs' of the brand" (Norberg 2009). Nurturing this human "resource" is a critical action for world-class organizations.

For instance, the Walt Disney Company has not only identified frontline ...