Award-winning service doesn't just happen. It starts with great stories shared each and every day. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the only hotel brand to win the Malcolm Baldridge national quality award (twice), is a brand built on storytelling.

In his new book, Excellence Wins, Ritz-Carlton co-founder, Horst Schulze, explains how he implemented a policy empowering every employee to spend up $2,000 to make guests happy. As you can imagine, the customer service stories that were created as a result of that policy became the stuff of legend.

For example, a housekeeper named Mary flew from Atlanta to Hawaii after a guest had forgotten a laptop in his room. He had an important presentation loaded on the computer and Mary didn't trust a courier to get it to Honolulu on time. She delivered it herself and, rather than spending a few extra days on the island, caught the next plane back to Atlanta.

Yes, empowering employees and giving them the resources to keep guests happy often results in superior service. But the next step is also critical— sharing the stories as a form of education. And that's where Schulze's 10-minute meeting comes into play.

Schulze implemented a short meeting that took place before each and every shift. Every meeting focused on one of the service standards employees are expected to meet. For example, employees are empowered to create unique and memorable experiences for the guests is one such service standard. According to Schulze, "The leader reads the standard, makes comments about what it means, and tells a story or reads a relevant customer comment to show the standard in action."

Read the full article at Forbes