Each day, at every Ritz-Carlton hotel around the world, employees take part in a tradition known internally as a "lineup".
The routine involves employees of the luxury hotel chain, whose motto is "Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen", discussing what co-workers have done to make guests happy.
Then they get down to work, each carrying in a pocket a reminder of the service values of the company via a "credo card".
"That [approach] drives everything," says John Fleming, the chief scientist of marketplace management at Gallup and the author of the book Human Sigma: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter.
"It drives how they talk to one another, it drives how they manage, how they coach, how they treat their customers," says Mr Fleming, who was in the UAE this year to consult with companies. And it is an approach every other company should emulate, he insists, because only businesses that know themselves can be good at what they do.
Yet, according to Gallup research, just 30 per cent of "front-facing staff", those who typically work in service industries such as restaurants and deal with customers, can say with certainty what their companies stand for - and what makes them different from others.
"Every brand has a guiding principle," says Matthew Ranson, a partner and the chief strategy officer of RANSON, a brand consultancy in Dubai.
In a company such as the sandwich chain Subway, the guiding principle is fresh, fast and convenient, while at Apple it has to do with simplicity and innovation. "When your staff know what the brand is all about, when they get the guiding principle, it makes it so easy," says Mr Ranson. "Everything flows from that."
But if a product is good, surely people will buy it anyway, even if the service is not up to scratch? Wrong.
"You can certainly sell a product until the next guy comes across with a [cheaper] product … That cycle time has been reduced down to hours these days," says Mr Fleming.
Another worry for companies, he says, is that if employees do not know what a business stands for, they will deliver what they think it is about - and might get it wrong.
"That's going to look very much like an employee down the street working for a competitor. And so nobody looks different, nobody feels different, nobody delivers anything other than a commodity," says Mr Fleming.
Companies that do not already do this should start by putting in writing a statement of their identity and what makes them different in the marketplace.
It is not the same as a mission statement or a listing of corporate values. It is about their DNA and what they will deliver, something that Ritz-Carlton does via the credo card that sets out its service values.
Once a company does this and shares the guidance with its staff, it should be easier to achieve consistency, which is key in customer retention.
"One of the things we have learnt in the past several years is how damaging variability is to organisations," says Mr Fleming.
If a customer goes to two branches of a bank and receives exceptional service in one and poor service in the other, that customer does not know what to expect.
Such variability can be damaging, says Mr Fleming.
Not every company in the UAE really understands and reflects the message of its brand, says Mr Ranson. "I think we forget this country is young," he says.
The region grew quickly, so there was no need to invest so much in training.
But now the market is beginning to mature, so customers are being presented with more choice, making it more important for employees to be "brandwashed", he says.
"Really, it is the people that sell it," says Mr Ranson. "And all of us can only ever really sell things we understand."
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