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Try Greenlight risk-free today at greenlight.com slash iHeart. And we continue with Our American Stories, an up-next-us story about a founder, and we love to tell founder stories here on the show. We love to tell stories of people who turn nothing into something.
And here, the storyteller is Horst Schulze, who co-founded the Ritz-Carlton Hotels in 1983 here in America. And this story has a lot to do with service. It has a lot to do with customers. And it has to do also with a fellow Atlanta founder, Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, and where the phrase, my pleasure, came from. We all talk about service.
Let me define service for a moment. It starts the instant you make contact. It doesn't start a second later. It starts, in fact, within nine feet.
Why? Because within nine feet, you make decisions about somebody, and they make a decision about you. So it starts with a great welcome. Welcome. And then it continues with complying to the guest's wishes. And that complying is very simply that.
I'm in that moment. It's not about me anymore. It's not about my company. It's about my customer. I'm now here to help that customer to make the right decision for him or her. That's how I'm complying. I'm here to be an assistant to that guest to make a great decision for themselves. And then it ends by saying farewell. That is service.
Welcome, comply, farewell. Now, when people talk about a great service, ask them to define it. They haven't even given a thought what it is. That's why you don't receive it. They receive it if you happen to be lucky and you happen to hit a nice person. Not by the sign of the organization.
And that is wrong. It has to be designed by the organization. That there is service delivery. That means attention for the benefit of our customer. You know my relationship with Chick-fil-A, you know. And then Kathy, who is, of course, Chick-fil-A is an exception company, exception people, then asked me one day to have you. He tells a story slightly different. I know that I'm right how I tell it.
But they're very close the same, the two stories. One day he asked me, have you been in Chick-fil-A? I said, sure.
So what do you think? I said, well, you're the best of a lousy lot. And he said, what?
Well, you're not great, but you're better than the rest of them. And we discussed that. And then, of course, he asked me to kind of teach people and deal with them.
And we did a lot of things together. And one thing was I had a meeting with his managers, all his vice presidents in the headquarters, talking about verbally how to talk to a customer. And first of all, you should look at them within nine feet and say, hello, good morning, welcome, and so on. The behavioral analysts say that a person relates to you and makes a decision when they come within about three meters, nine or ten feet. That's when you make a decision, that instant.
So you want to make sure that that instant, a positive decision, goes into their subconscious. In fact, we have an interesting study. In the very beginning of Fritz Karlmann, we had comment cards, which is not very scientific. But I had about 400,000. When I was dealing with J.J. Power, I knew Dave Power at the time very well. He said he was a step out of only automotive. And we were the first company that actually did something with outside of automotive. I said, Dave, I have those 400,000 cards here.
I'm being told it's not very scientific study. But he said, well, give them to me. We'll see what we can find.
He came back and said something very interesting here. Whenever the first contact was good, that means sales or reservation, doorman, front desk, or bellman, when that was good, never ever did a complaint follow. Never ever. Whenever there was one negative in the first contact, always other complaints followed. So in other words, you can put people into a subconscious positive. If the first contact immediately happens to be well, a nine feet is very important because that's when the decision is being made subconsciously.
Subconscious is stronger than conscience. So it's a very important moment. So we thought from there on, whatever you are doing within nine feet, you look at the customer and say, well, come.
And then and eliminate, in our case, we said, eliminate words like high. Because I want to tell the customer immediately you're important to us. If I say hi, I'm saying we are equal. If I say welcome, sir, welcome, I'm saying you're important to us.
And I am very professional. I'm giving two messages here, which creates trust. So and then, of course, we taught our people to eliminate two more words. Don't ever say folks, guys, et cetera. And don't say, OK.
In our case, say I'm delighted to or it's my pleasure. So right away, this kid that I hired from inner city becomes a very elegant young man that we put into great uniform because if I hired that kid. He now the next day. Is facing the chairman of the board of the Bank of England, how I'm going to make sure that interaction happens, right? If I eliminate those three things, hi or whatever. Dude, guys, folks and OK, now all of a sudden there's a very elegant young man there. So I was explaining that to to Chick-fil-A. And said, no, you have to eliminate the OK. We use my pleasure.
And I guess and I think this is wrong for your market segment. Let's find a different word. And everybody agreed it was not the right word for Chick-fil-A. My pleasure was too fancy. And we kind of discussed it when suddenly in the back of the room. Somebody raised a finger and said, I like my pleasure.
Which was trued. And the owner, the founder, this great gentleman, I like my pleasure. I said, yeah, yeah, but, you know, but it is too sophisticated for Chick-fil-A. Mr. Cathy, that was true, Cathy, it is too sophisticated.
You should he said, I like it. That ended the discussion, by the way. Guess what they're saying? They're saying my pleasure, you know, and implemented some other criteria of service, which Dan will tell anybody that I was successful to help them with. Now, they didn't become an exceptional company because of me. But those are the little things that I helped them with, including the my pleasure thing, which they became famous for. I was wrong. And now I didn't tell them to use my pleasure.
I was against it. And also anyway. And a terrific job on the editing and storytelling by Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Horst Schulze, as always, for sharing his stories with us. And it's not just a story.
We have a bunch by Horst because, well, what a storyteller he is and what wisdom he has. And by the way, what a thing to know that it all starts in that very first contact. And if you've ever been to Ulrich Carlton, it's different than the other hotels.
Impeccably dressed, alert. They greet you from far away. It's always welcome.
And they're different on every contact throughout the organization. And we can all be different and we can all be better versions of ourselves. And what a story about my pleasure and where it came from. Just beautiful storytelling. Go to more of Horst's work on OurAmericanStories.com. His book is called Excellence Wins, a no-nonsense guide to becoming the best in a world of compromise.
The story of where my pleasure came from, here on Our American Stories. Behind every successful business is a vision. Bringing it to life takes more than effort. It takes the right financial foundation and support. That's where Chase for Business comes in with convenient digital tools, helpful resources, and personalized guidance.
We can help your business forge ahead confidently. Learn more at Chase.com backslash business. Chase for Business.
Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank N.A. Member FDIC.
Copyright 2025. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Hey, Janice Torres here. And I'm Austin Haykwitz. We're the hosts of Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, produced by Ruby Studio and Intuit QuickBooks. Catch up on seasons one and two and join us for a brand new season of the podcast as we talk to small business owners about how they manage and grow their businesses with the help of platforms like Intuit QuickBooks. Listen to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts here at the Almond Joy factory where tropical vibes abound. We use soft, fresh tasting coconut, the crunchiest almonds and delicious chocolate candy. Ah, but do you know what our most important ingredient is? Sometimes you feel like a nut.
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Watch the WNBA this season on ABC, CBS, ESPN, Ion and Prime starting May 16th. Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely.
And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Try Greenlight risk free today at greenlight.com slash I heart. You're listening to an I heart podcast.
