Case study: Process Performance and Quality at Starwood Hotel & Resorts

Starwood Hotels & Resort is no stranger to quality management.

Starwood Hotels & Resort is no stranger to quality management. In the most recent year,
Starwood properties around the globe held 51 of approximately 700 spot on Condé Nast’s Gold
List of the world’s best places to stay. Its spa and golf program have consistently been ranked
among the best in the world.

At Starwood, processes and programs are driven by the work of its team of Six-Sigma experts,
called Black Bells. Developed by Motorola more than 20 years ago, Six-Sigma is a
comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success
by driving out defects and variability in a process. Starwood uses the five steps DMAIC process:
define measure, analyze, improve, and control.

Clearly, understanding customer needs is paramount. To this end, Starwood collects data from
customers on its Guest Satisfaction Index survey, call the “Voice of Consumer”. The survey
covers every department guest may have encountered during their stay, from the front desk and
hotel room, to restaurants and concierge. Past survey indicate that how well problems were
resolved during the guest stay was a key driver in high guest satisfaction scores. To increase its
score for problem resolution, the Sheraton brand of Starwood launched the Sheraton Service
Promise program in the United and Canada. The program was designed to give guest a single
point of contact for reporting any problems. It was intended to focus associate (employee)
attention on taking care of service issues during the guest’s stay within 15 minutes of first
receiving notice.

However, although scores did increase, they did not increase by enough. Consequently, Sheraton
brought its Six-Sigma team to see what it could do. The team employed the basic Sig Sigma
model of define-measure-analyze-improve-control to guide its work. To define the problem, the
Sig-Sigma team worked with data collected and analyzed by an independent survey organization,
National Family Opinion. The study indicated that three key factors are needed in problem
resolution: speed, empathy, and efficiency. All three must be met in order for the guests to be
satisfied and the Sheratonm Service Promise fulfilled. Then the team looked at the specific
processess that affected performance: telephone operators’handling of resquest, procedure for
determining who to call, engineering workload, and so on. The work identified in each area was
measured. For example, call logs were established to track speed, empathy of associate handling
the call, and efficiency of the staff charged with fixing problem. The data collected were
analyzed to determine why guests’ problems were not resolved within 15-minute standard.
Pareto charts and other techniques were used for the analysis.
The final step involved control and monitoring to be sure that the improved processess developed
by the Six-Sigma team became part of the property’s culture, and that they were not abandoned
after the team’s work was finished. Tracking continues for 12 to 18 months, with monthly
feedback to the manager or department head responsiblle for the improvement of the Sheraton
Service Promise program. The improvement effort also receives visibility through the company’s
 intranet so the rest of the organization sees the benefits-including service and financial
performance-and can use the experience to improve their own operations.
Questions
1. Implementing Six Sigma takes consideration time and commitment from an organization. In
terms of top-down commitment, measurement systems to track progress, tough goal setting,
education, communication, and custormer priorities, evaluate the degree to which Starwood
successfully addressed each with the redesign of the Sheraton Service Promise program.
2. How might the new Sheraton Service Promise process help Starwood avoid the four costs of
poor process performance and quality (prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external
fairlure).
3. Starwood is the first major hotel brand to commit to a dedicated Six-Sigma program for
improving quality. Why might an organization be reluctant to follow this type of formalized
methodology? What other approaches could Starwood or its competitors use?