About Time: You Discovered The Ritz Club in LondonBy Angelica Malin
The Ritz Club London is one of the world’s most exquisite casinos. Located in the heart of London, The Ritz Club is the former ballroom of The Ritz London and is one of the most iconic hotels, restaurants, and casinos in the world.
The Ritz London first opened in 1906 by the Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz, which was the former manager of the Savoy Hotel and founder of Paris’s Hotel Ritz. The hotel and the club opened in 1978 and shares the same reputation as one of the most luxurious and exclusive unique memberships with an international clientele.
About the Chief Executive of The Ritz Club
Today, the individual responsible with day-to-day operations at The Ritz Club is Roger Marris. His career at The Ritz Club began in 2005. His role as CEO is to guide and provide inspiration of ongoing vision of the Club to the management team. Aside from this, Roger Marris’ workday is spent on meeting with the customers either in London or overseas. He mentioned that he understands the value of leading, and he is happy to be the face of The Ritz Club. He also believes that the task of any leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
His operation style is hands-on, very much of a people’s person and working very closely with marketing, compliance, and gaming operation teams. He mentions that everything he and his team do at The Ritz Club is to keep the heritage and strategic vision on the brand. Without many words to say, they have to remain competitive in terms of marketing. However, it is their integrity, reputation and high standards of service and operating procedures that set them apart from the competition. Roger Marris also mentioned that their business is like a family business, where they enjoy incredible support from the owners, which allowed them to be on top.
About the Membership of The Ritz Club
The members of The Ritz Club maintain anonymity. The staff knows all of their members because of the amount of time spent on nurturing and valuing the relationships. The relationship between the members and the casino is one of a people business. The staff maintains steady friendships such as remembering birthdays and anniversaries. The Chief Executive, Roger Marris mentioned that members are more than guests. The Ritz Club is a private company that is run like a large family business.
Members that play casino games have expectations, so the staff needs to know and understand their preferences, so they can become comfortable and familiar with the services. If a member wants privacy, he will receive it. If they want to go to Paris, there are arrangements. If there is a sporting event, they want to see, the club will facilitate it. Even if a member wants a specific table, game or dealer, it can be arranged. Once the players are getting to know the meaning of the membership of The Ritz Club, a bond is created. This is another thing that sets apart The Ritz Club with their competitors along with beautiful interiors and British high standards of attentive personal service.
Having to say ‘no’ to some members happens, because The Ritz Club has a highly regulated environment and the ‘no’ answer is explained by a reason behind the staff’s decision, which is important and necessary part of the business today.
Compliance by Default is one of the core brand values of The Ritz Club. The casino club has adopted a strategy of 3C’s that focuses on putting the members first and ensures that the staff operates at the highest levels of integrity. Building trust and confidence with the guests is the key theme to continue to develop a forward strategy of The Ritz Club.
Most of The Ritz Club members are international and having a Chief Executive that was able to work overseas, gave him the experience to easily embrace ethnicities and cultures. London and the Ritz brand is all about being British; that is the expectation and experience of the guests. The Ritz Club is fortunate to have staff that made a multinational, multicultural and multilingual environment.
The 3C’s Model of a Core Casino Business
The regulatory compliance is a matter of critical importance for casino operators. That’s why The Ritz Club was able to show leadership and commitment to continuous improvement of re-engineering the compliance functions and the culture to put player protection. It is really nice to see, hear and read how a casino operator will always protect the best of the guests/users. It may be easier of a land-based casino to add some protection and safety of the guests, and it is even more important to add even more security at online casinos. Online gamble houses, like Admiral Casino, have the same improvement of engineering the compliance function and even higher player protection.
In short, the priority of an online casino is to entertain and offer protection to its players. In order to ensure the safety of their game time, online casinos have their own 3 factors. Licensed and regulated by respected authorities is one of the factors. Other factors are that all games must be decent and the use of encryption technology to offer player protection data.
The 3C’s model of a core casino business that The Ritz Club is coming is Customer’s interest first, Compliance and then the Commercial decision-making.
The care and protection of guests form an integral part of the overall strategy, and The Ritz Club was recently received the GamCare certification. The continuous commitment to player protection and the standards of awareness have demonstrated a clear knowledge and understanding of a social corporate business.
Once the company is finished with the Customer and Compliance steps, only then a commercial decision will take place. Further initiatives have included the improvement of internal and external communication across the business and implementing training programs to support the process of business. The Ritz Club continues to have a good dialogue with the regulators and a particular area of player protection is even more discussed.
Advice for New Managers in the Casino Industry
Roger Marris was asked what advice he would give to newly casino industry managers. He said that first and foremost is important that business people develop and home excellent customer relations skills.
This is because of the fast pace the industry is adapting to technologies and the new managers have to develop strategic operational and management skills for a multi-channel business in order to stay ahead.
He also mentions that starting a career in such a dynamic environment is exciting. The days are never the same and it is important to be flexible and adaptable to the various demands of the individuals/players. The gaming scene of London is changing and there is a need to reflect and consider where does the high-end marketplace evolve, including the ability to identify future gaming trends and requirements.
Managers have to anticipate the needs of the members, guests, players and act upon them proactively, showing a high level of initiative. Managers have to encourage innovation in order to provide solutions. This will help in delivering better and faster results with courtesy, respect, and dedication while remaining focused on the members’ needs.
