That’s the Golden Rule, taken from Matthew 7:12. While its wording may vary, the concept remains the same: to treat others the same way you want to be treated. It is recited by elementary school students in countries across the globe and is even now used as the highest management principle of Francesco Borrello, the new General Manager of Grand Formosa Regent Taipei Hotel.

“We don’t want to get bad treatment. We don’t want to be mishandled by anyone,” Borrello, a native of Italy, said. “Similarly, we should treat our customers with sincerity and respect.”

Borrello has such a strong belief in the principle of reciprocity he published a handbook, “Brand Frameworks and Attributes,” on how to treat customers right. The handbook is distributed to hotel staff and employees — whom he refers to as “associates.”

Three key points in the handbook are particularly worthy of mention, according to Borrello. They are: “identity,” or a set of characteristics for which Grand Formosa Regent is known; “promise,” or the hotel’s commitment to providing personalized and satisfactory services; and “service key attributes,” which breaks down into three parts: giving hearty and genuine greetings, anticipating and recognizing guest needs, and giving customers a memorable goodbye.

“We want customers to keep coming back,” Borrello said. “We want to own our customers.”

Perhaps a recent incident at the hotel may illustrate what is meant by “owning customers for life.” A guest from Hong Kong stayed at the hotel and fell sick. The hotel staff took her to a nearby hospital, where she ended up staying for four days. Each day the hotel sent someone to visit her and buy food for her. Afterwards, the guest returned to Hong Kong and wrote a letter to Borrello, saying she would be Grand Formosa Regent’s customer “for life.”

“I was really touched by her letter,” he said. “This is exactly the kind of response that I would love to get from our customers.”

The handbook also listed a set of guidelines, which Borrello refers to as “icons,” to be followed by each hotel associate. The 25-point guidelines include: “to provide the finest personal service by identifying and recording individual guest preferences” (No. 11), “to create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of customers and each other are met” (No. 6), and “to never lose a customer ... whoever receives a complaint will own it, resolve it to the guest’s satisfaction and record it” (No. 13).

“No one is allowed to say ‘no’ to a customer, no matter how outlandish their requests are,” Borrello said. He recalled a time when he had to spray paint a rose black when a customer demanded a black rose in his room, which is not easily found in the market. He also recalled an incident in which a customer of the Brasserie, the hotel’s flagship buffet restaurant, wanted caviar, which was not on the menu. Instead of saying “no” to the customer, the hotel’s head chef said: “Caviar is not part of our offerings, but we’ll make it specifically for you.”

In Borrello view, customers cannot be happy if the hotel associates are not happy. That’s why giving hotel employees a pleasant working environment is a top priority. Grand Formosa Regent has a restaurant specifically for employees, who can choose from dishes from different parts of the world. As Borrello encourages open communications with his associates, employees may walk into the GM’s office at any time to talk about issues or difficulties.

To offer inner peace for employees, Borrello has begun the practice of issuing a daily newsletter, titled “Energy,” to hotel associates. The newsletter comes with a different message and quote each day to offer peace of mind for employees, who are encouraged to memorize the message and recite it during their free time.

For example, the newsletter for March 9 — the date of this interview — comes with the message: “The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuse,” and the quote: “The gentleman seeks everything from himself; the mean man seeks everything from others” by Confucius.

All this, Borrello said, is intended to help employees find true happiness. The hotel’s low employee turnover rate — three percent — may serve as an indication its workers like it there.

“I want all my associates to have a sense of belonging,” Borrello said. “I want them to says ‘I can’t wait to get up and go to work’ in the morning and ‘I feel sad the day is over’ in the evening.”

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