Nov. 2--The tourism industry is failing to give visitors the caring service they want, which is the most crucial part of the business, a worldwide hotel leader said. 

Giving tourists a visit with no mistakes and timely service with a smile will lead to satisfied customers who not only return, but recommend the hotel to their friends, said Horst Schulze, former president of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. But too many companies don't ask customers what they want or fix the problems that turn them off, he said. 

"Caring is your key product," Schulze told about 90 attendees at a tourism conference Friday at Kingston Plantation. "What you have should be what they want. That's marketing." Schulze, who grew Ritz-Carlton from a one-hotel operation to a company with 40 properties, challenged the participants to break their way of thinking and start tailoring their operations to meet customers' desires. 

Average customer satisfaction rates are between 62 percent and 65 percent, a level some properties boast of but one Schulze calls "pathetic." The Grand Strand has struggled to improve its customer service amid a tight labor market. During the peak summer season, unemployment hovers at about 3 percent and international students help supplement the local work force. 

Blaming a tight labor market isn't an excuse Schulze accepts for subpar service. Excellent customer service will come if managers empower their employees and make them want to work at the property, he said. 

"Come on, dummy. You hired them," Schulze said. "One of your processes is off. That's why they [the employees] are off." Employee turnover in the hospitality industry is 120 percent a year, Schulze said. At Ritz-Carlton, annual turnover among the company's 20,000 employees was 24 percent under Schulze's leadership, he said. 

Instead of improving service and fixing the cause of customer complaints, many hotels stick with the "horrible tradition" of cutting costs to increase profits, Schulze said. 

"The first thing you do is take the flowers away," he said. 

But that's not the worst mistake some in the industry make. "Don't promise what you can't do," Schulze said. 

Michael Poynter, vice president at the Radisson Plaza Hotel and one of the few local conference participants, plans to keep Schulze's advice on customer service in mind as he starts next month hiring more than 100 workers for the hotel, which is set to open in January. 

"He's talking about a lot of real truths, basics that some people in the industry don't understand," Poynter said. "He understands what service is about." 

MORE INFO: Horst Schulze, named the "corporate hotelier of the world" by HOTELS magazine in 1991, was the keynote speaker Friday at the "Managing and Marketing Tourism in the Inter national Environment" conference at Kingston Plantation. 

The conference, which concludes today, is sponsored by Coastal Carolina University and the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. 

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