Only as much as it takes...My Shanghai Marriott Experience
This is only my second trip to the Orient, Shanghai, to be specific; so, this perspective is shared by a casual business visitor, not an eastern scholar. During my first trip in 2008, my client booked our meetings at the Marriott Renassaince. Today, this is written in my room at the Courtyard Marriott Xujiahui.
While I've been mostly pleased with my stateside Marriott experiences, two aspects of their Shanghai properties impress me.
The first is the attentiveness of staff to every guest's presence and needs. When a guest walks through the lobby, he is approached by each staff member he meets, who inquires about the guest's needs. In our Customer Focused Selling™ training program, sales people are taught to move "from your world to the customer's world" and "from your agenda to the customer's agenda". This hotel's staff knows how to do that!!
Second, I describe the accommodations as "plush minimalist". The rooms are smaller than we know them in the States, but still adequate and very well appointed. They are smart in design, efficient and impart a sense of richness.
The impression this writer gets is that the staff is highly motivated and that property managers lead by example and know how to supervise people. At breakfast this morning, it was a pleasure to watch the dining room manager engaging employees as he made his constant rounds of the tables.
Two lessons flow from these observations.
This is only my second trip to the Orient, Shanghai, to be specific; so, this perspective is shared by a casual business visitor, not an eastern scholar. During my first trip in 2008, my client booked our meetings at the Marriott Renassaince. Today, this is written in my room at the Courtyard Marriott Xujiahui.
While I've been mostly pleased with my stateside Marriott experiences, two aspects of their Shanghai properties impress me.
The first is the attentiveness of staff to every guest's presence and needs. When a guest walks through the lobby, he is approached by each staff member he meets, who inquires about the guest's needs. In our Customer Focused Selling™ training program, sales people are taught to move "from your world to the customer's world" and "from your agenda to the customer's agenda". This hotel's staff knows how to do that!!
Second, I describe the accommodations as "plush minimalist". The rooms are smaller than we know them in the States, but still adequate and very well appointed. They are smart in design, efficient and impart a sense of richness.
The impression this writer gets is that the staff is highly motivated and that property managers lead by example and know how to supervise people. At breakfast this morning, it was a pleasure to watch the dining room manager engaging employees as he made his constant rounds of the tables.
Two lessons flow from these observations.
- A small, well-trained and highly-motivated staff adds more value than a larger, less engaged staff; and,
- A smaller staff, operating at a higher level of performance lends itself to a minimalist, i.e. more efficient, less expensive organization design.
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