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StumbleSIX QUESTIONS FOR JENNIFER LYNN:
The golden rule of service
Spa pampers its employees, who pass treatment on to customers
Doorman Reggie Horsford interacts with Anja Luthje, corporate director of rooms, during a training simulation at the Mandarin Oriental.
Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas
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del.icio.usCityCenter's Mandarin Oriental makes it's Las Vegas debut.
Sun Archives
- CityCenter's Mandarin Oriental making Vegas debut (12-4-2009)
- CityCenter unveils Crystals retail district (12-3-2009)
- Vdara exec predicts strong sales at new hotel (12-3-2009)
- Vdara hotel marks opening of CityCenter (12-1-2009)
Sun Coverage
Spa-industry veteran Jennifer Lynn acknowledges what out-of-towners have increasingly been complaining about: Customer service — long a Las Vegas hallmark — is suffering as financially beleaguered hotels can’t afford to pamper run-of-the-mill guests as they used to.
And it’s in this sour economic environment that Lynn was hired to raise the bar.
Lynn, who has operated spas at Bellagio and Caesars Palace, runs the spa at the elite Mandarin Oriental, which opened Friday at CityCenter.
What was different about your training for this particular job?
Managers were treated to a cultural immersion tour of Asia, including visits to Mandarin Oriental properties in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok — where I watched employees compete to see how many customer names they could remember and how much they knew about each person’s preferences.
What kind of training did you receive in Las Vegas?
We set up a training spa in an office park and did role-playing exercises with managers pretending to be customers. We learned about Mandarin Oriental culture from some of the company’s executives from other parts of the world. We trained in how to escort customers, engage them in conversation and greet them with “friendly gestures” and “appropriate” eye contact. Some cultures encourage eye contact while others, not as much.
All hotels need to keep their customers happy, especially now.
Yes, and to help, our employees will share details about their customers with co-workers across the property. If we learn in conversation that a guest doesn’t eat meat, we would tell the food and beverage department. We have technology systems in each department that collect this information and share it so that we know as much as we can about the customer when they arrive.
The training couldn’t have been all work.
True. In the last few weeks each employee cycled through some of our hotel suites and enjoyed food and drink prepared in the style of several Asian countries, and this past week my employees received makeovers and hairstyling from co-workers to test our skills — and get to know each other.
Sounds like you’re building morale, too.
At Mandarin Oriental, customer service starts with our employees. Treating our co-workers like customers makes people more invested in their workplace. As companies become more corporate, you feel anonymous and you don’t feel accountable for providing good service. We have 400 employees, not thousands. I have 50 employees. We’re like a family.
How would a spa guest be welcomed?
It’s a ritual. You’re greeted upon arrival with a welcome tea and a hot or cold towel scented with oils. Then we do a traditional shoe exchange, which is part of Asian culture and is intended to help our guests leave the outside world behind. We wash the feet of our guests and ceremoniously wrap them.
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this service has got to be pricey; were you guys banned from boulder or henderson?
I am sure they will have the best service.
They will hire (professional) worker to cater to there clients. The Asian culture is growing in Las Vegas and thats a go thing.
Good Luck Mandarin Oriental of Las Vegas.
P.S. Hope to see you soon.
Hope it works...
This should be great for all the communist party bosses and their spouses when they come to visit Las Vegas.
In China, all the commie bosses drive Mercedes Benz's, BMW's, and have stretched Lincoln Limo's when they go to the spa for the day. And they get their hind-ends kissed up one side and down the other while they're there. They should be right at home at the "Mandarin".
Gee, what a co-indidence. Isn't MGM is tight with the commies in Macau, China, too.
(I guess they have to return all the favors...)
I'm of the thought that either your employees know how to properly treat customers or they don't - it's a very basic thing, really. To be 'trained' to provide exceptional customer service? That should take about an hour and go something like this:
"Be nice to the customer and do everything you can to make their stay an exceptional experience."
'Training' over.
WizardOfOz
You do get that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group was founded in the sixties while the island of Hong Kong was still under British rule, yeah? They sprouted out of the ground during a capitalist government's rule and continue very much as they have done since. Or were you just trying to lump all Asians together as Communists? I bet some Communists enjoy staying at a Mandarin Oriental hotel, but that doesn't make it a horrible place. Much the same as me liking the Godfather trilogy doesn't liken me to Kim Jong Il or Saddam Hussein.
Nice try though.
Commies? You need to go shoot some elk up in Canada. I'm saving up to get that special experience - it's going to take a while, hope they're still in business when I get there. How much do I need?
China owns half of the US,they have bought alot of our bonds.US would sink if they would cash those bonds in. Its a new world,get use to it.
The globel trade world is here to stay and there is nothing we can do about it.
GooGooDolls - Sounds like it would be that easy... its the employees hired with NO common sense that force the training process out to like 2-4 weeks... My training for Wynn was 2 weeks and most of it was things that you might think are common sense practices but some in my class were taking notes?! (from other depts.) Thats when I realized the resorts are doing what they HAVE too...
Yes people have right to life.
VegasGM - wow, that boggles my mind. I'm confident when I say I would be a rockstar out there then...and not just on the stage! ha
mrability......
you don't like spas, you don't like hemp (apparently for smoking or for industrial uses)........
you need to relax and enjoy life(how I am not sure).....you certainly haven't experienced the wonderful things life has to offer.
GooGooDolls - you would be so surprised at some of the people these resorts hire... boggles MY mind too! I sit there in the post-hire HR room thinking to myself - wow I made it... then walks in dumb & dumber (for lack of better terms)... incredible... Im surprised the training wasn't LONGER?!
I was flabbergasted a couple years back when I went to meet some guests at the Mirage. They were staying at Treasure Island and we decided to meet there. Never having been to the Strip before they went to the bell desk at TI and asked how to get to the Mirage, what would be the fastest way. The Bell desk said to take a cab....TAKE A CAB. TI was built on the parking lot of the Mirage. There is a pedestrian walkway and a tram that connects the two properties. And this ignoramus told them to take a cab.
Service is not what you get in Las Vegas anymore, it's what happens to you.