Sales and Service Lessons in Shanghai

On two trips to China (Last year in Hong Kong and Macau) and this year to shanghai I have been delighted by the excellent service. Nowhere else I have traveled has the attention to detail been so high, and the willing to make your experience a great one so overwhelming!

Here are a few observations and your lessons:

1. Each night the hotel left me a different tea as my turn down service amenity. The one pictured here is a bamboo tea. Each tea had a unique story and healing property designed to promote sleep, health and or longevity and was presented in a thermos with a nice china cup and the details of the tea itself.  Sure beats the usual cheap chocolate left by hotels in North America!

Your lesson – Most hotels offer something at turn down service, and it’s generally it’s all the same. This hotel (The Jumeirah) stood out with tea – unique and different. What can you do to stand out from your competition? What are they not willing to do, that you are?

2. If you have ever traveled to a foreign country you know how frustrating taxis can be. How do you know you are going to the right place if you can’t communicate?! In China they have a solution. The hotel concierge prints directions for you in the local language and hands them to the driver. At the same time, when you leave the hotel they offer you a hotel business card with directions, address, and a phone number to present  to the driver. I always felt relaxed that I was going to get to my destination and back with no confusion.

Your Lesson – How are you making the experience of doing business with you more relaxing? How can you take the stress away from your clients? Do you communicate the next steps and lay out a plan of action or are you letting them fumble around wondering what is coming next?

3. People love to complain about poor airline service. I like to expect the best and I was rewarded with it on Air Canada this trip. Flights 075 and 088 were exceptional. Service was lovely. Food and champagne delicious. And those lay flat beds….WOW – I must have slept 7 hours each way! Just look at this appetizer and try to tell me that airline food and service has declined! Sure, my flight to Billings MT this week was not quite as glamorous but it was very good, and on time.

My point is this: I have high expectations and I expect them to be met. That being said, they almost always are. My experience is that those who expect the worst, get the worst. Likewise in sales. I ALWAYS expect to have the best year yet. I plan for it. And in 12 years of business, I have only been wrong once. What are you expecting?

Dedicated to making 2012 your best year yet,

Colleen