The golden rule of service

By Liz Benston

Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.

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.