Providing Exceptional Experiences
Jason Stinson
General Manager of Shangri-La Hotel, Tianjin
By Evelyn Rubenstein
天津香格里拉大酒店于2014年开业,自开业以来就一直备受消费者的青睐与喜爱,长期跻身各大酒店榜单榜首。截至目前,酒店已经迎来了三位总经理。于去年11月就任的总经理史健森先生(Jason Stinson)出生于澳大利亚,在澳大利亚昆士兰科技大学取得了工商管理学位后他投身酒店行业。25年的酒店职业生涯中,史健森先生先后在澳大利亚、印度及中国多家豪华酒店担任高级管理职位,积累了丰富的从业经验,对于中国市场有自己深刻独特的认识和见解。出任天津香格里拉大酒店总经理之前,他曾担任上海静安香格里拉大酒店驻店经理一职,在任职的两年期间,为提升客人体验、发掘战略合作伙伴以及酒店业绩增长做出了很大贡献。丰富的国内外营销经验与资历帮助他在天津开拓市场,与酒店团队一同打造优质的服务体验。
天津香格里拉大酒店在本地酒店排名中一直名列前茅,这背后离不开工作人员的辛苦付出。总经理表示,优质的服务和优秀的员工是保持卓越的不变秘诀。除此外,完善的设施与优越的地理位置也使酒店锦上添花。这一切综合起来促成了完美的客户体验。为了满足客户的高标准和高要求,酒店在顾客的安全、卫生方面毫不马虎。为了使顾客享受到一流的住宿体验和服务,酒店的培训部门为员工提供了全方位的培训,确保每位员工合格上岗,带给客户更好的服务。可见,对员工的投资是酒店得以备受青睐的重要因素。
在员工的培养与发展方面,酒店依托香格里拉品牌的强大网络为员工提供了很多职业发展机会。另外,酒店也把员工像家人一般对待。农历新年期间,酒店举行了开放日,欢迎大家与自己的父母、孩子一同来到酒店,在这里就餐、游戏。 “这不仅是对同事们表示感谢,更是对那些支持我的同事们的家庭表示感谢”, 史健森说。
在营销方面,除了常见的社交媒体、固定的营销团队外,酒店内部还有一种企业文化,那就是所有的管理层都会对营销做出实际的支持。“我们会与顾客在线分享在这里发生的美好故事”,这一切都使得我们的线上形象与营销与众不同。
作为全球最大的酒店集团之一,香格里拉酒店集团从未停止创新的脚步。今年,酒店推出了全新升级版香格里拉手机应用程序,只要您是贵宾金环会会员,就可以在下载应用程序后,通过香格里拉手机应用程序预订客房并办理入住或退房手续,并获得贵宾金环会奖励积分。
对于来访天津的客人,史健森总经理非常推荐大家到临近的原英法租界区走走。沿着海河观光也是一个不错的选择,从酒店走到“天津眼”再返回来,一路你可以感受到天津深厚的文化与历史。
在与史健森总经理的交流中,我们可以感受到他对香格里拉大酒店的热情,他那凡事做到最好的行事准则,以及他谦虚的态度。他希望可以给自己的员工树立一个良好的榜样——事实上,他做到了,并且非常出色。“展望未来,我们期待着在今年8月庆祝酒店的四岁生日。”愿天津香格里拉大酒店在他与员工的共同努力下,迎来蓬勃发展的2018!
Talking with Jason, who is so passionate about Tianjin, makes us feel as though he is a local soul. From the splendid view of the top floors of Shangri-La Tianjin, walking the streets around the city and along the river, and knowing its limits through the subway, he follows the principle of doing your best to be the best. Jason is a humble person who wishes to be an appropriate role model for his colleagues. One of his greatest satisfactions is to see them succeed in their careers.
Shangri-La Hotel Tianjin has been recently ranked #1 or #2 in Tianjin market in most popular reviews websites. What is the secret behind this great performance?
The secret is great staff and excellent service. That is the foundation of success for any quality international luxury hotel experience. In addition to these elements, as part of the Tianjin Kerry Centre, we have a wonderful facility and a prime location in the city centre on the banks of the Haihe River. So, a great product, committed staff and excellent service lead to a tremendous guest experience.
You received great reviews for your personalized and great service. How do you manage social media?
The foundation is delivering excellent guest experiences from the heart. In addition we have a dedicated marketing team who formally manage social media both at the corporate and at hotel level in terms of engaging content generation, quality imagery and distribution. Within the hotel we have a culture where all our senior executives and managers actually support and are part of this process. Organizationally we have a defined approach to manage our image online wherein we respond to queries from our guest and share the wonderful products and stories with our guests and with our partners online. So, I think this hotel-wide contribution at every level helps make such a difference to our online positioning.
You have a background in sales and marketing. So, how do you plan to use your influence and manage in this direction?
I started my career in the hotel operation 25 years ago - mixing cocktails, clearing tables, carrying bags and so on. During this time I’ve had many different wonderful experiences all over the world through hotels. I spent a lot of time in sales and marketing after my operations experience and that has provided me with valuable insight as to how to create partnerships, inside and outside the hotel linking community, business and government opportunities to our Hotel. I enjoy creating win-win solutions and opportunities to promote this amazing city and the product to China and globally.
What initiatives do you take to exceed guest’s expectations?
Our guests stay with us for very different reasons. During the week, of course we’re in the middle of Tianjin, so we cater to corporate guests. The Horizon Club lounge here is a beautiful facility and it offers arguably the finest a-la-carte breakfast in the city. The Club offers an incredible perspective of destination Tianjin - where it stands now, its history and where it is heading in future.
We’ve just celebrated the Chinese New Year period so many guests visited to relax with their families, to enjoy and reconnect with themselves and their loved ones. For us, it meant providing exceptional service, like organizing a great Chinese New Year dinner overlooking the Haihe River where they could relax and rejuvenate. Providing excellent service is about understanding each guest in providing not just the basics, but finding an opportunity to go the extra mile based on what’s important for them. And that’s why our staff is important - they are there at every single touch point and make such an incredible difference to our guests. We even have guests who now choose to call us home and stay as long term Resident’s in our Shangri-La apartments.
How do you motivate your team to provide great service?
When I speak with our new colleagues I’ve discovered that training, development and growth are key motivators. So we provide career growth and opportunity, not just in the hotel here, but through this great network of our 50+ properties around China and indeed globally.
Recently we had a wonderful family day before Chinese New Year, where we invited all the colleagues families into the hotel. It was an open day where people came in with their parents and with their children. We had games, and we served them a delicious lunch. It was an opportunity for us to say thank you not just to the colleagues, but also to the families that support our colleagues who then come in to support our guests. This was an example of how our team engages with colleagues and their families in a meaningful way to show our deep appreciation of their commitment to our guests and business.
You have successfully launched flagship hotels. Can you tell us a bit about that?
In my career I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work outside of my home country, Australia. During the early 2000’s it was an incredible experience for me being in China and launching a flagship property in Shanghai. Then I moved to Mumbai, India, where I was posted for nearly four years launching a luxury hotel. And then coming back to China in 2010, again I was part of hotel openings in Shanghai.
We opened the Shangri-La Tianjin in August 2014 and are still very much on a growth trajectory. It’s a fresh and new product here and I’m proud to be the third General Manager. Moving forward, we are looking forward to celebrating our fourth birthday in August this year.
What other dining experiences do you want to further explore and what new offers and promotions would you like to announce?
On 8th of March we have a new seasonal menu launching in our award winning Cantonese restaurant Shang Palace, Chef Oliver Lai and our team are ready to welcome you the restaurant and would encourage you to also experience one of our excellent private dining room that is perfect for entertaining. Of course, it is the Women’s Day so in both restaurants, the health club and spa we’ve some very exciting promotions and offers for guests and patrons. Café Yun has a completely new buffet experience launching on the same day which is a must try!
In March we’ll continue with our monthly wine-makers dinner program at the Chef’s table in the Horizon Club. Then there is the incredible Eiffel Tower afternoon tea in our lobby lounge that has been recently launched by Executive Chef Yvan Collet, who is Parisian.
In what way do you continue to innovate without losing the Shangri-La brand’s timeless appeal?
The company started the first hotel in Singapore in 1971, 46 years ago, so we have a very rich heritage in Asia. Now we have more than 50 hotels in China and we have a global footprint that is extending around the world. The secret to the company’s success is excellent locations - we have prime city locations as we’re experiencing here in Hedong and Haihe River and service from the heart that creates a home away from home experience.
In terms of innovation, design, food & beverage concepts, wellness experiences, social media, connectivity, technology, are all elements that we continue to evolve. One recent example is the Shangri-La Mobile App which has recently launched. We are actually one of the first hotel groups to do so. From reservation to mobile check-in and mobile check-out to earning special rewards as our Golden Circle members this is an amazing technology application.
Shangri-La as a group is a global company that very much operates according to family values. These values actually are a part of the culture of every hotel that we’re in. So, as a General Manager my responsibilities are to ensure that the culture we have as an organization is, properly shared and understood and filtered through all of our layers of management and all of our colleagues.
20 years ago, wellness wasn’t necessarily the most important thing about staying in a hotel. Now as we open new hotels, as we have done in Tianjin we’ve actually created a city sanctuary. So, we created a resort-like environment with an infinity pool, and one of the largest health club facilities in the city that includes daily classes, personal trainers a tennis court, sauna and steam room.
As we host our wine-maker dinners in the Horizon club we see great interest from the city for the finer things in life; great food, amazing wines from around the world and to engage and learn from these personalities that represent these brands and experiences.
At the end of the day the foundation of our business is excellent service. When we enter the market we ensure that our product and services have an extra dimension, an extra touch, something that shows the market that we are really at the forefront of understanding our guest and providing the best service in the city that we’re in, including Tianjin.
How do you manage to meet the high standards of discerning clients?
We are part of the Shangri-La group. So as an organization we have our core values and core practices, standards that we ensure that are not compromised: quality, health, hygiene safety of our guests and colleagues.
We have our human resources and training department and within every operational area of the hotel we have designated trainers our whole management team is involved in training, coaching and guiding our colleagues. We know by investing in training that we ensure consistency of our standards and quality which means better service for the guests. We spend a lot of time not just on the basic standards, but also with our colleagues to help them understand our guests and to empower our colleagues so that when they see an opportunity they can go the extra mile for the guest.
We are training and investing in our staff, in a way that Shangri-La would do around the world. We strive to provide great guest service and value for money at the premium end of the market and this is really the foundation of what will sustain our business and how we move forward.
What attractions will you recommend to guests coming to Tianjin for a short visit?
I have been very much enjoying exploring Tianjin. I think the city has an incredible history. So many facets of this city are untold stories.
Directly across from us we have the former British Concession, and adjacent to it the French Concession. I would highly recommend a walk down Bank Street. Some of the oldest buildings in the city are here along Jienfang Road, including the Kinchen Bank, the original HSBC, the first foreign bank in the city, Banque de l'Indochine, and Church of St. Louis, one of the oldest structure in French Concession. They are all directly across the road from us built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
One of the things I can highly recommend from the hotel is the Tianjin Eye challenge. It’s actually a 10km roundtrip walk along the river front to the Tianjin Eye and back. Enroute the ancient culture street is an amazing precinct that connects you to what is unique about Tianjin. There’s local food, an incredible Daoist temple, again there’s history that is a thousand years old and more. And a new precinct I’ve discovered in my 3 months here is the incredible arts and museum precinct. Around the Tianjin Grand Theatre you’ve an incredible world class performance complex, the Tianjin Museum and the Tianjin Art Museum to enjoy.
One of the fun things about China and Tianjin is the high-speed train network. To be on a train that’s traveling more than 300km/hr. in any given direction - I think is incredible. These are all world-class experiences and something that’s highly recommended.
What aspects of your life have greatest influence in your decisions?
Well, family is the most important thing to me. I’m a family person and I’ve a wife, a 16 year old daughter and 14 year old son who have always supported me, and my career. So, I’m very fortunate to have an incredible family that supports me, that provides me a foundation that allows me to do my job.
Within Shangri-La I’ve had incredible mentors who have provided me the opportunity to grow and evolve with the company. This is my first General Manager posting after my 3-year assignment in Shanghai as the Resident Manager so I’ve been very lucky to have mentors who have provided me a path forward.
Do you live by any particular motto or mantra that you follow?
Try to look after people and do your best to be your best. Do your best to help another person.
When you’re at work, what is it that puts a smile in your face?
Happy guests. Seeing a delighted guest is the reason I’m in hotels. When I know our colleagues created a special moment and went the extra mile for another colleague or another guest, this is what makes me happy.
Thank you so much Jason for your time. We’re glad to see such a lovely hotel and get to know more about your tremendous experience and plan to make Shangri-La Hotel Tianjin the best hotel in town. Thank you!