#31 - Chinese service – almost perfect

My first trip to China was a company training course in Beijing. We had a group of Finns travelling on the same flight overnight. Once arriving early in the morning to the airport, our group gathered to the lobby in order to wait for our guide. Because we were asked to leave our luggage to the lobby, we did a big pile of suitcases in the middle of the lobby and headed to our bus. While walking to the bus we were joking about the last time we saw the luggage.

Soon we arrived to Swissotel Beijing. Since the program was starting on the afternoon, I decided to take a nap in my room. I woke up in the middle of my nap while the suitcase was brought to my room. What a perfect service, I thought.

The training days went fluently. I learned the basics of Chinese business, as well as Chinese culture. I still remember that Beijing duck tasted good and Chinese acrobats were very talented.

Beijing duck

Chinese service made a deep impact to me. The suitcase episode was just the beginning. During the week I was hardly opening any doors myself, because there was always someone doing it for me. The most extreme service was on toilet, where the servant was wiping and cleaning all over me while I was trying to have my peaceful personal moment. During that week I got used to the level of service. I was already wondering, what is the life without such a service when getting back to home.

The time was flying and it was time to return back to home. We had again a pre-arranged bus drive to the airport. As usual, I was very punctual last minute person to check out my hotel room. Everyone else was already queuing at the lobby when I arrived. I really tried to keep my suitcase with me while checking out, but the hotel piccolo insisted me to put it on the nice row of all the suitcases in the middle of the lobby. What a nice service again, I thought. Finally I had my check-out done and everyone else was already out of the lobby. I needed to walk straight to the bus.

At the airport, everyone else found their suitcase from the trunk of the buss, except me. My suitcase was not there. I started to make a poll, which revealed to me that my colleagues had carried their own suitcases from the hotel lobby to the buss. I had not done that, because I thought that Chinese hospitality will take care of that. I was very worry. What is going to happen to my luggage? Am I going to lose all that silk I bought to my wife? My head was full of all kind of scary thoughts. There was not enough time to pick up the suitcase, not enough time to wait someone bringing it to me.

Then I realized that one of my colleagues; Mr. K. was going to stay the weekend in China. I called him and he answered the call at the Great Wall. Don’t worry, he said.

Beijing airport

Two days later I got a call from Tampere airport. I needed to pick up the suitcase myself. No Chinese service level anymore, but I was happy anyway. Mr. K. had really made a big effort to get my suitcase routed to Tampere while he was personally flying to Oulu. Only the most talented spokesperson with Finnair Platinum card could do it.

Lessons learnt:

We should learn from Chinese service.

Success depends heavily on your personal network.

Dangerous way to get down from the Great Wall.
Risk is unknown term over there.