Tell us a little bit about your career and how it started at Kempinski.
My Kempinski career started on 7 July 2016 as Secretary to Director of Sales & Marketing at Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen. I’ve been so grateful to be a part of the Sales & Marketing Department, which I believe hinted at my career path. Sales is always one of the most important areas, full of challenges and opportunities. And I became certain that this was something I wanted to be a part of.
With the support of my director and colleagues, I enriched my communication and upselling skills. In January 2018, I got my first promotion, to Assistant Sales Manager. For the next three years, I continuously broadened my social skills aligned with technical knowledge. My performance was recognised, and I was promoted to Sales Manager and then Senior Sales Manager this year.
“Since becoming a sales manager, she has maintained an excellent performance and not only gained the full trust of customers, but also developed many new businesses for the hotel and created the top revenue in the department. Meanwhile, she did not stop her learning path. She became qualified with TTTT certification after attending a TTTT course and passed the assessment successfully. She takes ownership in training and sharing her work experience with her colleagues, just as her colleagues have done before.
Now, as Senior Sales Manager of Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen, Lyan Huang is gradually realising the career plan she had when she first entered the hotel. We believe that she will definitely achieve higher achievements in the future.” – Ricky Wang, Director of Sales & Marketing Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Favourite things about your job?
Challenges and opportunities. Every day for me is another day to try my best and take opportunities to make things happen.
I really enjoy working in the Sales Department as we are a group of excellent young people who are energetic and enthusiastic with an entrepreneurial spirit. We improve ourselves, and there is friendly competition and mutual appreciation and support for each other. Everyone is trying their best to achieve the targets by meeting and exceeding guests’ expectations. My favourite team moment is our team gatherings every Thursday. These gatherings allow us to share updates, set goals and celebrate achievements with coffee, tea and cakes. You get to see the positivity and energy from everyone.
What is your favourite guest moment?
Back when I had just got promoted to Assistant Sales Manager, the CEO of a client company came to Shenzhen to take his holiday. After I talked to his secretary, I got to know that his son’s birthday was coming up in the next few days. I then communicated the information to the Front Office, Housekeeping and the Food and Beverage Team. We prepared a birthday cake and a little gift and delivered them to the guestroom on the boy’s birthday. The guests were so surprised with the arrangements we had made. I still remember the smile and cheers from the birthday boy, which gave me a sense of achievement. The more engagement we have with the guest, the better the service we are able to provide to them.