Source: Marina Mandarin Singapore

Marina Mandarin Singapore is the first hotel to use a fully integrated mobile technology to enhance Customer Experience At Their Food & Beverage Outlet. Called the 'OneGuest Mobile Solutions', it fully integrates order-taking, customer service management and real-time updates to provide customers faster service and more accurate information on their menu selection items. Service staff are also able to receive real-time updates from inventory stock level to customers' dish preferences, which allow them to better cater to their customers. The mobile solution, comprising the iPad, iPhone and a cloud-based content management system, is fully integrated with the hotel's point-of-sale system. This solution is developed in partnership with SPRING Singapore as part of Marina Mandarin's Customer-Centric Initiative (CCI), supported by Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), and initiated under the IDA Mobility Solutions Call-for-Collaboration (CFC) in collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board and Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).

With the tightening of foreign labour supply and manpower crunch, Marina Mandarin was concerned that the overall customer experience might be affected and its staff morale impacted. Leveraging SPRING's CCI, the hotel worked with the developer of OneGuest Mobile Solutions to customise the three applications (OneGuest Menu, OneGuest Manage and OneGuest Admin) and for the first time, integrate the solution with the hotel's point-of-sale and back-end systems. The process took six months to complete and the pilot programme was launched on 7 November 2012 at the hotel's Atrium Lounge where the manpower resources were most affected.

The OneGuest Mobile Solutions is aimed at improving customer satisfaction, providing more customer-centric services and increasing staff productivity.

OneGuest Menu is a digital menu that enables customers to browse and order food & beverage items on the iPads. These orders are seamlessly transmitted to the point-of-sale system in real-time which has never been done before at any food & beverage outlets in hotels in Singapore. This automated ordering system helps to promote staff productivity and increase customer convenience.

The current process of attending to customers up to the order-placing phase requires three trips: the first trip involves showing the customers to their tables, the second trip to pass the customers the menus for their perusal, and the third trip to take their orders when they are ready.

By using OneGuest Menu, the last trip is eliminated which effectively improves the process by 33%. With the time savings, staff can now take care of more tables and orders, spend quality time with customers and be re-deployed to other sections, if required. Customers can also enjoy the convenience of placing their orders, indicating their special requests via the message board and calling for service, through the OneGuest Menu. This reduces the chances of staff taking the wrong orders or keying in the wrong items into the system.

In addition, with the availability of a feedback function on the OneGuest Menu, customers are now able to input their feedback directly. This allows service staff to view the feedback immediately and respond to it on the spot, which improves customer satisfaction. The current process of getting customer feedback is through the comment cards which are collected and routed to the respective departments concerned to review manually. With this, there is a loss of opportunity to address the feedback instantly and hence, a poorer customer engagement.

OneGuest Manage simplifies the allocation of tables, allows staff to key in customers' orders which are routed to the kitchen directly and alerts staff to customer requests immediately, all done through the use of iPhones. These promote staff efficiency and increase customer satisfaction.

Using OneGuest Manage, staff can "assign" and "unassign" each iPad to a table, in order to see unoccupied and occupied tables clearly at a glance on their iPhones. With the ability to monitor every table via iPhones, all staff are aware of the status of each table. This reduces the chance of erroneously assigning new customers to an occupied table, where the existing customers might have stepped away for the moment. Each staff is also able to provide customers the status of their orders using their iPhones, without having to refer to the POS terminal. Staff are notified instantly on their iPhones when customers require service, thereby reducing the need for service staff to hover around and wait to be called upon. As this reduces customers' waiting time and increases the ease of getting service, higher customer satisfaction can be expected.

OneGuest Admin is a cloud-based content management system that allows the easy monitoring of product availability, pricings and demands, for more effective sales and marketing promotions to improve revenue. Service staff are able to view real-time reports to monitor sales, track popular menu items and its inventory, and manage customer expectations. Updating of menu items on the iPads can be done easily and instantaneously via OneGuest Admin. When compared to traditional paper menus, this increases staff efficiency and saves time and money.

"As the manpower crunch becomes critical in our industry, we are most concerned on its impact on our customers' experience and our staff's morale. By harnessing the power of the latest mobile technology, we are able to create an effective solution that addresses both concerns. Providing premium customer experiences has been the cornerstone of Marina Mandarin's Asian Hospitality credo, while taking care of our staff is the foundation of our core values. Even in challenging times, we want to make sure we do not lose sight of them" – Mr Kurt O. Wehinger, General Manager of Marina Mandarin Singapore.

The Singapore Hotel Association's executive director Ms Margaret Heng said, "We encourage innovation in our industry's efforts to address the tightening labour market. Marina Mandarin's pilot initiative to automate manual tasks will not only improve efficiency and productivity but also re-focus services to be more customer-centric."

Ms Choy Sauw Kook, Co-Chairperson of the GEMS Up Committee and SPRING's Assistant Chief Executive said, "With increased competition for guests and the tight labour conditions, hotels will have to compete on exceptional service delivery and unique value propositions to their guests to capture a greater share of the market. Through the CCI, Marina Mandarin was able to adopt more efficient, productive and innovative ways of meeting guest demands. We are very heartened that Marina Mandarin has managed to leverage technology to not only increase its productivity and enhance its guests' experience, but also to keep staff morale in check."

About Marina Mandarin Singapore, by Meritus
An acclaimed award-winning five-star luxury hotel and a proud recipient of the Luxury Business Hotel award at the World Luxury Hotel Awards 2012, Marina Mandarin Singapore was also crowned the winner of Outstanding Luxury and Outstanding Value categories at the HotelClub Hotel Awards 2011, and has won six platinum awards at the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards (HAPA) 2011.

Enjoying an excellent location in the heart of the city, the hotel offers a breathtaking view of the Marina Bay and financial district, as well as convenient access to the Marina Square Shopping Mall is minutes away from Sands Expo & Convention Center and Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Directly opposite The Esplanade, Singapore's performing arts centre, the financial and business district is only a three-minute drive away, while the journey to the airport is just 20 minutes by car. The hotel is also within walking distance to attractions such as Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Flyer, and is perfectly situated right on the trackside of the annual Singapore Grand Prix Formula One race.

Ernawati Setijo
Director of Marketing Communications
(65) 6845 1239 / 9681 1169 / 9858 8269
Marina Mandarin Singapore