Shenzhen operator concierge

Many Shenzhen problems are local, time-sensitive, and annoying rather than hard.

The Operator Concierge is ongoing bilingual support for people who live or work in Shenzhen and need help solving practical issues without turning every task into a half-day project. It runs as a monthly retainer (predictable, with a named operator) or as an ad-hoc day rate (for one-off projects or visitor weeks).

Who it is for

• Founders and operators in Shenzhen for 3+ months who want to spend their time on building, not on coordinating cleaners.
• Executives whose calendar is too valuable to spend on landlord WeChat threads, courier handoffs, and clinic bookings.
• Families where one parent works long hours and the other is managing the household, the kids’ schools, and the visiting in-laws.
• Returning Chinese who grew up abroad and want a Mandarin layer between them and the more bureaucratic parts of local life.
• Remote founders who fly in and out of Shenzhen and need a local presence to keep things running between visits.

What you get

A named operator (or operator team for higher tiers) reachable via WhatsApp, WeChat, or Telegram, who handles whatever your week throws up.

• Restaurant, hotel, clinic, gym, and beauty bookings, including the places that only take Chinese reservations.
• Translation: calls in real time, written WeChat threads, contracts (light translation; complex legal documents go to a translator we refer).
• Household supplier coordination: cleaners, repair contractors, AC service, pest control, water dispenser refills, appliance servicing.
• Errands: courier pickups, document collection, dry cleaning, gift sourcing, returns to local stores.
• Visitor support: airport pickups, hotel bookings, daily itineraries, bilingual operator and driver for the duration of the visit.
• Family logistics: school communications, extracurricular bookings, kids’ birthday parties, paediatrician follow-ups.
• Travel coordination: domestic flights, high-speed rail, Hong Kong runs, visas for travel (referral to agent).
• Supplier and meeting coordination: chasing factory quotes, booking supplier visits, translating quote sheets.
• First-line help when something breaks at home: we triage, get the right contractor in, and attend if needed.

How it works

Three-step onboarding, then ongoing monthly delivery.

1. Discovery call (Day 0, 45 minutes). We map your week, your household, your recurring pain points, and your priorities. You receive a tier recommendation and a written quote within 24 hours.
2. Onboarding (Day 1–7). Your named operator is introduced. We capture your contacts, your suppliers, your apartment details, your medical preferences, your dietary preferences, and your travel patterns into a private operator brief. You add us to your apartment WeChat group with whatever scope you are comfortable with.
3. Live delivery (Day 7 onwards). Requests come in on whatever channel you prefer. Routine requests are acknowledged within the hour during working hours. End-of-month report shows hours used, requests completed, and pass-through costs reconciled.

For ad-hoc day rates, the process collapses to a single 30-minute scoping call and a written brief.

Pricing

All prices in USD. Pass-through costs (taxis, purchases, supplier payments) are billed at cost with receipts.

Overage beyond your tier’s included hours is billed at US$60–100/hour depending on tier, capped at the next tier up if you exceed by more than 50%.

Sample timeline

A typical week on the Plus tier for a founder + spouse + one child.

Case studies

US founder, solo, Plus tier for 14 months

A US founder relocated for a hardware build and signed up for Light on the assumption that he would handle most of his own admin. Six weeks in, he upgraded to Plus because the calculation was simple: every hour he spent on apartment admin was an hour not spent on his build, and his build was worth substantially more than US$60/hour.

His operator handled the apartment side start to finish: landlord communication when his shower started leaking (resolved in 48 hours with photos and a contractor), monthly water and electricity payments, courier pickups for engineering samples, and translation of every contract he received from a supplier. The unlock was visitor weeks. His co-founder visited four times in 14 months, and each visit ran on rails: airport pickup, hotel booked near the supplier district, daily itineraries, restaurant bookings, and a driver on call so they could focus on the meetings.

Total spend over 14 months: about US$33,600 on retainer plus pass-through. He estimates it freed about 8 hours of his time per week, and avoided at least two apartment situations that would have cost him a full working day each.

European family of four, Executive tier for 18 months

A European executive relocated his family for an 18-month senior role at a Shenzhen-based listed company. The household had two working parents (him on-site, his wife remote), two school-age children, two visiting sets of grandparents per year, and a calendar that did not allow for half-day apartment projects.

The Executive tier ran with a named operator and a backup operator. Daily work split between the wife’s household requests (cleaner schedule, school WeChat groups, kids’ extracurriculars, paediatrician follow-ups) and the executive’s calendar (restaurant bookings for business dinners, gift sourcing for clients, airport pickups for visiting board members, last-minute travel changes). Quarterly visiting-family weeks were managed start to finish with a dedicated driver and a city itinerary.

The hardest moment was a 3am call when the family’s smart lock failed and they were locked out with a sleeping toddler. The operator was awake, on a DiDi within 4 minutes, on-site within 22 minutes with a locksmith already booked, and the family was inside their apartment within 65 minutes of the original call. That single incident, the executive said later, paid for several months of retainer.

What is NOT included

Scope is explicit so there are no surprises.

• Childcare or unsupervised time with children. We are not nannies. We coordinate childcare providers.
• Immigration filings, visa renewals, or work permit applications. Referrals to licensed agents only.
• Financial advice, tax filings, or investment activity. Referrals to licensed accountants and advisors only.
• Medical treatment, prescriptions, or pharmacy purchases on your behalf. Clinic intros and booking only.
• Legal representation, contract drafting, or signing on your behalf. Lawyer referrals only.
• Driving you or your family. We coordinate licensed drivers; we do not personally drive clients.
• Anything illegal under Chinese law. We will tell you the line and we will not cross it.

Refund policy

• Cancel any month with 14 days’ notice for the following month: no penalty.
• Within-month cancellation: no refund for hours already used or appointments already booked. Unused hours can be banked as credit against the following month if requested before month-end.
• Ad-hoc day rate cancellation more than 48 hours before: full refund.
• Ad-hoc day rate cancellation within 48 hours: 50% retained (operator and driver slots are booked).
• Pass-through costs: non-refundable once spent on your behalf; receipts always provided.
• All refunds processed within 10 business days in the original currency.

Add-ons

Next step

Book a 45-minute discovery call. Bring a rough sketch of your typical week and your top three recurring pain points. Within 24 hours you have a tier recommendation, a named operator candidate, and a proposed start date. If you are already in a difficult situation that needs immediate help, note it on the form. We can run an ad-hoc day inside 48 hours while we set up the retainer in parallel.