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Survey at end of cruise


Yo2slick

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1 minute ago, Yo2slick said:

Does Royal actually pay attention to comments left on the survey after your cruise?  Has anyone gotten a response from a comment left on the survey?

The only time I have ever gotten a response from Customer Relations regarding a post-cruise survey was last year when we went on our B2B Star Class cruises.  I had  a few issues and they did contact me.  Twice, as a matter of fact.  Do I feel like they have done anything to address my concerns ?  Nope.

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Just now, WAAAYTOOO said:

The only time I have ever gotten a response from Customer Relations regarding a post-cruise survey was last year when we went on our B2B Star Class cruises.  I had  a few issues and they did contact me.  Twice, as a matter of fact.  Do I feel like they have done anything to address my concerns ?  Nope.

I was just wondering, we had an issue with a lifeguard on our cruise and I mentioned it in the survey but didn't know if we would hear back or not.  

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16 hours ago, Yo2slick said:

Does Royal actually pay attention to comments left on the survey after your cruise?  Has anyone gotten a response from a comment left on the survey?

I would say the post-cruise surveys are the single most effective tool at effecting change in RC.  The cruise line seems to hold these surveys in the highest regard, when it comes to guest feedback.

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My assistant waiter on my last cruise said that if they are rated below 9 from 3 different people on a single sailing they can lose their job or be demoted.  I dont know if this was a scare tactic but as much as they ask their employees NOT to ask for ratings it still happens quite a bit. 

 

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1 minute ago, marti314 said:

My assistant waiter on my last cruise said that if they are rated below 9 from 3 different people on a single sailing they can lose their job or be demoted.

I don’t doubt that they believe this to be true but if IS true then Royal needs a new ratings strategy. Many people (myself included) rarely give a “perfect” score to anyone...b/c where do you go [up] from there ?  That’s one reason I really dislike these kinds of surveys. If everyone is perfect (and NObody is) then there’s no need to ask and the surveys are a waste of time and resources.

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4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Many people (myself included) rarely give a “perfect” score to anyone...b/c where do you go [up] from there ?

This is exactly why I RARELY give 10's on ANY online surveys. No matter how good a product or service is, I say there is always room for improvement. It's not that I'm hard to please, it's just fact.

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I have a friend who was the head of merchandising/shops on Disney Cruise Line. She said comments ended up being filtered to each department. She would reward her crew with a day off if they were specifically recognized for going above and beyond. Not sure if it works the same on Royal where comments are filtered to respective departments.

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2 hours ago, Matt said:

I would say the post-cruise surveys are the single most effective tool at effecting change in RC.  The cruise line seems to hold these surveys in the highest regard, when it comes to guest feedback.

If this is true, why have we never been contacted when we gave a less-than-stellar rating with a comment about why we did so? If the feedback is important, they would seek additional information about the situation.

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I don’t doubt that they believe this to be true but if IS true then Royal needs a new ratings strategy. Many people (myself included) rarely give a “perfect” score to anyone...b/c where do you go [up] from there ?  That’s one reason I really dislike these kinds of surveys. If everyone is perfect (and NObody is) then there’s no need to ask and the surveys are a waste of time and resources.

100% agreement on this. I default to a 7 out of 10 if you do what I expect. If the survey had 100 questions, it would be (pleasantly) surprising for me to give as many as 10 of them a 9 or higher.

My favorite thing to do with online surveys that ask a range of "highly satisfied" to "highly dissatisfied" is to answer the follow up question "Please tell us why you were not highly satisfied" with the following:

     You should be happy with a rating of satisfied. That means you have done at least what is expected. This is the real world, not an "everybody gets a trophy" utopia. A rating of highly satisfied requires something special - which may become my new expectation - and chances are very good that your next rating will be neutral at best because you won't be able to meet that higher level of expectation.

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I don’t doubt that they believe this to be true but if IS true then Royal needs a new ratings strategy. Many people (myself included) rarely give a “perfect” score to anyone...b/c where do you go [up] from there ?  That’s one reason I really dislike these kinds of surveys. If everyone is perfect (and NObody is) then there’s no need to ask and the surveys are a waste of time and resources.

That would be a great comment to put on a survey. I think that it would be impossible to respond to them, but they can get a global impression of how things are going by processing the responses.

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I just give them 10s.  Don't want anybody lose their jobs or contract non-renewed.  If it came to something that was warranted for termination/discipline, I feel that is best dealt with onboard with the position manager.  Royal is usually very good at resolving issues while onboard. 

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1 hour ago, Rose City Cruiser said:

I just give them 10s.  Don't want anybody lose their jobs or contract non-renewed.  If it came to something that was warranted for termination/discipline, I feel that is best dealt with onboard with the position manager.  Royal is usually very good at resolving issues while onboard. 

If that's the way you approach the survey, it would be better to just skip it. Rating all 10s doesn't do anything to improve the areas that can be improved.

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I approach surveys like I do the yearly appraisals I do on people who work directly for me.....there should be no surprises.  I'm not going to wait to address inappropriate behaviors.

If I have a problem with an employee during my cruise, I'm not waiting until it's over to address it.  Problems are best corrected in the moment

If I feel the problem is systemic, then I may relate that info on a survey (depending on the response I get on site), but otherwise I'm not going to play the corporate game of "anything less than a 10 is a fail".  I've experienced that mindset enough in my career over the years as my small regional company was slowly taken over by an international conglomerate.  It's not fair to employees.

Royal Caribbean employees are judged based on this pass/fail system....sure as customers we get the illusion of multiple choice...but the reality is, the employees don't.  If someone I interacted with was doing their job correctly, then in my mind, they passed.  If they did extra credit work, then I will reward that with a cash tip and special mention.  

Disclaimer:  I've worked retail since November 1983.  I may be slightly biased.  ?

 

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6 hours ago, marti314 said:

My assistant waiter on my last cruise said that if they are rated below 9 from 3 different people on a single sailing they can lose their job or be demoted.  I dont know if this was a scare tactic but as much as they ask their employees NOT to ask for ratings it still happens quite a bit. 

 

If that is truly the case, then I have cost more than a couple people their jobs. Rarely do I rate anything on the survey above a 6 or 7

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1 hour ago, HeWhoWaits said:

If that's the way you approach the survey, it would be better to just skip it. Rating all 10s doesn't do anything to improve the areas that can be improved.

I understand what you are saying.  If the survey was to actually improve I would be a bit more critical.  But the questions in the survey are very vague.  You can tell it is basically a pass/fail test for the employees.  It is the same type of surveys sent after you make a call to your cell phone provider.   

I still input any areas of improvements in the appropriate sections of the survey.  Any corrective action is best dealt while on the cruise with the employee and if necessary, escalate to the manager. 

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  • 1 year later...

I'm on the Allure right now.  I got the 3-Night Dining Package and my experience with all three dinners (Chops, Samba, and Izumi) was satisfactory, nothing extraordinary, but satisfactory.  What has been a constant source of annoyance for me is the waiters at each of these venues not only asking me to take the survey but to give them a score of 10 at said survey.  I came very close to getting in touch with "the powers that be" to complain about such practice.  I could have tolerated the nudge to take the survey but them asking for a score of 10 just left a bad taste in my mouth.  (Too bad I don't eat desserts on Keto to help with that ha ha)

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14 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

I'm on the Allure right now.  I got the 3-Night Dining Package and my experience with all three dinners (Chops, Samba, and Izumi) was satisfactory, nothing extraordinary, but satisfactory.  What has been a constant source of annoyance for me is the waiters at each of these venues not only asking me to take the survey but to give them a score of 10 at said survey.  I came very close to getting in touch with "the powers that be" to complain about such practice.  I could have tolerated the nudge to take the survey but them asking for a score of 10 just left a bad taste in my mouth.  (Too bad I don't eat desserts on Keto to help with that ha ha)

The survey has always asked whether anyone has discussed the survey with you so you will have a chance to name them - I agree that it gets a little old.

As someone who works retail and is subject to these types of surveys, I am sympathetic to what I see as a poor scoring system.  If you are asking for a number between 1 and 10, then in my mind anything above a 5 should be an ok score.  7 should mean that you had a good experience, and 10's would mean that you had a great experience - which is rare in my opinion.  

Having said that, I can understand the frustration for the cruise employees that are being told that only 10's are acceptable.  It makes them try to explain to guests what the actual scoring system is, so that they can try to at least get some guests to go along.  The fault, in my opinion, is with the cruise line for setting up an unreasonable scoring system.

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I agree with the scoring system being a little off kilter.  However, on my recent cruise, I was happy to rate most every employee I came into contact with a 10.  They were, almost without exception, outstanding!  The one exception, and this was a biggy, was the suite concierge.  I have traveled in Sky Class before and have routinely had excellent service from the suite concierges I have encountered.  The suite lounge on Ovation was usually empty, or almost empty; even so, we did not have confidence that the concierge understood or acted upon our simple requests-such as the luggage valet forms.  She had no idea what to do with them.  By day 4, we either just figured things out on our own or went to guest services if necessary.  I did not rate her very highly.  We would have complained while on board, but did not know who to complain to.  The CK staff was aware of the issue because after day 3, they realized that we thought we had dinner reservations each night (we had an email confirming this pre-cruise from the concierge) while they had no record of the reservations.  

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When we were on the first sailing out of Nassau this past June as previously voiced we were pretty much the last people on the ship due to Bahamas Air doing their best to inconvenience every cruiser on that flight, we had the early dinner seating. In anticipation of this before leaving home I contacted Dudley our concierge and asked him to let the dining team know the first night we would be late, could we have dinner at the late seating on evening one.  He emailed me back and said it was all taken care of, perfect! 

Well night two we show up at our normal time and our main server was angry, I was shocked it was the first sailing back. Apparently she had asked for another early table the evening before and now we were three on top of that added two, she made me show here our printed time on our sea pass card and told us we needed to stay late, I explained it was only for one night and asked the head waiter to confirm, which he did. 

She always made us wait at least 15 minutes for any initial even EYE CONTACT and was very passive aggressive. The only time she showed any warmth was around the day they spoke about the after cruise survey. She rushed us, had zero patients and never ever offered a suggestion, just stood by the table pen in hand asking for our order. (No I didn't complain at first because I thought maybe it was me, then after about evening three when I realized it wasn't I was afraid to say anything as they delivered the food.) To top off this nightly less then enjoyable experience she had body odor that got worse as the week went on. 

My daughter had the scarlet unvax band on also being 15, so the communication was from very far away, we did feel like lepers from this team. (we tested at check in all negative plus my daughter needed a negative brain tease PCR to board so "fear" is a convenient excuse if that was their distance reasoning)

We finally skipped our last night for Johnny Rockets as the Wind Jammer wasn't open for dinner. I explained this in the survey & never heard a word back, I think they use the post cruise surveys for kudos and pats on the back not for any tool effecting change, no way. If so they would have reached out to speak with me. I was articulate and non emotional, they use the surveys as a tool to keep the crew on their toes in my humble opinion. 

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On 9/11/2019 at 9:45 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

I don’t doubt that they believe this to be true but if IS true then Royal needs a new ratings strategy. Many people (myself included) rarely give a “perfect” score to anyone...b/c where do you go [up] from there ?  That’s one reason I really dislike these kinds of surveys. If everyone is perfect (and NObody is) then there’s no need to ask and the surveys are a waste of time and resources.


‘Knowing people who work for cruise lines, including Royal, I can tell you with certainty that it’s just like the survey they make a big deal about getting all perfect scores on when you buy a car …….. anything other than the highest score possible for anything to do with employees is considered by Royal (and the other lines) to be the same thing as them getting a Zero.  

 

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I think everyone can agree it’s a crappy system.   As a person who has worked in customer service for over three decades, I’m a very glad my company doesn’t function this way.
 

There are definitely things that need to be addressed and instances where employees should be disciplined, but giving customers 100% of the power, 100% of time has always been difficult to sell to me. 

I am aware that bad interactions happen due to the fault of a crew member, but my biases lead me to see a-hole guests and think about how I would act in the same situation.  Honestly, I don’t know how the crew does it, and after every cruise I feel the need to up my customer service level at my job  

All that being said, it’s my personal opinion that the pandemic has changed the customer service experience for both customers and employees, and not necessarily for the better.


There’s no way I could be a “10” at work all the time.  It’s tough being human. 

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3 minutes ago, KLA said:

Especially when you live and sleep at work, away from family. 

I can’t even fathom being away from my family like that. 
 

Our MDR waiter runs the Cafe Promenade at 530 am, and being an early riser, I’ve had the chance to get to know him. His daughter just turned one…he’s been on the ship since April.  
 

I had a hard time being away from our kids for a long weekend. 
 

It reminds me of being on deployments with guys who were husbands and fathers. 😞

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