Post cruise surveys

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

So we’ve had an absolutely great time on our cruise. Our wait staff has been absolutely top notch as have most of the staff that we’ve encountered on our trip. 
 

My complaint is the emphasis that has been placed to these employees on the post cruise surveys and the “please mark all 10s”. We have been asked at least 10 times during our cruise by pretty much everyone that we have encountered to do this survey. I don’t blame the employees. It’s clearly been impressed upon them how important that this is to their ability to climb up the ladder. 
 

That being said, Royal Caribbean needs to tone down the value of this. It’s off putting. It’s very distasteful to force your employees to harass guests to fill out these surveys. Traditionally customer service surveys are a garbage metric. They do not represent a true “voice of the customer” but rather are filled out by people who represent an extreme point of view. It’s really disappointing that RCI puts such importance on this toward its employees. 

[DoomSlayer]

30 minutes ago, YoungFamilyExplorers said:

So we’ve had an absolutely great time on our cruise. Our wait staff has been absolutely top notch as have most of the staff that we’ve encountered on our trip. 
 

My complaint is the emphasis that has been placed to these employees on the post cruise surveys and the “please mark all 10s”. We have been asked at least 10 times during our cruise by pretty much everyone that we have encountered to do this survey. I don’t blame the employees. It’s clearly been impressed upon them how important that this is to their ability to climb up the ladder. 
 

That being said, Royal Caribbean needs to tone down the value of this. It’s off putting. It’s very distasteful to force your employees to harass guests to fill out these surveys. Traditionally customer service surveys are a garbage metric. They do not represent a true “voice of the customer” but rather are filled out by people who represent an extreme point of view. It’s really disappointing that RCI puts such importance on this toward its employees. 

I agree and I stopped participating in the surveys all together.  They are bogus when everyone puts in a "10" for everything because their waiter said they would lose their job for anything less.

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

It’s just frustrating to me that employees feel so intimidated by a company management that they feel the need to use this technique. I’m hating the game, not the player. 

[ScottD]

Its so weird...this seems to go both ways. We were never ONCE asked to fill out the surveys...one time we mentioned that we thought someone was doing a great job and appreciated them and she said cool, make sure you fill out the survey and point that out. But that was it...never asked us to make it a 10 and no one else ever mentioned the survey to us. 

[Southern Waters]

15 minutes ago, ScottD said:

Its so weird...this seems to go both ways. We were never ONCE asked to fill out the surveys...one time we mentioned that we thought someone was doing a great job and appreciated them and she said cool, make sure you fill out the survey and point that out. But that was it...never asked us to make it a 10 and no one else ever mentioned the survey to us. 

This has been my experience on the 2 cruises I've taken.   I was never asked by any staff about filling out the survey.  I've been fortunate to have excellent service and tipped our wait staff and cabin attendant extra $ and made sure to mention them by name in the surveys (I take their picture, paying special attention that their name tag is readable).

[FoxboroCruiser]

On the last night of our Empress cruise in 2019 near the end of diner in the MDR there was a 5 minute speech given (microphone in hand) about giving all 10’s. I was stunned how far he went. On Anthem last year, I never heard it mentioned. 

I know from my day job that surveys can be great tools, but not when the audience is manipulated into falsely reporting their thoughts and experiences. It’s disappointing that RC would allow that to happen.

[smokeybandit]

2 cruises ago I got asked just about every night for all 10s.

Last cruise the waiter never mentioned it.

[jbrinkm]

27 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

2 cruises ago I got asked just about every night for all 10s.

Last cruise the waiter never mentioned it.

This was almost my exact experience as well! We were on Allure last year in the Spring and again this year. Last year, almost every night at dinner we were asked, and specifically for 10s. This year, our wait staff asked us just to please do the survey and if we enjoyed the service, to rate them highly (never mentioned 10s) ONE night towards the end of the cruise. We loved our wait staff and would absolutely have done it anyway, but it was really nice to not be harassed about it while trying to eat!

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

Weird. Very inconsistent experiences. We were lectured on a daily basis about the “give us all 10s”. 
 

We also had a server who disappointed us at Giovanni’s try to reason out to us why his disappointment should not be reflected by a score lower than 10 on the survey…twice during the meal. It was a lecture by him that he felt the need to interrupt our meal to give us!!

[FloatyBoaty]

I got to the point last cruise that I tried to just politely interrupt them and put us both out of our misery. I said "this is my 6th cruise in the last 12 months. I am very aware of the survey, I take notes throughout the cruise, and will absolutely fill it out. Please, let's just leave it at that." and they stopped. This is absolutely the most awkward part of every cruise. I am all for giving people credit where due, but I HATE the repeated references to the survey. And - I am DONE giving scores that are undeserved - the food was NOT a 10, the MDR service was NOT a 10 (first contract for my waiter, and he was sweet and he was trying, but absolutely not proficient and experienced as yet), but so many other aspects of the cruise were 10+++++.

[smokeybandit]

37 minutes ago, FloatyBoaty said:

This is absolutely the most awkward part of every cruise

[ChessE4]

There is a question on the survey about this, as veteran cruises know.  If you are asked for 10s, you are supposed to answer "yes" when that survey question pops up.  Even Matt has addressed this point.  We are usually reminded that the survey is important, but we aren't asked for 10s.  Last time that came up was several years ago.

[CruiseGus]

33 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:

There is a question on the survey about this, as veteran cruises know.  If you are asked for 10s, you are supposed to answer "yes" when that survey question pops up.  Even Matt has addressed this point.  We are usually reminded that the survey is important, but we aren't asked for 10s.  Last time that came up was several years ago.

Correct, I belive that Management does not want them to ask / beg for 10's.  The reason the survey ask who did that by position

Reminders to complete the survey is acceptable 

[DoomSlayer]

1 hour ago, ChessE4 said:

There is a question on the survey about this, as veteran cruises know.  If you are asked for 10s, you are supposed to answer "yes" when that survey question pops up.  Even Matt has addressed this point.  We are usually reminded that the survey is important, but we aren't asked for 10s.  Last time that came up was several years ago.

I get asked specifically for 10 ratings all the time, especially from the MDR wait staff, and half the time they tell me their job depends on it. This is why I stopped doing surveys with them as I believe they are meaningless — everyone feels sorry for them and gives them 10s. If I have a bad experience, I will let them know about it outside of the survey.  Surveys are not important if everyone keeps feeling pressure to give artificially high ratings. There is only one question that matters to upper C-level management in most companies — the net promoter score question (“How likely are you to recommend us to friends and family.”). All other questions, management doesn’t really look at.

[Jill]

58 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

I get asked specifically for 10 ratings all the time, especially from the MDR wait staff, and half the time they tell me their job depends on it. This is why I stopped doing surveys with them as I believe they are meaningless — everyone feels sorry for them and gives them 10s. If I have a bad experience, I will let them know about it outside of the survey.  Surveys are not important if everyone keeps feeling pressure to give artificially high ratings. There is only one question that matters to upper C-level management in most companies — the net promoter score question (“How likely are you to recommend us to friends and family.”). All other questions, management doesn’t really look at.

Not true. A friend of mine was a hotel director for Royal for 20 years. The captain and senior officers (of which hotel director is) go over every single survey answer. 

[twangster]

The surveys are not anonymous either.  They know who answered the survey.  

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

The fact that there were many different people who performed many different duties on the ship who all used the same verbiage with us “please give us all 10s” tell me that this isn’t an organic ask from each of them but rather coaching from management. 
 

Regardless of what was told before to the crew about emphasizing the importance of the survey, it’s now apparent that the directive from management had now changed to tell cruisers specifically what they should write in. 
 

Again, very distasteful from the management to push this directive. 

[smokeybandit]

I've never had any crew member other than the MDR waiter give me the "give us 10s!" speech

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

We heard it in:

- MDR (from head waiter, not our waiter or assistant)

- Multiple staff at Windjammers (including the balloon guy)

- Giovanni’s (from manager and waiter, who then proceeded to give us a 5 min speech about why he wasn’t responsible for poor service….in fact there were two speeches by him)

-MDR person who was on the loud speaker 

- Cruise director

 

[Peter D]

18 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I've never had any crew member other than the MDR waiter give me the "give us 10s!" speech

It is peculiar how it is always dining room staff that mentions the survey and asks for 10s.  On Voyager in March,  I answered the question 'did anyone ask?' as yes for the first time ever.  The head waiter did so over the announcement during 'dance' night.  Maybe its a way that dining is trying to get 'disqualified' from the survey results.  If there is a top tier event Q&A opportunity, it would be interesting to probe about this question and the survey.

  

 

[DoomSlayer]

56 minutes ago, YoungFamilyExplorers said:

We heard it in:

- MDR (from head waiter, not our waiter or assistant)

- Multiple staff at Windjammers (including the balloon guy)

- Giovanni’s (from manager and waiter, who then proceeded to give us a 5 min speech about why he wasn’t responsible for poor service….in fact there were two speeches by him)

-MDR person who was on the loud speaker 

- Cruise director

 

This has been my experience too lately.  Anywhere from the MDR, bar tenders, and even the excursion desk guy told me to identify him as someone who provided good service to me in the survey. 

[DoomSlayer]

5 hours ago, Jill said:

Not true. A friend of mine was a hotel director for Royal for 20 years. The captain and senior officers (of which hotel director is) go over every single survey answer. 

What's not true?  The captain and officers / hotel directors are not C-Level executives or on the board of directors.  The survey is first and foremost a marketing tool so they can publish and boast about how great their service is and gain relative market share.  This is evident in how the staff has been coached into asking passengers to give them 10 ratings.  When high level officials like cruise directors and the maître d' are insisting on 10 level ratings something is wrong.  How many times have you herd your waiter tell you that the dining room rating for him/her has nothing to do with your complete experience there and that if you had a lousy meal it was not his/her fault, it was the kitchens, and you should still give a 10 rating and just make a note in the comments.  This is shady and unacceptable and makes the survey results incorrectly skewed higher.

At the end of the day, I like Royal Caribbean in general (I keep sailing with them and have 3 cruises booked to finish out this year), but I will not play their survey games.

[Villageidiot]

This wasn't my experience on Oasis in February. Crew members would mention the survey but never asked for "10's". We praised our waiter and her assistant to the head waiter. He told my wife to fill out the survey and give them a good rating if we liked their service. He never mentioned giving them 10's. Leaving in a week for a TA on Explorer and hoping we aren't hit with these requests.

[WAAAYTOOO]

For the most part, it seem that “begging for 10s” has subsided.  Now we are mostly just asked to complete the survey.  I guess they assume, by now, that we all know that they want “10s”.  I’m beginning to feel like @DoomSlayer though….and may soon abandon filling out the survey entirely unless I have something super negative to report which nearly never happens.

[Neesa]

Outside the box here, please don't hate on me 

I was wondering about the " like clockwork survey" after every sailing in a different way. They pretty much know their product and are happy with it, that's why we keep returning, right?  Maybe they are "providing" an outlet as well with this tool for any complaints, negative experiences or personal perception misunderstandings. This way when you have left the ship and the experience is fresh in your mind....wow, here's an outlet, let me tell them how frustrated I am, etc. The survey comes hours after you step off the ship when you are still all emotions tied to the sailing. If you get it out right away, even in the form of other then 10 scoring it provides the "relief" of having unburdened yourself, leaving you less likely to continue expressing the product negativity with other outlets and as well. Allows you an avenue to feel "heard". "Well they care, so I will surely sail them again in the future" 

As I'm sailing only since 2016 it seems little positive changes for the customers anymore, just cost savings measures couched as "we are doing something wonderful for your experience" I understand this, any company is in business to provide a product for a profit, but does anyone see any positive or constructive change from any of the feedback, I'm not sure. Maybe ? I think it has become less to do with the content and more to do with the action. How do we keep those repeat customers sailing? 

The team members of the Ship are sort of a casualty of getting caught up in this cycle. 

[YoungFamilyExplorers]

I'd definitely not bashing the utility for a survey or an outlet to make improvements. My complaint is about the harassment that the staff feels that they need to make towards guests and telling them that they need "all 10s". Its awkward and very unpalatable.

 

If RCI is concerned that some people may think that a 1 means the best, rather than the worst in the rating (which I could see), then give passive instructions about the survey and its importance to the company. I'd be fine with a single one sheet included in my departure instructions on the day before disembarkation day.

 

But the current strategy of active harassment by employees is doing the exact opposite of its intended effect for me. I would much rather have the staff focus on the quality of the job that they do rather than making their primary job seeking 10s.

[jeffmw]

We just got off Wonder and didn't hear anything about providing all 10s. I've heard it before on Royal and other cruise lines, but in the 3 Royal cruises we've been on over the past year+, I don't think we've gotten it once. Might depend on the boat, the specific servers, etc. 

This "nothing but a perfect score is acceptable" concept is not limited to Royal. For some reason it's something the customer service and hospitality industry feels is a good methodology. I'm sure there's industry research supporting it. But it does seem ridiculous and provide no ability to allow for context or middle-ground. I don't get it, but it's the way things are done.

To those of you who say you're going to be honest and rate what you think, I see your point. But I also would ask you if you think that someone ought to be punished for being rated a 9 out of 10. If I feel someone deserves a 5, I'm likely not going to give them a 10 to save their face. But if I think someone deserves an 8 or 9, I assume that means I thought they were pretty good and I don't feel they should be admonished for their performance. And, in those instances, I'll just give the to compensate for the unfair system. 

[CanHardlyWait]

How about giving things and people the score they deserve. Leave feelings and guilt aside and just be honest.

[PL8SWPR]

Last cruise we were on (Mariner in Jan) nobody even uttered the word survey to us.  We ate every night in the MDR and once there for lunch.

[DoomSlayer]

I wanted to follow up on this thread with my most recent experience.  Previously, I had mentioned I was aggressively hounded and begged by the staff on Adventure for 10 ratings for my last two sailings on the ship in December 2022 and March 2023.  So much so, that I gave up and refused to do the survey because something just did not sit well with me on this aggressiveness.  Many said they had not experienced this, and a few expressed thoughts that it may be ship specific.

I just returned yesterday from 7 nights on Allure.  We had a wonderful time and I was very thankful that the service staff did not hound me for "10" ratings and only mentioned the survey as a place I should share my thoughts on my experiences, which I feel is appropriate.  I will defiantly be completing the survey this time around.

I am curious of anyone else's experiences on Adventure lately.  Are they still aggressively seeking 10's there?  I am beginning to think this may be a management problem on the ship itself as it is becoming obvious to me it is not fleet wide.

[Geezer Of The Seas]

Our experience with "Tenscapades"

Mariner, Feb. 2022. Crickets on the subject. About 40% occupancy, probably tickled that many passengers sailed. We sailed in a grand suite, not knowing if we would be repeat offenders. The suite concierge' was the bomb, we even gave a shout out to the ship captain. We loved his subtle humor during daily announcement. Every crew member we interacted with were just wonderful. Why we canceled a reservation with a competitor and sailed on...............

Jewel, Nov. 2022: Various and clever ways the crew went about solicitation of '10'. Dining room waiter and assistant preached the importance. Wasn't necessary, their service was outstanding. We mentioned them by name in the post cruise survey.  Several trips to guest services and the excursion desk netted us business cards with crew names on them. Novel approach, didn't think it was needed because again, we remembered them and named names post cruise, which leads us to..........

Wonder Apr. 2023: Another cancelation and rebook to a Royal ship (see a pattern here?) 100% plus capacity, 363 short of absolutely full. Hectic & frenetic and hard on the crew it appeared in some venues. We admire them all, and named 6 that stood out, way out. We didn't visit the MDR at all by design. This was a 'zombie' cruise for us. Paralysis by alcohol and absolutely chilled out. Day 4 at 830 am, we received a call from the MDR head waiter. "I see you have not joined us at all, why?" I explained and apologized for not notifying the staff we wouldn't be eating there for the entire cruise. He said he understood and added" when you receive your post cruise survey please give us a 10???????"

The MDR received an 'N/A' when we completed our surveys. We ain't lyin' ................

[Peter D]

I just finished my post cruise survey for 10 night Odyssey of the Seas Greek Isles cruise.  The dining room staff did mention the importance of the survey, and may have dropped the 10 request, not 100% sure.  What is interesting is that the survey did not ask about it.  Has anyone else seen that the question was eliminated all together?

 

[Td6462]

On 4/16/2023 at 5:18 PM, twangster said:

The surveys are not anonymous either.  They know who answered the survey.  

Absolutely true! We had a B2B on Voyager Nov 22' with a bad dining room experience many days the first week (resolved by the Maitre'd and he then checked in with us each evening). On day 3 of the second week he pulled me aside after dinner and asked me to please complete the survey from the previous week as he had not received mine, and before the end of the evening if at all possible. He said he was personally responsible for reviewing the dining surveys each week and used the scores to evaluate servers and kitchen performance. Each week the stations are assigned based on scores. The scores are also used to identify the servers that need "re training", demotion or silverware rolling.

[CanHardlyWait]

Nothing received a 10 in my survey. I think there is always room for improvement. 

A 10 should be because it's 100% deserved. Not because it's asked for. 

I view it as a time to be constructive and point out where there is room for improvement. 

Not a place that's about guilt because someone asked for perfect score. 

Why would Royal try harder if everything always is a 10?

Just how I see it. 

[Jack805]

My recent experiences have been that the staff have asked me how things have been on the trip so far (service, etc.) and if I've had any issues that I haven't brought up, and only after I share my candid thoughts in the moment they remind me about the survey and to make sure I share my thoughts there as well. 

I did also learn on my last sailing from multiple crew members that (at least on that ship) the ship management posts the results and updates them daily after a sailing, and the crew said they enjoyed seeing the results of their service in writing like that. That may vary by ship, but it was an aspect I never considered.

I usually answer the survey, and mention my actual experiences and include names as appropriate. But also do not hesitate to mention any problems that occur early on so they can be addressed instead of just complaining at the end when never giving the crew an opportunity to make an improvement on a situation they may not have knowledge about at the time.