Customer Service from TA

[RedbirdFL]

I used a TA to book my recent cruise. It was someone that I hadn't worked with before but they were from an agency that my office does business with.

 

After booking the cruise, the only time I heard from her was to remind me when my final payment was due.

 

I thought that I might hear from her a few days before our cruise to wish us a good trip or a few days after the cruise to ask how things were. But, not a word from her. I would think if she wanted my business again or wanted a referral, she would have contacted me.

 

Is it normal to hear from your TA before or after your cruise, or am I expecting too much?

[Bonnie J.]

We've been on 50-60 cruises and never heard from the TA just before or after the cruise. When we talk to them, after the cruise, about booking another, they ask how the last one was. Our TA is so busy, she doesn't have time to call ALL her customers but she does email us with cruise specials.

[jmf123]

I think that a TA taking the time for the personal touch of a phone call before and after your cruise is important and good customer service. My clients were always excited to receive a Bon Voyage call (which also provided a means to remind them to bring their proof of citizenship, and check if there were any last minute questions). And they always received a Welcome Home call to see how the cruise was, which gave insight to the cruiseline's performance and the client's preferences. (As well as a mention of where they may want to sail next).

[PrincessCarolyn]

If I recall correctly we got a letter/survey type thing after our cruise....

the POST customer service could be vamped up a bit. Definitely seems they are more attentive WHILE accepting your money-then that's it!

[K&RCurt]

I think it's a hit or miss kind of thing, and from what I gather mostly miss.

 

That's why we LOVE our TA.

 

When we booked our cruise for Saturday, she listened to what we wanted, and offered several alternatives which, frankly, we would have taken her up on if this cruise wasn't for our 20th Anniversary and we wanted it "Just So".

 

She told us to book our own airfare, as we could do better than she could on price, she called the cruise line and got us discounts when the prices dropped. She even called me 2 minutes after the flights for our itenerary became available on Southwest!

 

I just got off the phone from her as she called to wish us Bon Voyage. She knew we were flying out tomorrow and she is leaving on a cruise on Saturday.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that TAs with good personalized service are out there, and if you find one stick with them!

[MCC retired]

There are 100,000 TA's in the US , a few are merely "Order Takers" as yours is.

I hope that you at least got a better price or onboard credit from that agency ?

 

I suggest that you drop this one .She appearantly does not care if you book again . Then interview your next agent as to what "Customer Service" he/she provides. There are lots of good ones out there that will

provide Customer Service as well as deals better than direct booking.

[Arwenmark]

I think you are expecting too much. Now if it were me and they did call to see how it went, I would be annoyed. But that is just me. I like people who do their job correctly and professionally then don't bug me.

[BIG_Steve]

Do your best to get me a good deal, get it right the first time, answer the phone if there's a problem. That's customer service. Who needs a phone call saying have a nice trip? Not me.

[mr green]

Any changes are reported promptly by our TA, one time we were just going out the door, when she called to inform us that our flight, and flight number had been changed.

We/I always pick up our docs from her, with wine or some other gift. Last time, and for our upcoming cruise we get a $100.00 VISA card, and we get a card before we leave, saying 'Soon', and there is always a 'Welcome Home' card waiting for us on our return.

Other perks have been free Passport photos, [once] and also Six free pics. on the ship.

 

john

[Aunty Pat]

The key words here are “agency my office does business with”. The agency I work for has both leisure and corporate agents. Our corporate agents each handle and mange the travel of a huge volume of corporate travelers every day. These road worriers are just too busy, off on their next trip to be bothered receiving welcome home messages. Much of their travel is arranged through their admins.

As a leisure agent, I always deliver a bon voyage message, but it may be included in the travel documents or email just before departure and not always as a personal phone call. I make welcome home phone call or send an email (depends on the clients preferred communication method) to the clients a few days after their return (the more personal their style in planning their trip the more personal the more personal my communications to them on their return).

Aunty Pat

 

Barefoot Windjammer - Phantom ‘81

K&D German Rhine Line ‘84

NCL - Norway ’85, Pride of America ’05, Southward ’87, Star ’97 & ‘05, Starward ’92, Sun ’02 & Windward ’93

RCC - Song of America ‘89

American Hawaiian - Independence ‘98

HAL - Volendam ’99, Noordam ’06, Oosterdam ’07 & ‘09, Statendam ’02 & ‘08, Prinsendam ’03 & ’06, & Zuiderdam ’04, ’06 & ’07, Westerdam ‘09

Carnival - Spirit ‘05

Celebrity – Summit ‘05

Cruise West - Yorktown Clipper ‘06

Princess - Golden Princess ‘07

A & K - East Queen ‘07

Cunard - QM2 ’08

Pending Cruises:

Crystal – Serenity, December 10, 2009

Oceania – Insignia, June 17, 2010

[blindrid]

To me, it doesn't happen, not needed and I'm fine with that.

 

IMHO, their job is to book and take care of the travel and I don't worry too much about anything else. If the whole thing goes off without a hitch, then their job was well done.

[Glaciers]

I agree with BS (Big Steve) & blindrid on this one. It’s nice to receive the “have a good trip” phone call but I’d rather do business with a TA who has cruised extensively and can advise on everything cruising. A TA who will watch fares and go to bat for me if there is a price reduction or push for that cabin upgrade. Also TAs who do cruise a lot or book numerous cruises for their clients can sometimes get perks that can be given to the TAs clients at their discretion. I want a TA who can tell me which excursion is better than another because they’ve actually done them.

 

I don’t want a TA who has never been on a cruise or only books a couple per year, even though they call me before and after the trip.

[Putterdude]

I find calls from our TA hit and miss, we certainly hear from him if there is price change, policy change, itinerary change and alike. But we don't hear from him before we leave or after we get back. We deal with rather large TA company that through their affiliations do provide some very sharp pricing on cruises which we take advantage of. So it is kind of the old story, "you can't expect Walmart pricing and Nordstom's service". Thanks I will take the price rather than the phone call.:D

[RedbirdFL]

I got the same price from her that I could have gotten directly from Carnival and no OBC, so, I don't feel like I got a better deal than I could have gotten on my own.

 

An email from her saying, "how was your trip and how can I help you next time?" would have been good customer service, in my book.

 

I think next time, I'll just book directly with the cruise line.

[grand isle joe]

I used a TA to book my recent cruise. It was someone that I hadn't worked with before but they were from an agency that my office does business with.

 

After booking the cruise, the only time I heard from her was to remind me when my final payment was due.

 

I thought that I might hear from her a few days before our cruise to wish us a good trip or a few days after the cruise to ask how things were. But, not a word from her. I would think if she wanted my business again or wanted a referral, she would have contacted me.

 

Is it normal to hear from your TA before or after your cruise, or am I expecting too much?

 

Wow! In this day and age it would behoove anyone to keep in contact with the customer. We use a TA from those people who also take care of your automobile and he is in constant contact especially before and after not only we get a call we also recieve a written Thank You for the business. It is easy to see why we book everything through "our" TA. My advice is to ask around and if someone recommends a TA they like and is responsive then think about switching. Hope you had a wonderful cruise.:)

[Jesscap5]

Expecting to much. If it were someone booking a cruise for you from home or a really small travel agency that doesn't get hundreds of bookings everyday then yeah I think they could handle that but not a company that is extremely busy. I don't expect to go to the store and have someone tell me to enjoy my product or when I go back into the store later they ask me how I liked it. It's not their job, especially when there are other customers to attend to.

[blindrid]

I got the same price from her that I could have gotten directly from Carnival and no OBC, so, I don't feel like I got a better deal than I could have gotten on my own.

 

An email from her saying, "how was your trip and how can I help you next time?" would have been good customer service, in my book.

 

I think next time, I'll just book directly with the cruise line.

 

I have typically gotten a better deal using a TA than booking directly but can't that can't be said every time depedning on promotions, etc. In saying that, if the price was the same I would definitely go with a TA because I would rather have them make a nickel off of me.

 

If the only reason that you use a TA is for an email, maybe booking directly is best for you. I'm not sure an email defines good service.

[2oldjoe]

Not into cruising as much as most of the members. I think TA's are like newspapers. They are being replaced by the internet.

 

My second cruise was on a small ship which I booked byself. I booked the nets cruise directly, and hope everything goes GREAT. If not, I have no one else to blame

[mgcarnut]

I had a situation that could have been disastrous, but I was proactive enough to nip it in the bud. I arranged my upcoming cruise through a TA last February, she had been very helpful in making stateroom changes (got an aft balcony - WOOHOO!) and checking for price reductions every so often. I hadn't heard anything for a couple of months, so I called her (since I am within 2 weeks of my final payment due date). Someone else answered and when I asked where the original TA was, she said "she is no longer with the Company". Of course I pressed for details and found that due to the faltering economy, she had been RIFed! The new TA checked my reservation and all was fine.

 

But I realize that if I were more scatterbrained than I am, I could have missed my final payment date. No telling whether the replacement TA would have thought to call me when the payment was imminent.

 

At this point I was happy to have used a TA for booking the cruise, she had been good at finding price reductions and finding the perfect stateroom. I was just surprised that the replacement TA had not called all her clients to inform them of the status when the original TA was laid off.

 

Cheers,

mgcarnut

[Jesscap5]

I think TA's are like newspapers. They are being replaced by the internet.

 

But a lot of agencies are now web based and not walk in. With some you can book online but they make you or prefer you to call so you can get an even better deal or find out more information.

[I_r_a]

Hi RB,

 

About 40 years ago, our TA sent us a complimentary bottle of champagne for our cruise.

 

That was the last time we got anything like that from anyone.

 

PS: The champagne was flat.

[GlendaleCruiser]

Wow, I wouldn't bother with a TA if that's all they did.

 

Ours suggested several cruises (Med) to choose from depending upon when we wanted to go and which ports. She made suggestions for stay in Rome pre-cruise. She set up tours and private drivers for trip to the ship and airport pickup. She had done the route before and told us what to expect and suggested tours based on our likes. She had a bottle of wine waiting for us in our cabin (thanks, Jean--it was great) She set up air for us and considered our starting location and flight times. She negotiated more OBC every time CCL made a change in the cruise plans.

 

She didn't have to ask us how our cruise went, we were happy to send her a thank you email as soon as we got home (to which she promptly responded that she was very happy our trip went as we'd hoped).

[spongerob]

I think you are expecting too much. Did you need interaction with a live person, or did you just make a request and have it fulfilled? You cannot expect the same sort of CRM with a web-based system as you will when their is face-to-face contact.

[ilovetinks]

I have to say that our usual TA always has called about a week before to make sure we have everything and to wish us a good trip, and on every trip there has been a bottle of wine in the room for us or a flower arrangement. For the last cruise we just booked I debated booking online to see if I could get a better price but in the end went back to our same TA and again, as usual, he's been great with getting us information and also price matching the lowest price I found online. And so from now on I will continue to book through our TA and have recommended him to others. And oh yeah, he also emails the week we get back to see how our trip was and was there anything wrong. To me it's those little things that get you more business and word of mouth goes a long way.

[YESME]

We tend to use a walk-in TA in a nearby town. The only reason being that if something goes wrong we can see someone face to face to help when we get home.

 

Our TA expects us to tell them which hotel in which place we want to stay, they expect us to know everything for example, on a cruise, all about tips,which cabin is suitable, and they never know about any offers for OBC.

 

For a while now though we have been saying we should just book direct on-line, as by the time we have researched what they want to know we have done their job bar the ringing of the company.

 

We have never had a 'bon voyage call', nor a 'welcome home how did it go', but if they had called, we had a lot of knowledge of the trip to pass on to them. This applies especially if you have taken a trip that they have never arranged before you!

 

Our TA for a upcoming trip overseas forgot to tell us that we could pre-assign our flight seats 60 days before our flight on line, as she had charged us for this. This was a cruise for 6 adults, we happen upon the info from another companys web site! When we asked about this she said she thought we would have known this!