Silversea Customer Service Attitude

[Mike2131]

Our TA received our docs for the upcoming 6/22 PAII RT of Spitzbergen and delivered them to me Thursday. Beautiful burgundy red doc holders with Silversea stitched in silver gray and each in its individual box. On reviewing them over the weekend, we noticed mine had 2 luggage tags (in matching burgundy red) but my DGF's had only one. I emailed our TA and she contacted Silversea. The response was that it was impossible that the holder had only one luggage tag instead of two, but they were sending another. I asked her to inform them that the impossible seemed to have occured. Do they think we were fibbing to get another luggage tag? Talk about lack of good client relations both with our TA and us!

 

We are thrilled to be taking this cruise and I can only hope this attitude is not reflected onboard.

[Host Dan]

Don't worry, the attitude from the customer "service" reps land based are a far cry to the service on the ships.. (I've seen this across the luxe line board) Glad you will be receiving the awol luggage tag!

 

Host Dan

[Mike2131]

Don't worry, the attitude from the customer "service" reps land based are a far cry to the service on the ships.. (I've seen this across the luxe line board) Glad you will be receiving the awol luggage tag!

 

Host Dan

Everything we have heard would indicte we are in for a wonderful service experience. It is a shame one Customer Service rep can do such a poor job of setting expectations. I guess I tend to be a tough critic since I am the Client Relations Manager for my company.

[Pangoulis]

My wife and I, have just returned from Silver Shadow Alaska and can assure you that Customer Service onboard is some of the best I have ever experienced. Nothing was ever too much trouble, but more importantly the on board staff were genuine and not robotic in their application of service.

[Mike2131]

My wife and I, have just returned from Silver Shadow Alaska and can assure you that Customer Service onboard is some of the best I have ever experienced. Nothing was ever too much trouble, but more importantly the on board staff were genuine and not robotic in their application of service.

Thank you for the info. Nothing is a better guage than hearing first-hand experiences. I hope you enjoyed Alaska - it is one of our favorite destinations.

[loulani]

Michael, I can appreciate what you are saying. My husband and I have had a not so good experience with Silversea customer "care" agents. Kind of made us wonder if this attitude was the same on board. We are very glad to hear, from the other posts, that this is not carried through to the staff. We're really looking forward to our cruise this Saturday on the new Spirit.

[duct tape]

I am dying to comment...IT'S LUGGAGE TAGS...but I won't.

[billcrooz]

I am dying to comment...IT'S LUGGAGE TAGS...but I won't.

 

the SHOCK the HORROR ! a luggage tag missing ! is there no justice !:eek:

[ging466]

I am dying to comment...IT'S LUGGAGE TAGS...but I won't.

 

ROFL duct tape:D

[Bolshoi]

I'm working with a Silversea representative directly (no TA). I have concerns about my travel docs as we are US expatriates living in Indonesia and surface mail from the US can take up to 4 weeks to reach us. I've discussed options for receipt of the docs and had just about decided on having the documents emailed to us, in lieu of having them sent express to my company's office in Singapore and then hand-carried to us by colleagues.

 

But to miss out on "beautiful burgundy red doc holders with Silversea stitched in silver gray and each in its individual box" and LUGGAGE TAGS just can't be born...(unless there's a glitch and one ends up without docs at all). So maybe I'll do both - have them emailed (for surety) and expressed (for TAGS).

 

Bolshoi

[Mike2131]

I am dying to comment...IT'S LUGGAGE TAGS...but I won't.

I believe you already have.

[Keith1010]

I believe you already have.

 

Excellent response.

 

By the way your situation is an example of how each person in a company can add value or impact ones view of that company. As others have said you should find the on board experience much better than the response that was provided by the person your TA spoke with. First impressions are important and good customer service starts at the time one books their cruise all they way through the time one disembarks the ship.

 

Your experience is a good reminder for those who might read the board from Silversea that the response that your TA received was lacking in strong customer service.

 

Keith

[loulani]

Very well said Keith. Customer service is very important even if it's just a missing luggage tag. "The customer is not always right but they are still the customer."

[endosunshine]

For what it's worth.... I always deal with the same SS rep, no TA. She has ALWAYS been immensely helpful, polite at all times, as well as personable. Never short with me (even when I know I must be driving her nuts with stupid questions) and never doing her "duty" in a rote fashion.

 

So, you will hear no customer service complaints from me.

[pegsammax]

Why did your TA feel it necessary to pass the negative attitude on to you? I don't think that's a very professional attitude on their part either.

[Keith1010]

For what it's worth.... I always deal with the same SS rep, no TA. She has ALWAYS been immensely helpful, polite at all times, as well as personable. Never short with me (even when I know I must be driving her nuts with stupid questions) and never doing her "duty" in a rote fashion.

 

So, you will hear no customer service complaints from me.

 

With all due respect I don't think that is the point. All of the customer representatives should provide the same level of customer service. A client should not have to worry about which Silverea representative they talk with to get good service. They should get the same level from all of them. And having a TA call Silversea is part of why one has a TA to let them handle these items rather than the client.

 

During my career one of the things I tried to impress upon my people is act like you own the place.

 

I can't stress enough that no different than any business, each person who works for the company represents that company and should put best

foot foward when dealing with the customer/general public.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

Why did your TA feel it necessary to pass the negative attitude on to you? I don't think that's a very professional attitude on their part either.

 

I would hope that my TA would have done the same thing. The TA shouldn't sugar coat the response. The TA works for the client.

 

Keith

[pegsammax]

But what benefit is there to the client in giving them the impression that Silversea does not have good customer service? Other than have them questioning whether they should have booked that cruise with that company? I don't see where either the customer or the TA benefits from passing on a poor experience. Hopefully the TA has a lot of experience with dealing with cruise lines, and would realize that the response they got is not what the client will experience on the ship...why give them a poor impression before they sail?

[Keith1010]

But what benefit is there to the client in giving them the impression that Silversea does not have good customer service? Other than have them questioning whether they should have booked that cruise with that company? I don't see where either the customer or the TA benefits from passing on a poor experience. Hopefully the TA has a lot of experience with dealing with cruise lines, and would realize that the response they got is not what the client will experience on the ship...why give them a poor impression before they sail?

 

I think the TA was being honest in what the response was. I don't think they need to sugar coat it.

 

Remember, the problem is not the TA. The problem was the customer service representative.

 

IMHO the representative should have said, "we are so very sorry that only one luggage tag was sent, this is the first time I have ever heard of this happening (only say this if this is the truth) and we will immediately sent another one out. Please accept our sincere apologies."

 

This is why it is important to provide good customer service because whe the service is not handled well many more people hear about it.

 

First impressions are always important in any business because they make lasting impressions.

 

Keith

[Jade13]

We had a problem with someone on the PAII ship. It didn't ruin our cruise but their actions were extremely unprofessional, actually shocking. That person is still on the ship, so never bothered to write to corporate. However, we had a reservation on another SilverSea ship and just decided to cancel in favor of Azamara. The itinerary is fantastic, but can not get over the unprofessional behavior that we experienced. We figured we do not need to pay for this. Will will go on SilverSea again? Probably. Their itineraries are fantastic and of course every cruise and crew are different. It just did not make our top ten vacation experience.

 

We expect to be treated the same whether we are in a porthole stateroom (as we were on SilverSea) or in the Penthouse (as we were on Azamara in February). We even had one lecturer/crew member on SilverSea last year who we had just been with on Minerva with Abercrombie & Kent only a few months earlier and even he admitted didn't like working for SilverSea as much as they were understaffed and overworked.

 

The staff in the dining room on SilverSea was fabulous btw.

[Mike2131]

But what benefit is there to the client in giving them the impression that Silversea does not have good customer service? Other than have them questioning whether they should have booked that cruise with that company? I don't see where either the customer or the TA benefits from passing on a poor experience. Hopefully the TA has a lot of experience with dealing with cruise lines, and would realize that the response they got is not what the client will experience on the ship...why give them a poor impression before they sail?

Our TA owns this agency plus another (2nd generation) and takes groups all over the world. She is a friend, but even if she wasn't, I would expect nothing less than the honest account of her experience that she passed on.

 

From my own experience, the way something seemingly minor is handled can make a major impact. I know for our clients, perception really does become reality. The attention to detail (or lack of it) can, and often does, make all the difference.

[wripro]

She should have passed on Silversea's attitude only AFTER she resolved the situation herself. A good TA will not stop when a customer service rep denies a request. He/she will go higher up until he/she gets what she wants.

[endosunshine]

For what it's worth.... I always deal with the same SS rep, no TA. She has ALWAYS been immensely helpful, polite at all times, as well as personable. Never short with me (even when I know I must be driving her nuts with stupid questions) and never doing her "duty" in a rote fashion.

 

So, you will hear no customer service complaints from me.

 

I was not excusing the Rep that was unpleasant, just pointing out that I think it was an exception and not the norm. Who knows... maybe that person had just received bad news (illness, death in family, etc). Still doesn't excuse being rude, but possibly there was an extenuating circumstance.

I think all of us can think of an instance in which we were more unpleasant to someone than the situation called for and felt badly about it later. No one's perfect.:o

[basedow]

Endosunshine, I SO agree with you that one should remember life's not perfect and people sometimes are having a real bad day! Besides, who's to say the TA didn't misinterpret the rep's words and attitudes and maybe she herself was having a less than optimal day.

[Keith1010]

I am sorry folks but I am now lost.

 

Go back and read the OP.

 

The post said that the TA went Silversea and asked for another luggage tag since the package was short one tag. By the time the TA went back to the OP, the TA said that the customer service person would indeed send out the luggage tag. The TA only relayed what the customer service person said.

 

So, the bottom line is that the TA did do their job and had the issue resolved. The TA only pointed out their surprise that about what the customer service person said.

 

The bottom line is that when you are in business you teach your folks to keep bad days to themselves. The customer service person did the wrong thing on this. They should have just apologized for the missing tag and taken care of the issue.

 

Again, I will repeat that when service is bad people will tend to tell more people than when service is good.

 

From everything I read the TA did the right thing. I know my TA would have given me the lowdown on what happened because they work for me, not the cruise line.

 

Let's stop blaming the TA.

 

And by the way, customer service needs to be top notch at all levels. Unfortunately, that is not often the case.

 

Keith