Have you had pressure to complete survey?

[Without Tessa]

My mother took the Volendam to the S. Caribbean in January and said it was the first time that the diningroom stewards encouraged them many times to complete the survey usually provided at the end of the cruise. This "encouragement" started to make my mother feel a bit pressured and asked why they felt it so important to have it filled out (other than the regular desire to get feedback for HAL). According to my mom, the stewards said that their income (or tips, not sure which) were directly related to the number of "9's" the got (perfect score). I don't think my mother would have minded too much if they mentioned it once, but they were really at her about it and she started to get annoyed - especially since she is the type of person that ALWAYS fills them out. And of course they were lobbying for good marks which I don't believe should be discussed.

 

Has anyone else heard this or know the story on it? Have you felt that kind of pressure to complete the survey before?

[Esme]

That has NEVER happened to us before. If it had, I would have spoken to the Maitre'd immediately. This could be a steward who had received low marks or comments on previous questionaires and was on notice to perform better or lose his job. Don't know.

[Sage]

I was on the Volendam in December, and I did not find this mentioned at all in the dining room.

[localady]

I have never been pressured by our dining room staff to fill in the questionnaire. I usually do fill it out at the end of the cruise and of late my comment regarding the dining room was that it seemed they were short staffed as our wait help were killing themselves to keep up, let alone refill our icetea or water. That should be no reflection on the help themselves though, just the amount of pax they are serving IMHO.:cool:

[Druke I]

I have never felt pressured to fill out "the survey", but do encourage fellow passengers to do so.

 

Feedback is necessary for management to correct and improve.

[sail7seas]

I've NEVER felt any sort of pressure about Comment Sheets. We all know they hope we'll complete them.

 

Anyone who feels they are being pressure, IMO, should speak up about it. Nicely tell the steward you hope he will not mention it . He may have forgotten he had already spoken with that table and did not mean to seem to be applying pressure.

 

We are adult people and able to speak when necessary.

[Without Tessa]

I've NEVER felt any sort of pressure about Comment Sheets. We all know they hope we'll complete them.

 

Actually, I have never heard that their income is tied to the comments from the survey. I am very pro-survey as I agree that it is important to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to improve (I provide surveys for customers in my own job). But I was not aware that steward pay could be docked in some due to a comment that I make - like another poster, I have made a comment on a HAL survey that the stewards were run off their feet due to understaffing. Does this mean my poor steward who was already over-worked now got less pay because I wanted to send a message to HAL about the need to add more stewards?? yikes!

 

Anyone who feels they are being pressure, IMO, should speak up about it. Nicely tell the steward you hope he will not mention it . He may have forgotten he had already spoken with that table and did not mean to seem to be applying pressure.

 

Well, I think my mom is not really blaming this particular steward, just began to feel uncomfortable when she had heard it a few times at her table and around her at others too. She has not experienced this before and was puzzled about why. My mom is not that outspoken and decided to overlook the comments rather than confront the steward. She mentioned it in passing to me and has since not spoke of it again - she was not complaining. I decided to post the situation here to get feedback on if others had experienced it - perhaps it was an isolated incident.

 

We are adult people and able to speak when necessary.

 

Not sure what you meant about this comment?

[Krazy Kruizers]

We just did back-to-back cruises on the Westerdam in January and no one pressured us either week of the cruise to complete out survey forms.

And we have never been pressured in the past.

[JDee]

The "pressure" varies (if you want to call it that). On most cruises, never hear much more than a friendly reminder to complete the form. On some, have had either the waiter, section supervisor and/or the M'd say words to the effect that if there is anything that is being done to not get an excellent rating, to please let them know immediately. Don't recall any ever saying their pay, promotions, etc., were contingent on excellent ratings. Maybe some resort to the hard sell method....

 

 

Happy cruising....

[blackbird71]

I have never had any problem on HAL, but 10 years or so ago, Carnivale was very bad about that. Cruise Travel Magazine always had letters about how many times they were hit upon to give good marks.

 

Do not travel Carnivale but I would hope things have changed.

[tomc]

Latest cruise was ended Oct 30 and no pressure. The CD said they hope for all 9's, but did want a note as to why we gave anything less so they could improve on that area. That's been standard on all my 14 cruises. Maybe the waiter was in a good mood and just joking around??

[OCruisers]

Normally, like many of you ... we never attend those "Disembakation Sessions". This time we did watch it in our cabin because we were to be back in Tampa a day early (norovirus situation).

 

The Cruise Director made a BIG POINT several times of EXPLAINING ... when filling out the Comment Forms ... anything less than a 9 would not reflect well for the person/people involved .... :o

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[jhannah]

I have had dining room staff mention the surveys and encourage us to give them good marks ... but it was good-natured and was not hard-sell in any way. I've never felt pressured.

[sail7seas]

The "pressure" varies (if you want to call it that). On most cruises, never hear much more than a friendly reminder to complete the form. On some, have had either the waiter, section supervisor and/or the M'd say words to the effect that if there is anything that is being done to not get an excellent rating, to please let them know immediately. Don't recall any ever saying their pay, promotions, etc., were contingent on excellent ratings. Maybe some resort to the hard sell method....

 

 

Happy cruising....

 

You have had a waiter, section supervisor and/or Maitre d' say anything even close to that to you on an HAL ship?

 

We have never had anyone except the cruise director at the disembarkation talk (which we listen to on TV rather than going to the lounge) mention the comment sheets to us.

 

I certainly know they want us to turn them in but we have never, ever been spoken to individually about it.

 

(Except for the time we won the travel bag when our sheet was randomly selected.....that mention was only to announce us amoung the winners!!)

[iluvcruzin]

I was reminded on my HAL cruise - not pressured. However, I can say over the years on different lines I've gotten the song & dance routine from the waiters encouraging high marks. Apparently they frowned on those who didn't get a perfect score. The results for that waiter could be a reduction in the number of tables they serve, thus a reduction in income from tips. I think most cruiselines have gotten away from this thinking. I can't remember which cruise I went on last year, the CD said something about "no one has to have a perfect score".

[JDee]

You have had a waiter, section supervisor and/or Maitre d' say anything even close to that to you on an HAL ship?

 

 

Yes, not all cruises, but more than just one. Recall after one request, DW mentioned to waiter didn't have pencil/paper with her. Since his name was rather difficult to spell/remember, she asked him to please write it down for her so she could make special mention of his fine service. He was happy to....

 

On our HAL cruises, it was more often than not, that the section supervisor would make mention of this. That is, between times he was acting as bus boy. They all certainly tried to make things right....

 

Happy cruising....

[JDee]

Would like to add, also have been on HAL cruises with CD's exactly taking the same line as posted by Tomc & OCruisers.....

[K&RCurt]

On our 1/23 Westerdam cruise the CD mentioned at the disembarcation talk that anything less than a 9 should be brought to someones attention ahead of time so that it could be adressed.

 

Our dining stweards did bring the survey up and asked us to please give 9's if possible and they said that if they achieve a certain score they are rewarded with a day off when in port. We did see both our waiter and assistant paying soccer with some crew from the Star Princess on a field by the dock in Tortola. They said they both had gotten the day off in port due to good reviews from the previous week.

[mountainmare]

Generally when we thank our crew members for an exception job they good naturedly ask us to remeber that on our survey. I am a former prof and giving a 9 is like giving a perfect score--I think we are a bit more stingey with 9's than other people. With that said our waitstaff and cabin steward all received 9 on our last trip, we had service that was above and beyond!!

I also noticed in the galley that food that needed improvement was posted along with a summary of the survey froma previous cruise, so they do listen to us!!

[KAKcruiser]

This always happened to us on Princess. It was very annoying. However, after 10 cruises with HAL, it happened to us for the first time this past December on the Rotterdam. The cabin stewart asked if we were pleased with his service. We said yes even though we didn't feel he was great. He then asked that we remember to mention him on our survey. We didn't because our comments might have been more negative than positive.

[sail7seas]

They absolutely take those comment sheets

VERY seriously.

 

 

They are carefully read aboard the ship.

They are reviewed with the supervisors/heads

of Departments.

 

They are all sent to Seattle where they are once

again carefully read.

 

A special recognition comment on those sheets really does make

a difference for the person named. If someone has done

something very special for you, do not forget to make mention

of it.

[tomc]

I believe what you said, but how can people read all those thousands of sheets every week? Or does HQ get a summary of the scores?

[jhannah]

... and are these behind-the-scenes survey readers included in the auto-tip, or should we tip them separately? ;)