Guest Satisfaction Survey going electronic

[Ken at the beach]

From Royal Caribbean Blog

 

Effective January 1, 2014, Royal Caribbean is retiring the old paper based comment card (guest satisfaction survey) and replacing it with*electronic distribution post-cruise.

 

The change to an electronic format*means the consolidation of comment cards into an email distributed invitation that will be delivered*within 24 hours of debarkation.

 

Royal Caribbean hopes the new electronic surveys will improve*efficiency and cost savings but more importantly a guest-driven approach that will foster engagement with our guests, placing the insights in the hands of the crew.*

 

The paper surveys have been in place for 40 years and have become a major way the cruise line gets important feedback from its customers. *Royal Caribbean boasts it uses the feedback considerably in making decisions.*

 

Royal Caribbean already collects email addresses from all guests over the age of 18 and these people*will now receive an email invitation to participate in an online Guest Satisfaction survey on the day of departure. Guests will have 7 days to complete the survey, after leaving the ship. The survey works on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other computers. It takes approximately 7 minutes to answer all questions in the survey. All responses will remain strictly confidential.*

 

This new survey will launch on all ships for all sailings debarking on or after January 1, 2014.

[Darkwolfe]

It already started. I got a survey regarding my cruise on Vision last February just about two weeks ago. Very detailed.

[Ken at the beach]

It already started. I got a survey regarding my cruise on Vision last February just about two weeks ago. Very detailed.

 

Different survey. The one they are talking about is the one that your cabin steward gave you he last night of the cruise.

 

Wondering how well this will be handled as many people report not receiving e-mail from RCI.

[Ocean Boy]

I hope this gives the opportunity to provide more detailed thoughts. I always found the comment cards a bit frustrating not having enough room to provide both positive comments and suggestions for improvement.

[petel]

I hope this gives the opportunity to provide more detailed thoughts. I always found the comment cards a bit frustrating not having enough room to provide both positive comments and suggestions for improvement.

 

DITTO!

 

One more thing......7 days.........B2B? Maybe it will be on the RCI "free" website available on the ship. We'll see.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and take what comes. ;)

[aussielozzie18]

Three days from the end of my cruise and the cabin staff and the waiters in both the buffet and MDR room began stressing the need to write "EXCELLENT" on the survey. As I leaving my cabin to disembark, I overheard one of the cabin staff telling a lady she must fill out the form before she disembarks. The need be judged as EXCELLENT seemed even more important than tips. Good is not good enough in terms of American service I was told.

[kruzerci]

I hope this gives the opportunity to provide more detailed thoughts. I always found the comment cards a bit frustrating not having enough room to provide both positive comments and suggestions for improvement.

 

So true.

[peteukmcr]

Three days from the end of my cruise and the cabin staff and the waiters in both the buffet and MDR room began stressing the need to write "EXCELLENT" on the survey. As I leaving my cabin to disembark, I overheard one of the cabin staff telling a lady she must fill out the form before she disembarks. The need be judged as EXCELLENT seemed even more important than tips. Good is not good enough in terms of American service I was told.

Had the same experience on our last 3 cruises. A little tired now of being badgered by staff for a 'excellent' rating. I decide who has provided excellent service and being harangued reduces the chances of being graded as excellent.

[Ken at the beach]

Had the same experience on our last 3 cruises. A little tired now of being badgered by staff for a 'excellent' rating. I decide who has provided excellent service and being harangued reduces the chances of being graded as excellent.

 

Only had that happen once and that was more than enough. Your right and because of that they did not get the excellent rating.

[Guest maddycat]

Had the same experience on our last 3 cruises. A little tired now of being badgered by staff for a 'excellent' rating. I decide who has provided excellent service and being harangued reduces the chances of being graded as excellent.

 

Only had that happen once and that was more than enough. Your right and because of that they did not get the excellent rating.

 

We get that on every cruise. It's very annoying. We cut them off when they start their speech.......tell them that we are diamond members and know how the ratings work.

[Yorkvillain]

Three days from the end of my cruise and the cabin staff and the waiters in both the buffet and MDR room began stressing the need to write "EXCELLENT" on the survey. As I leaving my cabin to disembark, I overheard one of the cabin staff telling a lady she must fill out the form before she disembarks. The need be judged as EXCELLENT seemed even more important than tips. Good is not good enough in terms of American service I was told.

 

Yup. Over and over the staff loves to say "good" means "not good".

[CruisesOnMyMind]

From Royal Caribbean Blog

 

Effective January 1, 2014, Royal Caribbean is retiring the old paper based comment card (guest satisfaction survey) and replacing it with*electronic distribution post-cruise.

 

The change to an electronic format*means the consolidation of comment cards into an email distributed invitation that will be delivered*within 24 hours of debarkation.

 

Royal Caribbean hopes the new electronic surveys will improve*efficiency and cost savings but more importantly a guest-driven approach that will foster engagement with our guests, placing the insights in the hands of the crew.*

 

The paper surveys have been in place for 40 years and have become a major way the cruise line gets important feedback from its customers. *Royal Caribbean boasts it uses the feedback considerably in making decisions.*

 

Royal Caribbean already collects email addresses from all guests over the age of 18 and these people*will now receive an email invitation to participate in an online Guest Satisfaction survey on the day of departure. Guests will have 7 days to complete the survey, after leaving the ship. The survey works on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other computers. It takes approximately 7 minutes to answer all questions in the survey. All responses will remain strictly confidential.*

 

This new survey will launch on all ships for all sailings debarking on or after January 1, 2014.

 

I hope this email comes in our "online messages" and not into your personal emails that you might or might not check (for a fee).

 

I do like to leave suggestions along with positive and rarely negative feedback for each cruise..

Edited January 4, 2014 by CruisesOnMyMind

[KansasK]

I was e-mailed a survey to fill out not long after our November Independence cruise and I worked my way through it and submitted it. Two days later I got an e-mail saying "oops, we sent you the wrong survey" and wanted me to do another one. I sadly never got it done. I don't like long surveys and filling out two was more than I wanted to do. I did fill out the one they gave me on board.

[Daghis]

All responses will remain strictly confidential.

I wonder about this... confidential to whom? I would hope that positive (or negative) feedback would find its way back to the appropriate person or department to provide for continuous improvement. If I say that Michelle was a fantastic wine tender, I'd like to know that her manager would get that feedback from the survey and be able to incorporate such positive comments in her periodic reviews.

[Clarea]

I wonder about this... confidential to whom? I would hope that positive (or negative) feedback would find its way back to the appropriate person or department to provide for continuous improvement. If I say that Michelle was a fantastic wine tender, I'd like to know that her manager would get that feedback from the survey and be able to incorporate such positive comments in her periodic reviews.

Good question, because being confidential would be a change from the paper surveys. We once gave a crewmember a very good recommendation on a survey, and she thanked us via email. She knew exactly what we had said.

[JimAOk1945]

I filled out one of those paper surveys on the last night of our Christmas cruise on AOS. I also received one by email which I completed.

[SA Traveler]

I got a survey by email after our December Serenade cruise. I actually had more opportunity on it to elaborate on my concerns as well as to give credit to more of the staff. Those survey's on the ship don't give you much room!

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[coordinator23]

Did both a paper survey and later an on-line survey. Took more than a few minutes. I guess they took my complaint to heart that it's difficult to fill out a paper survey when the line no longer supplies pens:):p

[ChipLondon]

Correct, we often do B2B and more, how does the 7 day thing work for us ??

Answer it does not:eek:

 

DITTO!

 

One more thing......7 days.........B2B? Maybe it will be on the RCI "free" website available on the ship. We'll see.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and take what comes. ;)

[reney313]

I'm ready to get 10 email survey's after our January cruise :D

 

Just kidding. I do prefer an online survey.

 

On the last few surveys, I have ranked "excellent" but had comments that I felt RCI should review their rankings. You can not change customer behavior and customer's should be able to rank "good" as a ....well...."good" rating and not be counted against them.

 

I am hoping the new surveys will have different measurements that would look more at "likely to book with RCI again" and "would recommend to friends" as indicators of service vs. the poor, good, and excellent type ratings. Many companies stopped doing that long ago because of the very thing that has been happening. It skews the answers. (some customers will feel the need to mark "excellent" while others will downgrade the rating because of the feeling of being harassed into the "excellent" rating).

[markeb]

I guess the good news is that the surveys will likely be prepared by the same highly competent IT professionals who maintain their highly efficient and accurate web page...

[Meaglesjb]

I guess the good news is that the surveys will likely be prepared by the same highly competent IT professionals who maintain their highly efficient and accurate web page...

 

Bhahahahaha thanks for the laugh :-)

 

 

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[Aquahound]

I guess the good news is that the surveys will likely be prepared by the same highly competent IT professionals who maintain their highly efficient and accurate web page...

 

Yep...and the couple times I've gotten the survey....surprise, surprise...I couldn't open it. Error messages both times. :rolleyes:

[UNV-IT!!!]

I got both on my nov 30th oasis cruise.

[goodycruising]

I guess the good news is that the surveys will likely be prepared by the same highly competent IT professionals who maintain their highly efficient and accurate web page...

 

:( Hadn't thought of that point....maybe they will use an outsourced company. That way our email info can be spread around more! :eek:

 

I also have found it hard to fit in what I want to say sometimes in the small area for comments on the cards, so I was thinking that might work better?

 

The other way to get your point across is to write a letter and send it to both your travel agent (if you use one) and RCI. We did that one time and did get a reply. I don't know how much they read all the writing on the cards. We had brought up an issue several times on board and felt it was not taken seriously. The letter was.

 

I also don't like to be harassed for an excellent score, but I don't mind if the staff say it once, as I didn't realise in the early days that it meant something for their promotion/work areas/whatever it does mean something for.

 

I prefer an honest quick request rather than a sob story about being newly wed and away from the family, or a few other similar tacks. Coming from a family with some military in it, being away from the family on a ship is not quite the same as being deployed to a hell hole.

 

We have a stupid rating feedback system at work that thinks 10 is what we should get all the time, and 8 is a failure. So it seems to be a common thing with surveys. The people sitting in their offices making them up don't actually understand the way people think.