Guest Satisfaction Survey going electronic

[Merion_Mom]

Our excellent ;) waiter, Monique, just told us about the new electronic customer satisfaction surveys tonight. She did mention that the ratings will now be on a scale of 1 to 10.

[PORT ROYAL]

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.

 

On our last cruise we were asked to not only mark as excellent, but to add a comment for her additional five points, then to complete two forms for double commendations. We did not complete the form and reported her to GR and the Housekeeping manager. But wrote to head office with compliments and commendations for those who deserved the recognition.

[TravelerThom]

Our excellent ;) waiter, Monique, just told us about the new electronic customer satisfaction surveys tonight. She did mention that the ratings will now be on a scale of 1 to 10.

IMO that is a big improvement. I have been told, and think it was at least close to the truth, that under the old system Excellent = 10 and Good = 6. I would have rated most ship personnel a 9 (very good) and a few 10 (excellent, outstanding). There were few staff members I would have rated as 6. A choice under the old system of 6 or 10, with nothing in between, was not a fair system for guests or crew members.

 

The times in the past that I have gotten a post-cruise survey, it seemed most of the questions dealt with how food/service/facilities/etc did versus your expectations. Pretty much stupid questions to ask of someone who frequently cruises RCI; I pretty much know what to expect and will be happy to have my expectations met. Amazingly the facilities on the ship on the second leg of a B2B rarely exceed expectations.:rolleyes:

 

Thom

[cruise wizard]

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

 

Maybe RCCL used the same contractor as the ObamaCare website designer.......maybe they are linked???? Perhaps if you don't fill one out - you will be charged with a non-participation fee!!!!

[styxfire]

I'm uncomfortable when they ask me to rank them excellent. I feel like they should've been asking that via their actions all week.

 

I wonder if Royal forces that to ask for high marks; i.e. Royal may view that as a way to enforce accountability among the staff. A crappy worker won't enjoy having to ask for an excellent rating, but a truly excellent employee will just ask you to rank him on his performance.

 

Perhaps the new numeric system will be used to compute the % of tips they get to keep. I.e. if a waiter earns a 10 from all 10 tables he did that night, then he gets 100% of his assigned pre-paid tips. If he earns a 10 from 8 tables, but spilled beans on one man's suitcoat earning him an 8, and forgot to return to the last table for a long time before taking their entrée order so they give him a 7, that adds up to 95... 95% of pre-paid tips he can keep.

 

Just hypothetical.

Edited January 4, 2014 by styxfire

[Ocean Boy]

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

 

I noticed that also. I remember on our last cruise looking for a pen in my packpack as I wanted to leave a note for our cabin steward and there was no pen to write with in the cabin.

[Ocean Boy]

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.

 

I agree, And I don't even care if my name is attached. I have no problem taking credit, and responsibility, for both the good and the bad that I write.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Ocean Boy

[pjlee3333]

One thing I found interesting is that the surveys use the day you get off as the cruise date. I just got off a b2b on Grandeur and on 12/24 (the last day of the first cruise) I received a link asking me to rate my 12/24 cruise within 7 days. Assuming it was for the cruise that started 12/24 I didn't answer thinking how could I rate something that was still in progress. At the end of the 12/24 cruise I got a survey for my 1/3 cruise.

[Ken at the beach]

One thing I found interesting is that the surveys use the day you get off as the cruise date. I just got off a b2b on Grandeur and on 12/24 (the last day of the first cruise) I received a link asking me to rate my 12/24 cruise within 7 days. Assuming it was for the cruise that started 12/24 I didn't answer thinking how could I rate something that was still in progress. At the end of the 12/24 cruise I got a survey for my 1/3 cruise.

 

That confused me as well on our B2B in December. After the first leg I checked e mail when we arrived in Florida saw that and thought they had the dates wrong and then thought wow they were quick with getting the usual post cruise surveys out. It wasn't till we arrived home the next week that I realized what was going on. Strange though that we received the survey from our 12/21 cruise and not our 12/26 cruise.

[cmich068]

Just got off Adventure on Sunday, never received a survey link by email.

 

And I know for a fact that RCCL has my email address, as I did receive notifications from them on embarkation day regarding the delayed boarding due to the jumper.

Edited January 9, 2014 by cmich068

[orville99]

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.

 

 

It does. We just got off of Brilliance on the 4th, and the survey came in my email on the 6th. The survey itself is an electronic duplicate of the printed surveys except that on every page that asked you to rate a particular range of topics (i.e. food venues, cabin, etc.), there was a "free response" comment box. I was able to put in a lot of detail (both positive and negative) in those boxes - it looked like the box had no preset character limit:)

[MKESail]

I just filled ours yesterday for the New Years cruise.

What I did find weird is in the past they would provide envelopes in case you want to add on to the prepaid gratuities and you had enough envelopes for all those people - stateroom attendant, MDR waiter, assistant waiter, etc. Now, they give you one envelope that says something like "Wow! factor"- blabla.. and you can put the name of the person you'd want to tip extra, that supposedly provided the "Wow" service. One (1) envelope! What if I want to tip extra several people? What if I had several people providing the "Wow" service during my cruise? Isn't that what RCI is shooting for? Why just one envelope then?

[Ken at the beach]

I just filled ours yesterday for the New Years cruise.

What I did find weird is in the past they would provide envelopes in case you want to add on to the prepaid gratuities and you had enough envelopes for all those people - stateroom attendant, MDR waiter, assistant waiter, etc. Now, they give you one envelope that says something like "Wow! factor"- blabla.. and you can put the name of the person you'd want to tip extra, that supposedly provided the "Wow" service. One (1) envelope! What if I want to tip extra several people? What if I had several people providing the "Wow" service during my cruise? Isn't that what RCI is shooting for? Why just one envelope then?

 

You only receive one envelope because it is the cabin steward who is leaving it for you hoping that you will tip him/her extra. Additional envelopes for other staff are available at guest services.

[steveru621]

RCI has to go electronic because they took all the pens out of the cabins!

[Coralc]

RCI has to go electronic because they took all the pens out of the cabins!

 

Very good point! :mad:

[MKESail]

You only receive one envelope because it is the cabin steward who is leaving it for you hoping that you will tip him/her extra. Additional envelopes for other staff are available at guest services.

Thank you, I did not know that. The line at guest services gets ridiculous towards the end of the cruise, I try to avoid it at any cost. But they used to provide all those envelopes in the room before :confused:

[SA Traveler]

We just asked our cabin steward for more envelopes and he gave them to us.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Barbiegator]

Received electronic survery day after getting off Legend Dec 23rd. The questions were a little different than paper . I like this new way to comment to RC.

[lady_cruiser]

Look like RCL is really going green. First the coupon books now the survey. Good for them.

[The_Big_M]

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.

 

Just received one yesterday from Rhapsody cruise. It came about 36 hours after getting off.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

I like the idea of an electronic comment card but am curious about the time frame to complete the survey. One poster mentioned it was to be completed 7 days after receipt. I'm wondering how this can be done if you're on a b2b or b2b2b cruises....especially those of a longer length.

[Merion_Mom]

I like the idea of an electronic comment card but am curious about the time frame to complete the survey. One poster mentioned it was to be completed 7 days after receipt. I'm wondering how this can be done if you're on a b2b or b2b2b cruises....especially those of a longer length.

 

You are correct - you are SOL for the first cruise.

 

I just got home from a B2B, and the electronic survey for cruise #1 has expired.

[Merion_Mom]

I just filled ours yesterday for the New Years cruise.

What I did find weird is in the past they would provide envelopes in case you want to add on to the prepaid gratuities and you had enough envelopes for all those people - stateroom attendant, MDR waiter, assistant waiter, etc. Now, they give you one envelope that says something like "Wow! factor"- blabla.. and you can put the name of the person you'd want to tip extra, that supposedly provided the "Wow" service. One (1) envelope! What if I want to tip extra several people? What if I had several people providing the "Wow" service during my cruise? Isn't that what RCI is shooting for? Why just one envelope then?

 

I had two in my cabin. I got more at Guest Services.

[PJADS]

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 am off of Oasis Jan. 11

When I got home, my survey was waiting on email. I sent it in, today.