Begging has to stop

[Ocean Boy]

If there was a "LIKE" button on here, I would click it :)

 

Thanks. I "Like" you too!:p

[ECCruise]

Unfortunately the wait staff on our last cruise did not deserve a 10, even a 5 in our opinion. I wasn't giving them a 10 for bad service. They were lucky We gave them about an 8!

 

 

See, this I totally agree with. If the service is substandard, then rate it as you see it.

 

The problem I have are those, several on this thread, who REFUSE to give a 10, even if, in their words, the service is exceptional. Or, refuse to give a 10 as a matter of policy. That survey is more worthless than any, since it is based on mindset, not level of service.

[Charger2008]

See, this I totally agree with. If the service is substandard, then rate it as you see it.

 

The problem I have are those, several on this thread, who REFUSE to give a 10, even if, in their words, the service is exceptional. Or, refuse to give a 10 as a matter of policy. That survey is more worthless than any, since it is based on mindset, not level of service.

 

They must be teachers who "refuse" to give a student an "A". Had some of those in college and I quickly switched classes :p

[Ocean Boy]

They must be teachers who "refuse" to give a student an "A". Had some of those in college and I quickly switched classes :p

 

I always suspected those were the teachers that never managed to see an "A" themselves when they were students.

[critterchick]

I've have often (but not always) gotten the "speech" as well, but on my last cruise our waiter really laid it on pretty thick. Most of the time, the waiters will briefly mention it once early in the cruise or on occasion give another gentle reminder later in the week. I have no problem at all with this as I know how important it is to them. On our last cruise the waiter gave a long nightly speech, not only about getting a 10, but also how hard hard he worked for his family back home etc. It was very well rehearsed and pretty awkward to the point where we didn't go in one night because we just didn't feel like hearing it again (but he was definitely not the norm).

 

In all honesty the service in dining room isn't always exceptional. I've noticed that when the waiters don't have all their tables full, the service is excellent, but when they have a full "load", service definitely suffers at times depending on how experienced the waiter is. I think they truly want to provide exceptional service all the time, but given their current workload it just isn't always possible.

 

I remember on my first cruise in 1994, our waiter had only two tables with a total of 16 people to wait on and he had time to give personal service to each diner every single night. There was one assistant waiter for every two waiters and a separate bar person and wine sommelier for drinks. Now they just have too many tables to provide consistent service all the time if all their people show up in the dining room.

 

I always give a 10 anyway because I feel bad for them, but I sometimes wonder if we are shooting ourselves in the foot by doing so when it is not really deserved. If we keep giving 10's when it's not warranted, will corporate think it is OK to cut the staffing levels yet again? Just a thought.

 

Neda

 

I think that what I highlighted is the main reason that the service can be off in the MDR. We have never seen a waitstaff slack off, but the pressure that has been put on them in the past several years has been relentless, and they simply cannot provide "10" service most of the time. But if they don't get 10's from everybody, then they are punished.

 

It's a terribly unfair situation (I know, life isn't fair) and I don't know what the solution is, other than for us to avoid the MDR, which we have taken to doing. My idea of fine dining doesn't include feeling like I'm on the 405 freeway as crew and carts go whizzing by, trying desperately to avoid knocking into the bar servers with their full trays of drinks.

 

One of the biggest problems with RCI's surveys is the entire format. They want everything neatly packaged by selecting a number and they give you very little opportunity to explain why you chose the number that you did. Remember the old paper surveys? There was almost no room at all to write comments. I used to write on almost every area where the paper was blank. Numbers, in this case, are fairly meaningless. Words are not. I am happy to take the time to provide RCI with constructive criticism on what they could do better and tell them what they do great but they don't seem really interested in that or maybe they don't want to pay staff to actually read words. They seem to want a format where some computer program can read meaningless numbers and generate equally meaningless statistics.

 

I agree with your assessment. I hate the electronic surveys with the fire of ten thousand dying suns. I wonder if more or fewer people are filling them out now.

 

As for the old paper surveys, I would often take a piece of the stationery they used to provide us, add comments to that and then staple them to the survey.

[Ocean Boy]

I think that what I highlighted is the main reason that the service can be off in the MDR. We have never seen a waitstaff slack off, but the pressure that has been put on them in the past several years has been relentless, and they simply cannot provide "10" service most of the time. But if they don't get 10's from everybody, then they are punished.

 

It's a terribly unfair situation (I know, life isn't fair) and I don't know what the solution is, other than for us to avoid the MDR, which we have taken to doing. My idea of fine dining doesn't include feeling like I'm on the 405 freeway as crew and carts go whizzing by, trying desperately to avoid knocking into the bar servers with their full trays of drinks.

 

 

 

I agree with your assessment. I hate the electronic surveys with the fire of ten thousand dying suns. I wonder if more or fewer people are filling them out now.

 

As for the old paper surveys, I would often take a piece of the stationery they used to provide us, add comments to that and then staple them to the survey.

 

However, if people insist on "giving" out 10s and RCI does not see a drop off in the ratings they could easily interpret that to mean that their new staffing levels are working just fine and they could try reducing the levels even more. It is unfortunate that the workers may end up caught in the middle but if people to not give an honest assessment because they are afraid of the consequences to a worker we may all be hurting ourselves by setting up the conditions for declining service in the future.

[tinkerme1]

Wow, what a topic! We just recently returned from a Disney cruise and the waiters were all preaching the gospel to us about receiving "Excellent" marks for their work. Although they were both very nice, they did not provide "excellent" service. They were fairly new to the game so I gave them some slack, but after dinner, my husband and I had a very interesting conversation about the rating system.

 

It seems to be everywhere. My husband very rarely gives anyone the highest mark because he feels there is always room for improvement. I, on the other hand, understand what the crew is facing and just give in to the "10" on the survey to ease MY conscience.

 

I did like what Disney Cruise Line did though. They separated out the food questions from the service questions.

 

I would really like to see Management require that the servers do not ask for an "Excellent" or "10" but rather ask at the beginning of first dinner service if there are any concerns to please bring them forward immediately. Maybe some issues could be solved this way?

[ryano]

 

I would really like to see Management require that the servers do not ask for an "Excellent" or "10" but rather ask at the beginning of first dinner service if there are any concerns to please bring them forward immediately. Maybe some issues could be solved this way?

 

Thats kind of the way the dealership I bought my vehicle from handles their service dept. An email with a link is sent from corporate shortly after service. Excellent remarks are very much sought after in all categories and they will actually ask to please let them know if there is ANY reason whatsoever not to give them excellent remarks so they can make it right before the survey is returned.

[emdia43]

However, if people insist on "giving" out 10s and RCI does not see a drop off in the ratings they could easily interpret that to mean that their new staffing levels are working just fine and they could try reducing the levels even more. It is unfortunate that the workers may end up caught in the middle but if people to not give an honest assessment because they are afraid of the consequences to a worker we may all be hurting ourselves by setting up the conditions for declining service in the future.

 

I agree, but for the worker's sake I would give a 10 and then write my comments about the system to Management, at the end of the cruise....

Unless someone is really deficient in service, 10 is fine. What does it cost me

to do this?

[harola]

We in Europe give different rates than in US. For us 8 out of 10 means "good", 9 of 10 is very very good. 10 is only for God because it means perfection. 6 and 7 is nice and fairly good. 5 is not so good, 4 is bad and 3 is very bad. So when someting is good (means did meet expectations and above) we give 8.

 

We learnt that in US the word "excellent" means 80-100%, very good 60-70% and good is 50%. But for us excellent is 100%, very good 90% and good 80%. So different interpretation

 

So if the waiter does not explain that only 10 counts, we all give lower rates.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[ryano]

setting up the conditions for declining service in the future.

 

According to a lot of people here, that's been happening for years now :)

 

They will always get a 10 from me if they keep my drink glass filled, serve my food at the temp its suppose to be served at and keep my cabin tidy. Im pretty easy to please :) So far so good! In fact, I find myself trying to compare the service at a land based venue to the service I get on my cruises. It never even comes close :)

[Ocean Boy]

According to a lot of people here, that's been happening for years now :)

 

They will always get a 10 from me if they keep my drink glass filled, serve my food at the temp its suppose to be served at and keep my cabin tidy. Im pretty easy to please :) So far so good! In fact, I find myself trying to compare the service at a land based venue to the service I get on my cruises. It never even comes close :)

 

And if you are getting service that you feel rates a 10 then that is what you should give. My issue is with people who feel they are receiving less than a 10 but giving it anyway. If people are not going to be honest then it would probably be better if they did not participate in the survey.

 

As for myself, service continues to be just fine for the most part. But I, also, am not hard to please and don't require all that much as far as sevice goes. I'm a Windjammer guy that mostly likes doing what he can for himself. Just clear the dirty dishes from the table please. :)

Edited September 3, 2014 by Ocean Boy

[ckrobyn]

Thanks. I "Like" you too!:p

 

LOL - it wouldn't be "us" if I didn't :rolleyes:

[Host Kewlguy]

Unfortunately the wait staff on our last cruise did not deserve a 10, even a 5 in our opinion. I wasn't giving them a 10 for bad service. They were lucky We gave them about an 8!

 

They rarely brought our drinks before the entrée. We ordered the exact same drinks every night! On several nights the appetizers were wrong, or missing 1 from our order. The missing ones rarely arrived.

 

Drinks were correct 3 out of the 7 nights. Again the same drinks were ordered every night!

 

We never had a drink refill offered through the meal(s) except for on the last night when the comment cards were handed out.

 

One night our DS asked for chocolate milk twice. Which he asked for at each meal. He never got it. We couldn't keep asking them for our missing items as they were too busy chatting at a large table of 10 to pay attention to our needs. (We were at our own table of 3)

 

When DH asked for his glass to be replaced twice in one meal because it was dirty his request was met with a big huff.

 

That is not good service.

That does not deserve a stellar review!!

You should have spoken to the head waiter early on and I'm sure the service issue would have been resolved.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Host Kewlguy

[MattInFLL]

This is a problem that starts with management, not the wait staff. If you want it to end, then complain to management and maybe someone will see that these 10 or nothing rating systems are not doing anything but upsetting a lot of people.

 

But I still don't see the point of only giving a 9 if you know the truth behind what is going on, and you got decent or better service. At this point, it's only hurting the person with really no control over the situation.

[Mac303]

We have a friend who is a Service Manager at a local Ford dealer, the surveys that the customer fills out are reviewed each quarter, less then tens result in a lesser or no bonus for that quarter.

 

So many Companies have the same policy as RCL..

Edited September 4, 2014 by Mac303

[lady_cruiser]

My last three cruises I used my WOW cards for someone at Customer Service who really went out of their way to fix a minor problem I had. Even so much as do a follow up call to make sure it was taken care of. I figured these are the people who are in the direct line of fire when something goes wrong even though its not their fault. So they deserve all the recognition they can get.

Edited September 4, 2014 by lady_cruiser

[Loucat]

I stopped sailing on RCCI and also stopped posting on the RCC board due to so many negative posts to other CC members.

 

I was on to read Trainman's Live report so read this thread.

 

YIKES! While you are all arguing, Adam Goldstein and the company is making money and paying the staff less then minimum wages.

 

Asking them to "beg" for 10's has to cause them so much stress. They already work horrible hours for so little. Very demeaning for them.

 

I think Adam Goldstien should be rated instead of the staff. Personally I would give him a one but that is not for me to say.

 

Back I go to other Boards.

[wassup4565]

See, the whole thing is dishonest. Customers are given a survey to ask them to rate their experience. The implication is the cruise line really wants to know how it can improve, but then we find out the truth is they actually use this rating to reward or punish the staff. Thus we find out that our honest ratings (which could help the cruise line discover how to do better) is actually just a tool to scare the staff. I resent being used like this.

 

Moreover, we find out that we might interpret that a rating of 9 is expressing that the service was excellent, but feel we want to leave room in case we ever encounter absolute perfection. Meanwhile, the cruise line has decided that only a 10 counts for anything, and they interpret a 9 as a rebuke. Thus it is left to the staff to explain to us that only 10s count - because how else could we know that? I resent the staff being placed in this position.

 

This is a flawed survey format. No one who knows anything about how to collect data that really tells you something useful would find this acceptable - different people think the numbers mean different things. It's also lazy, because it brazenly pretends that you can reduce a client's experience to numbers, and that the meaning of the numbers is obvious. Of course, it's not. What does a four mean? What does a seven mean? Everyone who circles a number on those surveys means a different thing with each of the numbers.

 

The staff are people who sometimes support an entire family on what they earn from their contracts. Since the whole survey mechanism is bogus for actually determining quality (any statistician would laugh) then all you can do is participate in the lie, or not. Throw the survey away - it doesn't reliably show anything. Or give everybody a ten, because you might at least have saved one person a job and one family their income.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I give the tens (unless something was really, really bad) when asked because I don't want anyone getting in trouble or docked pay. But, it is a ridiculous and meaningless way to evaluate anyone. To me, anything over 7 means very, very good to excellent.

 

If I am filling in surveys without feeling I have to give all 10's, there won't be very many because perfection is rare. 8's and 9's should be rewarded as well!

 

This is not an employee problem, it's a management problem and is just plain crazy.

[LMaxwell]

See, the whole thing is dishonest. Customers are given a survey to ask them to rate their experience. The implication is the cruise line really wants to know how it can improve, but then we find out the truth is they actually use this rating to reward or punish the staff. Thus we find out that our honest ratings (which could help the cruise line discover how to do better) is actually just a tool to scare the staff. I resent being used like this.

 

Moreover, we find out that we might interpret that a rating of 9 is expressing that the service was excellent, but feel we want to leave room in case we ever encounter absolute perfection. Meanwhile, the cruise line has decided that only a 10 counts for anything, and they interpret a 9 as a rebuke. Thus it is left to the staff to explain to us that only 10s count - because how else could we know that? I resent the staff being placed in this position.

 

This is a flawed survey format. No one who knows anything about how to collect data that really tells you something useful would find this acceptable - different people think the numbers mean different things. It's also lazy, because it brazenly pretends that you can reduce a client's experience to numbers, and that the meaning of the numbers is obvious. Of course, it's not. What does a four mean? What does a seven mean? Everyone who circles a number on those surveys means a different thing with each of the numbers.

 

The staff are people who sometimes support an entire family on what they earn from their contracts. Since the whole survey mechanism is bogus for actually determining quality (any statistician would laugh) then all you can do is participate in the lie, or not. Throw the survey away - it doesn't reliably show anything. Or give everybody a ten, because you might at least have saved one person a job and one family their income.

 

One of the best responses I've ever read on here

 

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk

[Illyria]

See, the whole thing is dishonest. Customers are given a survey to ask them to rate their experience. The implication is the cruise line really wants to know how it can improve, but then we find out the truth is they actually use this rating to reward or punish the staff. Thus we find out that our honest ratings (which could help the cruise line discover how to do better) is actually just a tool to scare the staff. I resent being used like this.

 

Moreover, we find out that we might interpret that a rating of 9 is expressing that the service was excellent, but feel we want to leave room in case we ever encounter absolute perfection. Meanwhile, the cruise line has decided that only a 10 counts for anything, and they interpret a 9 as a rebuke. Thus it is left to the staff to explain to us that only 10s count - because how else could we know that? I resent the staff being placed in this position.

 

This is a flawed survey format. No one who knows anything about how to collect data that really tells you something useful would find this acceptable - different people think the numbers mean different things. It's also lazy, because it brazenly pretends that you can reduce a client's experience to numbers, and that the meaning of the numbers is obvious. Of course, it's not. What does a four mean? What does a seven mean? Everyone who circles a number on those surveys means a different thing with each of the numbers.

 

The staff are people who sometimes support an entire family on what they earn from their contracts. Since the whole survey mechanism is bogus for actually determining quality (any statistician would laugh) then all you can do is participate in the lie, or not. Throw the survey away - it doesn't reliably show anything. Or give everybody a ten, because you might at least have saved one person a job and one family their income.

 

Exactly how I feel about it, and you phrased it much better than I could!

[996turbos]

As a long time service writer at a high line dealership our system of 1-10 is the worse thing for true customer service. The survey directly affects me the writer. The questions about the techs, cleanliness of the property, size of parking, fixed right the first time, and how your car was washed will get you fired even though I have no control over these things. If your score is below the area score for 4 months in a row, you are fired. If I receive less then 10's and yes on the surveys it costs me roughly 1/3 of my total pay ie bonus a month. This causes otherwise good employees to avoid "tight wad score" customers. We do see the returned surveys and remember them. Conversely we go above and beyond for those we know will "take care of us". It also frees management from actually doing their jobs. They manage by the numbers only. Low sales and low scores and you are truly in trouble. It is a terrible and flawed system. I wish everyday that I did not feel compelled to push CSI surveys. Fortunately I love the other aspects of my job and my regular customers so I will not leave. During my 30 years in the service business I have seen this grow into a monster 300lb gorilla that's not going away anytime soon. I give perfect scores on my cruises because lower scores only screw the rank and file employees who do their best and does nothing to upper management. :eek:

[Lilyrosemum]

For a long time now I have been deleting email surveys from businesses after I have had business dealings with them, including Royal Caribbean. Personally, the questions are usually worded in a way that won't get my true opinion across and they are time consuming for me. I mean every business sends them out now.

 

Reading this thread has just solidified my decision to ignore these surveys.

[pspercy]

AlexanderBeetle ? Wow, not heard that one for a long time :)