Feeling some kind of way right now...Short Rant!

[R<3M2012]

Ok so I have read on here a few times that the agents on the other end of the line have very little travel knowledge. At that time I took it with a grain of salt and kind of sort of didn't believe it......UNTILL.....I saw on my Facebook a girl I know who is now posting like crazy that's she's a Personal Cruise Consultant for Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

"HUH" (Scratching My Head) with a frown on my face as I read her post. I'm so confused NCL you hired a girl ( as sweet as she is) that has NO travel experience...Hasn't even stepped one toe out of the country (not even a whole foot just a toe).

 

NCL how could you expect I ( we'll definitely NOT me) poor unsuspecting victims to turn over our hard earned money to someone who's not well versed in travel, someone who has NEVER sailed, (not just your cruise line....any cruise line...Not even the Circle Line!!!)

 

NCL No wonder every time I call with a question or issue I end up more frustrated and confused than to begin with.

 

Moral of the story...Do It Yourself otherwise you'll end up talking to my sweet clueless dear friend.

 

End Rant. (that felt good to let that out)

[ColinIllinois]

[R<3M2012]

 

Lolol my sentiments exactly

[SuiteCruiser]

Totally reminded me of the picketers on Father Ted with their signs "Down with this sort of thing!"

 

Years ago I called the Red Wing's ticketing agent in Detroit to buy some hockey tickets. She said that week there were 4 home games "the Maple Leafs, the Nordequays, the Blue Jays and the SayBears" I quickly translated to the Leafs, the Nordiques, the St. Louis Blues and the Sabres.

 

Sounds like you can expect the same type of service with this girl :)

[kba1988]

....but.....ummm....does a travel agent NECESSARILY have to travel to book your arrangements for you??? :confused::confused:

 

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/duties-travel-agent-20723.html

[maywell]

You do know that people don't need actual travel experience to to take travel reservation orders of customers. Its helpful but not necessary to perform the job - just need telephone customer service skills and how to click screens on a computer to do it, that's all. If you want case in point - India and most of the US customer support. ...

 

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

[sparks1093]

Everyone has to start somewhere. I think the training they receive is much more important than their personal travel experience, but from what I've read the training doesn't appear to be that great either (I am one of the forunate ones that has never really had an issue with a PCC or call center person).

[R<3M2012]

Totally reminded me of the picketers on Father Ted with their signs "Down with this sort of thing!"

 

Years ago I called the Red Wing's ticketing agent in Detroit to buy some hockey tickets. She said that week there were 4 home games "the Maple Leafs, the Nordequays, the Blue Jays and the SayBears" I quickly translated to the Leafs, the Nordiques, the St. Louis Blues and the Sabres.

 

Sounds like you can expect the same type of service with this girl :)

 

Lolol ohh geez she phonetically sounded out Sabres..."SayBears" hilarious!

[biker@sea]

Ok so I have read on here a few times that the agents on the other end of the line have very little travel knowledge. At that time I took it with a grain of salt and kind of sort of didn't believe it......UNTILL.....I saw on my Facebook a girl I know who is now posting like crazy that's she's a Personal Cruise Consultant for Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

"HUH" (Scratching My Head) with a frown on my face as I read her post. I'm so confused NCL you hired a girl ( as sweet as she is) that has NO travel experience...Hasn't even stepped one toe out of the country (not even a whole foot just a toe).

 

NCL how could you expect I ( we'll definitely NOT me) poor unsuspecting victims to turn over our hard earned money to someone who's not well versed in travel' date=' someone who has NEVER sailed, (not just your cruise line....any cruise line...Not even the Circle Line!!!)

 

NCL No wonder every time I call with a question or issue I end up more frustrated and confused than to begin with.

 

Moral of the story...Do It Yourself otherwise you'll end up talking to my sweet clueless dear friend.

 

End Rant. (that felt good to let that out)[/quote']

 

Do you think an experienced cruiser that can afford to take 10 or 15 cruise would work for the chump change call centers pay???

 

.

[R<3M2012]

@ kba1988 & maywell

Being a travel agent is much different from being a cruise consultant for one particular line. Most agents have to have knowledge of all forms of travel and need to book a certain amount in order to keep there credentials.

 

Yes its very helpful to have experience because its when there are no screens to click when you have an issue or question thats beyond general scope of knowledge. What happens during those calls you either ask to speak to a manager or someone who knows what they are talking about

Edited August 21, 2015 by R<3M2012

[Wavesprite]

I think this post is a joke, right? I mean....really.

 

You don't have to live in a skyscraper to be an architect and design one.....you don't have to own and airplane to fly one, you don't have to be an artist to sell art.....you could go on and on.

 

Just because you sit behind a computer helping travelers book their cruise / travel doesn't mean you have to be a world traveler, AT ALL. I don't care if someone has never stepped outside their home before helping me book a cruise as long as they get me the room that I want, the ship that I want, on the dates that I want.

[R<3M2012]

@ biker@sea so true didnt think of that

[R<3M2012]

I think this post is a joke, right? I mean....really.

 

You don't have to live in a skyscraper to be an architect and design one.....you don't have to own and airplane to fly one, you don't have to be an artist to sell art.....you could go on and on.

 

Just because you sit behind a computer helping travelers book their cruise / travel doesn't mean you have to be a world traveler, AT ALL. I don't care if someone has never stepped outside their home before helping me book a cruise as long as they get me the room that I want, the ship that I want, on the dates that I want.

 

Ill gladly forward the number to you...you book and share your experience.

[R<3M2012]

Everyone has to start somewhere. I think the training they receive is much more important than their personal travel experience, but from what I've read the training doesn't appear to be that great either (I am one of the forunate ones that has never really had an issue with a PCC or call center person).

 

What exactly is the hiring criteria?

 

I totally understand everyone starts somewhere. But she has no desire to even attempt to venture out. I guess its because I known her personally for years that this career choice is just a head scratcher for me.

Edited August 21, 2015 by R<3M2012

[sparks1093]

What is exactly the hiring criteria?

 

I totally understand everyone starts somewhere. But she has no desire to even attempt to venture out. I guess its because I known her personally for years that this career choice is just a head scratcher for me.

 

I would imagine the hiring criteria would be similar to any other call center's- customer service skills, computer skills, an ability to be trained. It is often pointed out on here that the call center people probably haven't set foot on a ship, so this comes as no surprise:).

[R<3M2012]

I would imagine the hiring criteria would be similar to any other call center's- customer service skills, computer skills, an ability to be trained. It is often pointed out on here that the call center people probably haven't set foot on a ship, so this comes as no surprise:).

 

Yes now I totally believe it!

[zqvol]

Ok so I have read on here a few times that the agents on the other end of the line have very little travel knowledge. At that time I took it with a grain of salt and kind of sort of didn't believe it......UNTILL.....I saw on my Facebook a girl I know who is now posting like crazy that's she's a Personal Cruise Consultant for Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

"HUH" (Scratching My Head) with a frown on my face as I read her post. I'm so confused NCL you hired a girl ( as sweet as she is) that has NO travel experience...Hasn't even stepped one toe out of the country (not even a whole foot just a toe).

 

NCL how could you expect I ( we'll definitely NOT me) poor unsuspecting victims to turn over our hard earned money to someone who's not well versed in travel' date=' someone who has NEVER sailed, (not just your cruise line....any cruise line...Not even the Circle Line!!!)

 

NCL No wonder every time I call with a question or issue I end up more frustrated and confused than to begin with.

 

Moral of the story...Do It Yourself otherwise you'll end up talking to my sweet clueless dear friend.

 

End Rant. (that felt good to let that out)[/quote']

 

 

PCCs are not travel professionals. They are call center workers. To think they know anything about travel is absurd. They can look up NCL cruises and have access to a little bit more information than the general public, but not a lot. To think that they know anything special is ludicrous.

[mking8288]

Well, that's not a surprise ... it's been reported via those career / job sites, that NCL's agents working out of these call center (one is in/near Arizonia, in addition to Florida - as I see those #'s area codes on our CID screens) averaged $11 an hour ...

 

Meanwhile, here in NYC, fast food workers are aiming for/soon hoping to earn $15 an hour taking orders for your Dollar Menu specials and flipping burgers & packaging fries to go.

 

Without bringing into the matrix of a living wage, the prices hikes and the joys of cruising, yada yada. To put this in perspective, these call centers are not much different than calling tier 1 support for Verizon, Time Warner Cable or even retail banking's help desk, etc. - mostly outsourced and reading off scripted pre-written answers on multiple screens, following the "prompts". Surely, the seasoned travelers remember the good old days of pulling out the pocket OAG editions to look up flights routing & book them, in the pre-AOL era.

[rvsullivan]

Having spent a career implementing call centers for every industry you can imagine including airlines and cruise lines, I can tell you what it takes to work in a call center.

A nice phone voice.

Average intelligence.

Ability to read.

Detail oriented.

Cool and calm.

 

Business owners set up the screens that agents see (screen pops) and the steps to be worked through. A second level of support is built in to handle unusual situations. A third level is available for extreme cases.

 

Some call centers actually handle dozens of different accounts with the same agents. I can assure you none of them are "experts" in the areas they support. And there is no need.

[HarpHarp]

Reference librarian here. In my career I've had thousands of people ask me thousands of questions that I was certainly clueless about when asked.

In addition to the characteristics that rvsullivan listed, your friend needs to be able to find the information on the screens provided, & be able to discern when she need to kick it up to the next level.

She also needs to be able to tell the customer that she needs to check something out & will get back to them if the data doesn't look quite right.

 

I've had 2 incidents with my Escape cruise that were totally the fault of the IT folks. In the mass of port changes a few weeks ago, they put the time change for this cruise in the wrong port. Just this week I got my notice for final payment saying it was due 12/30/1969:rolleyes:

 

If my PCC hadn't said something wasn't quite right with the time change, I would have booked on another line.

If your friend knows what se doesn't know & is concerned with doing a good job, she'll do fine.

[cruzsnooze]

Ok so I have read on here a few times that the agents on the other end of the line have very little travel knowledge. At that time I took it with a grain of salt and kind of sort of didn't believe it......UNTILL.....I saw on my Facebook a girl I know who is now posting like crazy that's she's a Personal Cruise Consultant for Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

"HUH" (Scratching My Head) with a frown on my face as I read her post. I'm so confused NCL you hired a girl ( as sweet as she is) that has NO travel experience...Hasn't even stepped one toe out of the country (not even a whole foot just a toe).

 

NCL how could you expect I ( we'll definitely NOT me) poor unsuspecting victims to turn over our hard earned money to someone who's not well versed in travel' date=' someone who has NEVER sailed, (not just your cruise line....any cruise line...Not even the Circle Line!!!)

 

NCL No wonder every time I call with a question or issue I end up more frustrated and confused than to begin with.

 

Moral of the story...Do It Yourself otherwise you'll end up talking to my sweet clueless dear friend.

 

End Rant. (that felt good to let that out)[/quote']

Everyone was new at a job at some point.

[Budget Queen]

Ok so I have read on here a few times that the agents on the other end of the line have very little travel knowledge. At that time I took it with a grain of salt and kind of sort of didn't believe it......UNTILL.....I saw on my Facebook a girl I know who is now posting like crazy that's she's a Personal Cruise Consultant for Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

"HUH" (Scratching My Head) with a frown on my face as I read her post. I'm so confused NCL you hired a girl ( as sweet as she is) that has NO travel experience...Hasn't even stepped one toe out of the country (not even a whole foot just a toe).

 

NCL how could you expect I ( we'll definitely NOT me) poor unsuspecting victims to turn over our hard earned money to someone who's not well versed in travel' date=' someone who has NEVER sailed, (not just your cruise line....any cruise line...Not even the Circle Line!!!)

 

NCL No wonder every time I call with a question or issue I end up more frustrated and confused than to begin with.

 

Moral of the story...Do It Yourself otherwise you'll end up talking to my sweet clueless dear friend.

 

End Rant. (that felt good to let that out)[/quote']

 

So "what experience" do you think you should have? There are a lot of people out there who "think" they qualify.

 

I'm sure there is an adequate training program in place. What you are making the wrong assumption about- is that they are "travel agents" (who don't need actual experience either) which they are not. so much is available to just look up online- which is what should be done.

[conandrob240]

They are call center representatives. Hopefully we'll trained on how to look up prices, read cancellation policies and process payments. Make simple changes, assign cabins and book entertainment/ dining. Think of it like this- when you. All to buy something over the phone, do you expect that the person is an expert and user of every catalog product?

[Jane Don]

I get what the OP is saying. When I go to a personal tax consultant I expect this person to do more than transcribe numbers. I expect the same from any consultant I might need. Personal Cruise Consultant is a misnomer. A PCC is really a reservation agent. If NCL called them reservation agents perhaps customer expectations would fall in line.

 

If the person who scanned my card at the front desk of my gym was called a Personal Fitness Consultant, I would probably expect more than the physical act of scanning me in.

[Misskitty72]

Yeah. It sounds like you friend has a job at a call center with a fancy title.

 

I agree though, they shouldn't be called Personal Cruise Consultants.... that's misleading. I know I've been mailed letters and received calls from NCL PCC's who wanted to help me plan my next vacation. I've pretty much ignored them because I can't think of anything they could do for me that I couldn't do myself.

 

That said, I don't think it's outrageous to assume that someone who has the title of "consultant" should at least have an inkling about the industry they're working in. But that's not your friends fault, it's NCL's for coming up with such an absurd title for a reservations agent.