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the survey is not anonymous


gerelmx
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16 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I agree 100% about your first point.  The hard copy surveys had room for comments about things that could be improved.  The current surveys only want to hear how wonderful things are.  I will do the surveys when things are good as I want to give credit to those staff members who went above and beyond.  If I do have any issues I address them at the time first with the person involved, then their superior and/or guest relations.  It is rare that the issues don't get fixed.  If they don't despite all my efforts, I will rate them accordingly and scowls or grumpy stares be damned.

 

I agree 100%  I also deal with any issues at the time they arise.  I will evolve to your approach of only filling out the surveys if there is someone or some area that deserves a 10 or someone that deserves a written comment.  

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1 hour ago, Terre said:

But if their job performance is falling short, shouldn't their supervisor know?  In other jobs you are warned and eventually let go if you don't perform.  I do take into account that the kitchen may be the origin of slow service, or that large table with many demands, but it's easy to tell if the waiter or cabin steward is the problem as well.

We, too, usually speak with the maitre 'd or guest services and things are corrected then.  When this happens my score for the survey also changes for the better.  If people don't know what's wrong they can't correct it.

I am always honest with my comments and scores and if someone or something deserves a six, then that's what you give them.  Why would you work on improving if you do less or subpar work, and continue receiving a ten?

I am on vacation and I am not anyones supervisor that serves me on the ship.  Speaking with the crew member has always solved any problem so there was really no need to take it higher.  They could get into big trouble if the problem is egregious. I dont feel it is my place to play boss on the evaluations/surveys.  If you cruise often it is better to stay on excellent terms with everyone because your assistant waiter today may be the Hotel Director in 10 years, ie, Zafer Cholak, IN Hotel Dir.   And they have long memories.

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5 hours ago, kathynorth said:

I don't think I ever thought the survey was totally anonymous, but I didn't expect that crew would be reading my survey responses from a prior cruise while I stood in front of them, especially while not telling me they were doing this. 

 

Does this only come up with B2B cruises? Or do they have access to all comments a guest has made on any prior cruises, about their area of responsibility?

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6 hours ago, davekathy said:

For us our criteria for a 10 score is not going above and beyond, but just providing the service they are getting paid for. No different than any other non cruise related service you are paying for.  

Yes!  In my view, providing a 10 says that the service met expectations, not that it was above and beyond.  For us, it would be impossible to go above and beyond.  We are completely low key and rarely, if ever, ask for much of anything.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever waited at Guest Services for an issue and that one time it was to see if I could get a refund on a clam shell on the private island bc it was too windy to use.  We got the refund.  As long as my room is clean, my glass/plate is full, I'm pretty happy.  A 10 in my book.  I know this is not the norm as I've seen the list of complaints some people have...

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The whole scoring system is absurd.  Do you want the truth or do you want grade inflation?  If the latter, then they (the company, NOT the employee) need to explain that up front.

Edited by bEwAbG
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First, I love Celebrity and realize all things have issues and I really hope there is more to this than I understand. That said.

With my current knowledge and as I think about this more I have become jaded. A system that guilt's paying clients into giving a 10 to "help" the employee's and not getting the truth to help the product?

 

You are correct that you are no one's boss, but you are being requested to rate your experience. You are also told that if YOU give anything below a 9 it will hurt employee X.

What an upside down way of management. Leave the employees dangling if they get a couple "Mr & Mrs Very Important's" in a row who don't feel pampered enough and leave several low scores, the employee(s) is/are screwed?

Another question, am I to believe that if an employee gets an 8 or lower that they get their pay cut? Who gets that money? Do the other employee's in the pool get the difference, or does corporate? Because if it is the other employee's, I could see some serious games going on. And if it's corporate, wow.

I wonder how many actual on the floor employee's have been asked to help make the rating system better? Sounds like corporate America 100%, and yes, I'm a reformed corp employee.

As you can tell I hate stuff like this, it isn't hard to get honest feedback and improve your product at the same time. If this was done right it would not even be a discussion.

Edited by Mike981
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I don't fill out the cruise surveys anymore. I try to take care of issues as they happen.

The last two cars I bought at different dealerships, the salesmen told us to give them all 10s. If they got less they said management would be all over them.

I told both of them to hope I didn't get a survey. I bought a car in good faith and made a deal I felt acceptable. I felt no obligation to give someone a 10. I find that when this happens I think less of the person doing the asking.

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8 hours ago, helen haywood said:

I stopped filling out the surveys once I realized there is no spot to mention any particular problems encountered.  Hotel surveys ask if you encountered a problem...did you bring it to the hotel's attention....was it solved.  I felt X only wanted to use the all 10 business for advertising purposes.  If they are not anonymous...all the more reason to skip them.  And I agree that if they were really important the survey would be valid for longer than one week.

If you have a problem the best suggestion is to fill out the Attention to Detail form and drop it at the front desk.   At least it gives them the opportunity to correct in real time. It is also an excellent way to praise really good service.   We do the compliments quite often and the crew member is complimented in staff meeting and given a credit that can be used in the shops.  

 

You can also put your complaints in the comment section near the end of the survey where you can also call out great service.  

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Sometimes the comments are about the way the process works, though.  A single bar server in the dining room on our first X cruise is an example.  Not his fault that he was being run ragged but nothing management on the ship tried to fix even with complaints.  That, to me, rises to the level of something that should go on the survey. 

 

I've rarely had a service issue that couldn't be dealt with in the moment but why punish the employee if you're offering feedback on how they can make things better overall?

Edited by bEwAbG
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Pay the employees the gratuities we pay for goodness sake. Let us survey the overall product. Don’t you want to know when your staff cuts are hurting service and where the sweet spot is? X can’t know if the guests are asked to inflate ratings.

 

if 10 is supposed to be average but not exceptional I guess we can do that. But we remember what exceptional is, and some part of me thought they wanted to know when they were there again.

 

I had a car service recently where he could give me a new car computer if I gave him a high rating. The mad hatter is in charge now.

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Interesting discussion.  I don't think a 10 should stand for average service.  Doing that kind of takes away from those who work extra hard to provide superior service.   Seems it kind of removes a nice $$ incentive for those who want to be excellent. 

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3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

Interesting discussion.  I don't think a 10 should stand for average service.  Doing that kind of takes away from those who work extra hard to provide superior service.   Seems it kind of removes a nice $$ incentive for those who want to be excellent. 

Good question, if 10 is average what can you give for above average.

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3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

If you have a problem the best suggestion is to fill out the Attention to Detail form and drop it at the front desk.   At least it gives them the opportunity to correct in real time. It is also an excellent way to praise really good service.   We do the compliments quite often and the crew member is complimented in staff meeting and given a credit that can be used in the shops.  

 

You can also put your complaints in the comment section near the end of the survey where you can also call out great service.  


Jim, the issue I had was in the terminal at embarkation.  I didn’t think staff onboard were the ones responsible for that.

 

Bon voyage tomorrow!

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A couple of cruises ago the head waiter pushed the importance of a "10".  I let him know that if they provided excellent service we would be delighted to give a 10 on the survey.  They delivered and so did we, so there was much happiness all around. Lol

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36 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

The fake 10s remind me of a disreputable car dealership.

 

If you really are a 10 you should not have to beg for that score.

 

We once owned a luxury car (so called).  The transfer case went bad at 45K miles.  The guy at the dealership spent a lot of  time talking how I should score the survey, how I should discuss anything less than a perfect score with him, etc, etc. . He actually spent more time talking about the darn survey than he did the problem with our car.   

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Some years ago while having a coffee, a nice young lady asked if we would respond to her survey about the cruise.  It was during the cruise.  We did take the time to respond and give honest responses.  We had been pleased with our cruise.  When asked if their was something we would change we mentioned the quality of the food in the main dining room.  We were happy with the service and knew the food was another department.

She thanked us for taking the time to respond.

 

 

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13 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

If you have a problem the best suggestion is to fill out the Attention to Detail form and drop it at the front desk. 

 

Thank you for this, I never heard of it. Do you ask for it at guest services?

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Yes, at guest svcs

 

"Attention to detail " cards can really be a plus for employees.

 

  When we praise a waiter or room attendant part way through the cruise, the comment card is quickly acknowledged,  the employee and supervisor  are advised... and the employee gets extra half days off, free phone calls home, etc.

 

We try to only use names for poitives...other comments we keep,  general like music too loud...bars or buffet lacking certain items we have previously enjoyed,,,

Edited by hcat
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1 hour ago, Mike981 said:

 

Thank you for this, I never heard of it. Do you ask for it at guest services?

On our Equinox cruise last month we had the card in our cabin we could fill out with feedback.  I had waffles one day that couldn't be chewed or cut with a knife and mentioned that along with all the good things they were doing, raving about our cabin steward and a girl at guest services.  When we arrived for dinner the maitre d' was waiting at our table with our assistant waiter.  He apologized for the waffle and assured me it wouldn't happen again.  Later during our meal, another "suit" came to apologize about it and promised it wouldn't happen again.

That was about five days into a ten day cruise.  I ordered the waffle the next day and it was perfect that day and every day after!  They can't fix what they don't know about and I will hand out compliments just as readily.  You can complain nicely, you don't have to yell and make a scene.

 

Once on a Hawaiian cruise our cabin was above a lounge and we could hear the music all night.  Two nights in a row I called guest services to see if they could turn down the volume, which they did, but it was still too loud to sleep.  I called the third night and asked if we could be moved but were told the ship was full but she would let the hotel director know.  The next day after we got back from our day in Port, we stopped by the desk to see if the hotel director was in.  He came out, took us to his office and apologized saying the ship was full and offered an OBC.  We said we didn't want anything out of it,  we just wanted to be able to sleep.  We were very nice about it.  He gave us dinner in the French restaurant.  The next day we were moved to a suite.  The people in that cabin had an emergency at home and had leave and the hotel director thought of us.  They want everything to be right for you but, like I said, they can't fix it they don't know about it.

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This seems to be an issue in multiple industries--cruise lines, cable TV installers, everything--even doctors.

 

This just seems like lazy management: Invent some questions, package them into a "survey", tell the customers to do the work, summarize the data, and punish the workers appropriately. The thing that is really being measured is how effective the employee is at communicating that a "10" rating is the expected value.

 

The process isn't entirely useless. If there truly is a problem, then it is an opportunity for the customer to point it out. Those who advocate these surveys are quick to point that out. What they miss is how useless this is in the general case.

 

Managers that do this aren't really interested in improvement. They are interested in creating an illusion that they are using data to generate improvement. Any statistician will tell you their process introduces serious bias. It is unfair and immoral to impact compensation based upon this data alone.

Edited by MightyMike
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Recently filled in surveys for my flights to and from my cruise. Quite detailed.

 

I do think some of the general questions on Celebrity are a little misleading/misunderstood. For example, rating the food and service in Oceanview. Is the service and food good? If you compare it to a restaurant then,  no. But does it offer service and food that is good for what it is, a mass buffet then, yes...

 

I honestly think Celebrity now see a 10 as meaning ‘met expectations and did everything requested’.

 

They rely on the comments part to highlight staff who are ‘above and beyond’...

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