Is Celebrity Putting Too Much Pressure On Crew To Receive Excellent Guest Survey Ratings?

[WonderMan3]

I have no problem when asked to please fill out a post-service survey or maybe even a staff member asking me to tell them how their service has been but when I am solicited to specifically give positive marks on a company survey that’s a big no no. I used to work for a tour operator and probably the number one rule for our program directors was to not solicit positive feedback on post-trip surveys. If they did it resulted in immediate termination. It makes the customer feel uncomfortable and guilted into giving a rating they might not otherwise have given. 

[WonderMan3]

1 hour ago, Esprit said:

Just off Silhouette yesterday and all the crew we spoke with were asking if we would give a 10.

i joked with one waiter that as my breakfast order was mixed up I couldn’t possibly give a 10 and she was aghast.

This is so weird. I cannot ever recall a Celebrity cruise where crew was asking for 10 ratings on surveys. I think once or twice I’ve had conversations with suite butlers who explained how a 10 rating was more important than any tip we might give them because of the impact on future assignments/promotions but I don’t remember ever being solicited for a 10. If that happens more than once on my next cruise I will report it to the Hotel Director (without naming crew) and tell them they need to ask crew to stop this practice.

[jeb2791]

Sailed on the Edge 7/17/21 and no one asked for 10/10 reviews.  I did keep a running list in my phone of the names and positions of those crew members who really provided great service so I could mention them specifically.

[shipgeeks]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

I (we) fill out the survey honestly. I (we) don't concern ourselves with the what ifs. 

So you say Yes to the question of whether crew members talked to you about always giving a 10? (Assuming that they do.)

Does the survey then ask you to name names or areas?

[Blackduck59]

I do find the whole soliciting for top marks disturbing. The crew does a great job and should get top marks anyway. Asking for top marks is just another form of begging, which hard working employees shouldn't have to do. The situation is created by the cruise lines, clearly they don't really want to know the truth. If they were interested they would offer incentives for good marks and tell the crew to stop asking for good reviews. Funny thing about surveys they are useless with skewed data. If everything is a 10 how can there be improvement where needed. Guests for the most part want to be honest (I know there are those who can't be satisfied). Good service should be praised, exceptional service is best rewarded with an appropriate cash gratuity (above and beyond the required gratuity in your fare included or not). 

[loge23]

36 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

I don't mind if someone explains the survey, and then asks for a note or comment giving them feedback if there is anything they should do to improve. We have all seen complaints on here where someone gripes about a stateroom attendant or waiter who forgot or omitted something the customer expected, and the griper admits they down-rated the person without ever voicing the expectation. Often it was something they had gotten in the past and it seemed they were basically punishing the crewmember for not being a mind reader.

 

We have actually been told by some higher-ups that some bosses treat a failure to complete the survey as equivalent to a low rating. I will always be understanding of any request to fill it out, and if the crewmember asks us for help in doing better, or urges us to just be honest, that deserves top-rating in my book!

 

As for car dealers, I get very disgusted by service departments saying that we need to contact them first before giving a low rating on the mfrs' regional surveys. They are saying to not be honest, and asking us to be their service supervisor. Really stupid for something as objective as that.

So true. Surveys were developed to find out areas that needed improvement in a operation/business/service. Nowadays, lazy managers who don't know how to manage use them as a cudgel to berate the staffs that they failed to develop or train properly.

You mentioned the car dealers. Several years ago we purchased a new vehicle from a dealership that we only used because our pre-purchase research matched us up with them. We used Consumers Report and AAA "Best Price" tools. 

Of course, upon arriving, the dealership used every trick in the book to wring as much more out of us as they could - we stood our ground. The salesperson was a young man who predictably had to run virtually every conversation we had with him through his "manager". It was unnecessarily taxing but completely unpleasantly consistent with most car dealerships. Then came the survey, and the almost begging by the salesperson for five stars on every question. A few weeks later I got a phone call from the salesperson guilt-shaming me for the accurate rating I gave! Needless to say, I'll never go there again!

I often wonder about that experience when the cruise surveys are sent out. They know who you are. Does the staff know too? We all know about the one bad apple metaphor!

 

[davekathy]

56 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

So you say Yes to the question of whether crew members talked to you about always giving a 10? (Assuming that they do.)

Does the survey then ask you to name names or areas?

I thought I made that perfectly clear in my response to you. Yes if asked to give a 10 rating. I (we) have in the past and will continue to do so if asked. I don't remember if the name or position was asked on our last survey (September 2019). But I don't remember on that cruise any staff member asking to give a number rating. Our cabin attendant only reminded us to please complete the survey as it is important to all that work on the ship, but no mention of a number rating. We not only rated him a 10 but also added written kudos. 👍👍

 

Would you or do you complete the survey honestly? 

 

Just as an FYI, if we have an issue with a staff member for whatever reason we will privately speak with them and advise them of our concern. If the problem continues then it will be annotated on the survey, score wise and as a note as to why we rated the staff member that way. I can tell you this has happened only once and that was on a RC cruise. Never on Celebrity. 

Edited August 7, 2021 by davekathy

[mayleeman]

13 minutes ago, davekathy said:

I thought I made that perfectly clear in my response to you.

 

 

 

I think the first question wasn't because you weren't clear, but instead was just a lead-in to the one about whether the survey then asked for names. Not including names would not be dishonest, but might prevent the survey from being used to inappropriately punish someone who got a 9 rating, for instance.

[davekathy]

15 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

 

I think the first question wasn't because you weren't clear, but instead was just a lead-in to the one about whether the survey then asked for names. Not including names would not be dishonest, but might prevent the survey from being used to inappropriately punish someone who got a 9 rating, for instance.

 

So you say Yes to the question of whether crew members talked to you about always giving a 10? (Assuming that they do.)

Does the survey then ask you to name names or areas?

 

3 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

We have experienced this many times, and find it quite annoying.  What I find curious is the question on the post-cruise survey:  Did any crew member speak to you about these ratings? (or similar wording).  I get the feeling they are not supposed to do so, so I say No.  But I could be wrong.  Should I say Yes?  Will that get the person in trouble?  Or be a plus for them?  Maybe they are instructed to do so?  It's very confusing, apart from the annoyance.

Nope, I answered what was asked. . 

[HappyCamper49]

9 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

I have experienced this on past sailings but this weeks trip on Millennium has taken the soliciting of excellent post-cruise survey reviews to the next level.

 

More than a dozen crew members have asked me on multiple occasions to leave them top marks on the survey, many even going into detail how their income depends on these ratings etc. I'm trying to be nice and assure them to feel more relaxed but it's gotten weird now.

 

I'm not sure what Celebrity actually does with the data from these surveys and I do feel that the crew generally does an excellent job but this constant push for reviews is really over the top and quiet frankly annoying as well.

 

If the crew feels under that much pressure to receive top grade input and recommendations from guests then Celebrity needs to change that system asap. It doesn't create a relaxing work environment and puts the burden of crew evaluation on the passengers rather than onboard management.

Agree with you.  On our first Celebrity cruise we had the most wonderful cabin steward.  On the next to the last day he knocked on our door and asked if we had been pleased with his performance and if we were would we please give him a favorable rating.  I was stunned, but he explained WHY he was making that request.  Apparently, bad reviews on him would have severely affected his chance for advancement.   Felt bad for this sweet young man from India who was worked to exhaustion each day, yet did a fantastic job.

[HappyCamper49]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

I thought I made that perfectly clear in my response to you. Yes if asked to give a 10 rating. I (we) have in the past and will continue to do so if asked. I don't remember if the name or position was asked on our last survey (September 2019). But I don't remember on that cruise any staff member asking to give a number rating. Our cabin attendant only reminded us to please complete the survey as it is important to all that work on the ship, but no mention of a number rating. We not only rated him a 10 but also added written kudos. 👍👍

 

Would you or do you complete the survey honestly? 

 

Just as an FYI, if we have an issue with a staff member for whatever reason we will privately speak with them and advise them of our concern. If the problem continues then it will be annotated on the survey, score wise and as a note as to why we rated the staff member that way. I can tell you this has happened only once and that was on a RC cruise. Never on Celebrity. 

We have only been disappointed with one cabin steward on Celebrity.  On an eastbound TA in 2018, our Concierge class cabin steward was the absolute worst we have ever OR could ever have!  One bathrobe in the closet for a party of two.  One chocolate left on one pillow the first night.  Sloppy housekeeping for 14 days.  Yet, we still gave him an additional tip and did not get a survey so I do not know if we would have been honest or not.

[wrk2cruise]

Why have a 10 points scale if the range is really not that granular.   I'd welcome a 3 point scale. 

 

Expectations:    Not Met             Met        Exceeded

 

The the Not Met could be followed up by management for remediation and Exceeded could be rewarded.   The "Met" should want to self improve to get the rewards of exceeding.

 

[batoryfirst]

We were on a Royal Caribbean ship a few years ago in traditional dining at a table for eight. The requests began the first night often interrupting conversations between table mates. All of us were frequent cruisers so we told the waiter we understood the drill & that he could stop mentioning it. He didn’t stop so we all made the decision on the next to the final night to hand him our tips & left the dining room to relocate to the Windjammer buffet. Far more enjoyable & relaxing. 

[larry_s_taco]

9 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Agree that the crew should not be asking for you to rate them with top marks on the survey.  That being said, more than a dozen asked you on your Millennium sailing?  I can think of a few that serve you directly that require official post-cruise ratings (like room steward, waiter and assistant waiter, butler if in a suite) but most other crew that are on board are not officially rated by you on the survey.  So how did you come up with more than a dozen?  

We were on the Millennium out of St Maarten the second cruise in June. We were ask for the ratings from several people, not a dozen, but many more than usual. We had request from our wine steward, the person who set us up for reservations at Le Petite Chef (we spoke to him several times), and a couple of the bartenders. The oddest one came from the manager of the art gallery. I don't quite know how that works since it is a concession. There is a place on the survey where you can mention any staff member by name. I guess that is what they were going for. 

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, HappyCamper49 said:

We have only been disappointed with one cabin steward on Celebrity.  On an eastbound TA in 2018, our Concierge class cabin steward was the absolute worst we have ever OR could ever have!  One bathrobe in the closet for a party of two.  One chocolate left on one pillow the first night.  Sloppy housekeeping for 14 days.  Yet, we still gave him an additional tip and did not get a survey so I do not know if we would have been honest or not.

You do what you believe is correct. I (we) believe in hopefully correcting a problem going forward so others do not have the same experience(s). I'd (we) would like to believe we are part of the solution and not part of the problem. As I mentioned before, we will discuss the issue privately and respectfully with that person. If the issue continues then our rating/score will reflect that on the PCS.  I don't expect others to agree with me. Out of all our cruise with different cruise lines we've only had one occasion where we gave an unsatisfactory rating to a staff member. 

Edited August 7, 2021 by davekathy

[jg51]

11 hours ago, CroozFanatic said:

Always believed the soliciting of "reviews" was a veiled request for cash. Call me a cynic.

.

Quite possibly you are right, "CroozFanatic" (rather than being a "cynic"). 

 

If we are obnoxiously bombarded with requests (like the OP), we will say to a crew member, "Don't worry.  We will not give you anything lower than an 'excellent' rating."  Then, in order to keep our word (but without rewarding the crew member), we will simply not submit a performance appraisal of that person.  Thus, we will not have given the crew member "anything lower than an 'excellent' rating."

.

Lest anyone think that the above is cruel, rest assured that we are very generous in giving cash tips (to waiters and assistants at each MDR lunch and dinner, to bartenders for each drink, to stateroom stewards, to anonymous staircase cleaners, etc.).  We are not going to submit dishonest appraisals on top of that.

[TeaBag]

I feel it should be obvious if a crew member deserves a 10.  They should not have to ask.  That always turns us off.  We have made a practise for years of going to Guest Relations to ask for an "Attention to Detail" card when a crew member has done an excellent job.  We don't need to be told to give a 10.

[HappyCamper49]

2 hours ago, TeaBag said:

I feel it should be obvious if a crew member deserves a 10.  They should not have to ask.  That always turns us off.  We have made a practise for years of going to Guest Relations to ask for an "Attention to Detail" card when a crew member has done an excellent job.  We don't need to be told to give a 10.

What a good idea!  I was unaware such a card existed.  We will ask for one going forward.

[techwatcher]

16 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

This is so weird. I cannot ever recall a Celebrity cruise where crew was asking for 10 ratings on surveys. I think once or twice I’ve had conversations with suite butlers who explained how a 10 rating was more important than any tip we might give them because of the impact on future assignments/promotions but I don’t remember ever being solicited for a 10. If that happens more than once on my next cruise I will report it to the Hotel Director (without naming crew) and tell them they need to ask crew to stop this practice.

Agree with this approach. 

Although this isn't recent (before Celebrity started using the 1-10 scale) I recall once a CD explaining to a theatre audience what the term 'excellent' meant in relation to the survey. His argument was that it didn't mean 'perfect', just 'very good'. I was surprised to hear it at the time as in a way it's approaching lobbying for high ratings.

[CroozFanatic]

19 hours ago, Esprit said:

Just off Silhouette yesterday and all the crew we spoke with were asking if we would give a 10.

i joked with one waiter that as my breakfast order was mixed up I couldn’t possibly give a 10 and she was aghast.

 

Not funny

[Gracie115]

I don't blame the staff that asks for good reviews.  Celebrity is obviously telling staff that if they get bad reviews, or even less than "excellent" reviews it will affect their position and salary.  That's intimidating and I would imagine, especially right now, with many ships still idle, it would be fairly easy to replace one staff member with another should less than "excellent" reviews be given.  

 

I would just love to be on a ship right now being "pressured" for good scores!!!!!!😁

 

 

[bikerunner]

Strangely I rarely get asked about filling out survey cards, usually just from a the person who cleans room. Otherwise n my last few cruises, fall 2019, spring 2019 really never asked by any other staff that I remember.  I do fill them out and tend to be very straightforward in my replies,  did run hotels large 300 room plus, for many years so notice a lot of small details on ships and places I visit.  Never had any service issues with celebrity.  

[TeeRick]

Maybe a solution is to have a direct question on the Guest Survey asking if any crew member solicited a score from you.  And name/department.  And tell the crew that the question has been added to the survey.  With a penalty of some type going to the crew member's department head.  That will stop the practice quite quickly.

[DirtyDawg]

This is happening in many industries, not just cruising. I'm not sure how or when it started or which Business Prof guru or Consulting firm sold this to the customer service companies but in 2021 it has spread farther and infected more industries than Covid has infected people! I've had customer service agents at my cell phone provider beg for 10's. Also at our car dealership, at the funeral home we just used for my mom, and don't get me started on the the university students I teach. They seem to think that simply logging into most of the an online lectures for the course should guarantee them at least a B in the course. 

[TeeRick]

Speaking of Ratings.   At the top of each thread to the right of the title (or underneath) there are 5 stars (grayed out) for some sort of rating?  Anybody know why?  They don't appear to be functional.

Edited August 8, 2021 by TeeRick