Guest Services - Onboard and Corporate

[YYC F/A]

After reading the (many) threads about the recent virus outbreak on Mercury, I couldn't help but wonder about the direction of Celebrity (and indeed, all cruise lines) with regard to guest service.

 

I've been on several lines, including Celeb (the Connie), and my preferred line overall is Celebrity. The reason for that, in common with many CC'ers I suspect, is the 'little' touches and the more personal service that makes me feel I'm valued, and the fact that people genuinely want to 'treat me famously'.

 

All the cruise lines promise 'gourmet dining' and 'great service at sea'... but with the trend toward ever larger ships and the fall in real terms of cruise prices, inevitably service has to suffer. It's much harder on these behomoths aka Voyager class etc. to deliver a personal experience due to sheer volume of people on board.

 

Celebrity, however, seems to still work diligently at a really personalised service. On the Connie, our Cabin Attendants noticed that we were storing glasses of grapefruit juice in the fridge, and low and behold, we suddenly got a silver pitcher of grapefruit juice every morning. Unasked for, but very welcome. Noticing the details, and going the extra mile - that was the positive image of Celebrity that made me feel that this was a line that really did 'do things a little differently'.

 

However, the on board crew often seem to be let down by a lack of support, or at times downright bad decision making, by the management team on board, and in particular by the folks back in the Corporate Offices. The recent issues on the Mercury seem to support this, and many people report that even when Corporate sent some people to the ship to assist the apparently beseiged Guest Relations team, they were not empowered to really do anything or make a difference in putting the situation right.

 

My experiences with issues at 'Corporate' include the policy (which seems to be unique to Celebrity / RCI) of pre-authorisation of foreign (non-US) issued credit cards. The issue has been discussed at length in a previous thread, but in essence, unlike US cards, many card issuers in Canada will NOT automatically just cancel off previous authorisations that have been submitted. By repeatedly submitting authorisations on top of authorisations without cancelling out the 'old' ones, Celebrity managed to max out both my credit card and my partners card, causing problems in port with renting cars, shopping etc. Something like this should be easily rectified onboard, but it took 4 days, and about 6 hours of my time with the Purser - Guest Accounts. 'Corporate Office' apparently just wasn't being proactive in helping resolve the issue - letting down the Purser. He, in turn, became increasingly frustrated, both with the situation, and with me and my constant demands for action. Getting repeated auto-generated letters from the Pursers office on board demanding alternative payment methods, and having my on board account suspended whilst the issue was supposedly being 'taken care of' did nothing to inspire my confidence in the on board management team.

 

I really believe that the vast majority of frontline crewmembers on board Celebrity's fleet work very hard, with long hours and several months away from home, and yet they consistently deliver that 'great' on board experience.

 

It's sad, therefore, that the management (both on board, and more particularly, at the Corporate Offices) seem let the side down so much when it comes to pro-actively resolving guest issues.

 

A fantastic on board experience is great. But if you don't have a robust management/head office team to sort issues out effectively if things go wrong, then it threatens to destroy the whole 'premium' cruising experience which Celebrity is trying to uphold.

 

We'll be off on the Mercury May 8th, so it'll be interesting to experience the ship and it's crew after all that has recently transpired. Let's hope the crew have had a chance to take some well earned rest and get over the last few weeks which, for them as well as many of their guests, must have been challenging to say the least!

[GoldDigger]

My experience of Celebrity 'after cruise' guest relations is far from shining. Next cruise will be on HAL - different demographic, but I guess they're the closest thing to Celebrity and I'm certainly hoping their service outshines Celebrity.

[superjerryw]

My experience with customer relations in general is that the people on board the ship are willing to please, but are held back by corporate policy. For example, we took a shore excursion that was terrible. Almost all of the people on the bus went to the shore excursions desk to complain. The shore excursions manager could not do anything until he talked to someone higher up and they talked to headquarters since a refund was in order.

[YYC F/A]

SuperJerryw - that's a classic example. A lack of empowerment. Having worked the 'frontline' in an aviation environment, there's nothing worse than being in a position where you a) empathise with the customer, b) know what could be done to put the situation right, but c) are unable to because of corporate red tape, or a lack of empowerment. Very demoralising for the frontline, and shortsighted to say the least from a Corporate perspective.

[timbo89]

Perhaps some of the blame rests in the highly litigious society in which we live.

 

I know firsthand of two specific companies where service has significantly diminished due to directives from the home office stifling the "front line" staff's ability to do much of anything. These directives were due wholly to specific instructions from the legal department.

 

It is interesting to note that a letter to a cruisline will often be replied to with a form letter stating that "things will be looked into" - with no specific replies to specific comments or questions. This form letter is obviously drafted by the legal department.

 

I suspect that cruiselines have to be very careful in what they say and do. Fear of litigation will often cause people to do "nothing" rather than do "something wrong"