The pressure to provide "excellent" service

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I've learned to head off the excellent speech by allowing it the first time. Then I'm very clear in my response: "OK, you said your speech. Now, if I hear it again, it will affect the rating." If they start it again the next meal, I tell them that I will be mentioning it to the head server that I've asked not to get the excellent speech numerous times. Usually, I don't have to take it that far.

Yes, I've checked "yes" on the "did you feel pressured to provide excellent ratings".

I like this approach! We are sailing in September we are going to try this thank you. Tried the carrot. Time for the stick! Thank you.

 

[wilkeliza]

I'm similar to PrincessShmoo. If we get the speech at all we will let them say they are striving for Excellence one time but if they keep at it we politely say the pressure for excellence scores is going to force us to chose something else and that we would appreciate continuing our trip with out the pressure for such. We don't usually hear it after telling them that.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I'm stunned. I rarely give 10s or excellent on surveys. I just assumed that was left for the times when I'm really impressed. But I thought my 9s would be considered doing very well. I guess it's time for me to change my marks, if they aren't being taken as honest feedback. Thanks for the reality check.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

This bugs me too. I do find sometimes now it is earlier in the cruise and more often, not just the last night, and I really hate listening to it, even when we have servers we adore! We have had some head servers casually work it in at the beginning, for example he will tell us it's his job to make sure everything is excellent for us, and if it is to let him know...that I'm ok with. It's when they start mentioning the cards specifically, that is gets weird. Honestly, I don't feel they should be allowed to even mention that, but I guess they are.

We just got the same sort of speech at the Ford dealer when we bought our new truck. I've already decided that I'm not providing any ratings on that survey when I get it, but I will mention that I don't give "excellent"s as a rule, since I believe (as mentioned above) there's always room for improvement. And that I don't appreciate being told I need to provide "excellent" or it could affect their job.

 

[Mortlives]

The basic problem is that these measures are based on faulty premises. In general, people tend to always assume there is room for improvement, so they tend not to give 100% for anything. And there are always going to be some people who are going to complain and find fault no matter what you do, so making these cards a pass/fail on 100 is ridiculous and not fair. What would be better would be to actually average out scores, and make anything over an 80 (I think in general people should be at least that happy with the service) a pass, with bonuses for over 90. It's DCL itself that is creating the annoying speech. I have actually said this on comment cards.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The basic problem is that these measures are based on faulty premises. In general, people tend to always assume there is room for improvement, so they tend not to give 100% for anything. And there are always going to be some people who are going to complain and find fault no matter what you do, so making these cards a pass/fail on 100 is ridiculous and not fair. What would be better would be to actually average out scores, and make anything over an 80 (I think in general people should be at last that happy with the service) a pass, with bonuses for over 90. It's DCL itself that is creating the annoying speech. I have actually said this on comment cards.

The other issue I have is the ratings you give for "how was the food" affects the servers. Not the chef/kitchen staff. The premise is that, if you don't like it, it's up to the server to "make it right". And if they don't, the bad food is on them.

And I mention that also in the comments section. I point out specifically that my serving team was very good, or excellent, whatever, BUT the actual food preparation was not up to par.

I also bring extra paper on the cruise, since the actual area for writing additional comments has only 2 or 2 (small) lines. I need more space, as I don't really like the "check appropriate number" comments. I like to be specific about why I gave that rating.

 

[cgolf]

The thing that I have noticed is the the better the service, the less of a speech we get. Usually all we get is don't rate based on the food, rate based on our service and that is it. The only times teams may go over the top is when the service has been poor, those teams know they need to do some selling to get an excellent score.

 

[Hundredacre]

We are going on our first non dcl cruise this December. The thing we are most looking forward to (besides the price) is less overbearing dining servers. My husband especially. Says he's ready for some "mediocrity."

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are going on our first non dcl cruise this December. The thing we are most looking forward to (besides the price) is less overbearing dining servers. My husband especially. Says he's ready for some "mediocrity."

Sadly, you'll get the same excellent speech on other cruise lines. At least in our experience. But yes, they won't be the entertainers that DCL servers are (magic tricks, brain teasers, etc).

 

[missyp]

The pressure for excellent service must be reaching a crazy level, to the point that it is making guests uncomfortable. We had an issue with our service team the first night of our last cruise on the Fantasy. When asked by the head waiter how our service team was doing I feel we made the grave mistake of saying we weren't thrilled and had much better service on past cruises. From then on they were tripping over each other to make our service perfect. Cheese plates were being brought to our table every night (which we didn't want). We were the first one's to have our orders taken every night, they were border line ignoring other tables to make us happy. It was so uncomfortable and we really would have rather had the sub par service than the ridiculous over the top service we were getting.

 

[darnheather]

Had no issues on our cruise but I would have done the same as PrincessShmoo. Warning first time and straight to head server second time.

 

[OrcaPotter]

After 5 DCL cruises (my last RCCL trip was 9 years ago so I don't remember), I've had servers who dramatically pushed the excellent rating and others who hardly mentioned it at all. I've sat through sob stories and pictures of babies in utero, and then other times I simply got excellent service without being told anything. My latest on the Fantasy last month fell in between those extremes.

I've never given a rating less than excellent, but if the question about being pressured applied, I checked it off.

 

[EastCoastCdn]

We're going on our first cruise soon. I'm not looking forward to this. I may use the tactics mentioned.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I'm stunned. I rarely give 10s or excellent on surveys. I just assumed that was left for the times when I'm really impressed. But I thought my 9s would be considered doing very well. I guess it's time for me to change my marks, if they aren't being taken as honest feedback. Thanks for the reality check.

We solved this problem in two ways:

1) We choose to eat in other venues around the ship more than in the MDR's, and

2) We've stopped filling out survey cards entirely. Those whose service merits praise get it in the form of pictures of dead Presidents

 

[eskimoinparadise]

The other issue I have is the ratings you give for "how was the food" affects the servers. Not the chef/kitchen staff. The premise is that, if you don't like it, it's up to the server to "make it right". And if they don't, the bad food is on them.

And I mention that also in the comments section. I point out specifically that my serving team was very good, or excellent, whatever, BUT the actual food preparation was not up to par.

I also bring extra paper on the cruise, since the actual area for writing additional comments has only 2 or 2 (small) lines. I need more space, as I don't really like the "check appropriate number" comments. I like to be specific about why I gave that rating.

I like that RCL has gone completely away from the comment cards and now does their surveys via email after you get off the ship - I wish Disney would follow suit. I find that my assessment of service generally improves once I've had a day or two to get my land legs back.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Sadly, you'll get the same excellent speech on other cruise lines. At least in our experience. But yes, they won't be the entertainers that DCL servers are (magic tricks, brain teasers, etc).

The most pathetic displays (IMO) have been on Carnival. At least on Disney, the wait staff looks like they want to entertain. On Carnival I actually found myself feeling sorry for the way their MDR staff were made to perform.

 

[kamik86]

I like that RCL has gone completely away from the comment cards and now does their surveys via email after you get off the ship - I wish Disney would follow suit. I find that my assessment of service generally improves once I've had a day or two to get my land legs back.

Princess does an email at the end but they also have cards where you can nominate people that really are excellent with special cards. Occasionally someone will mention filling them out for anyone that you found to really be great (but never specifically saying me) this is common if for example a presentation ends early or they have a room full of people 5 min before the event is supposed to start.

I like this approach. It gave me a way to quickly tell them who was great and then later I gave the rest of my comments.

 

[FigmentSpark]

If you're really impressed with someone, should you just wait until the comment cards at the end to say so, or is there a way (other than verbally) to let guest services know about something you felt was above and beyond just after it happens?

 

[cgolf]

I like that RCL has gone completely away from the comment cards and now does their surveys via email after you get off the ship - I wish Disney would follow suit. I find that my assessment of service generally improves once I've had a day or two to get my land legs back.

We usually do both, and have always seemed to get good responses from the emails that we sent. We generally use the emails for high praise of certain staff, hopefully they get recognized when we do so, they do get a mention on the comment card, just not as elaborate.

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you're really impressed with someone, should you just wait until the comment cards at the end to say so, or is there a way (other than verbally) to let guest services know about something you felt was above and beyond just after it happens?

You can let your head server know right away or guest services. One one of my cruises, my server said that someone told guest services that they were having outstanding service and before the shift started, the head server announced it to the whole group. The server was give something, maybe more time off, I cannot remember.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

You can let your head server know right away or guest services. One one of my cruises, my server said that someone told guest services that they were having outstanding service and before the shift started, the head server announced it to the whole group. The server was give something, maybe more time off, I cannot remember.

The same approach works the other way as well. If you are dissatisfied don't wait until you get the comment card. Seek out the head waiter and let them know. If that doesn't solve the problem, then go to Guest Services and let them know. If al else fails, ask for the hotel manager.