Is Customer Service Important To You?

It is to me!  There is a Honda commercial on television where the “other” car dealer is saying how reliable their warranty is and the customer says “It sounds like its the warranty that’s reliable, not the car”.  I feel the same way about a lot of things.  I don’t want a computer that has a great warranty if it means the computer is going to break weekly, even if they fix it quickly.  I don’t want the computer to break down, period!  I don’t want to have to complain about service I am receiving (or not receiving) from a company on their Facebook wall or a discussion forum to get them to respond to my needs.  If I have a problem, I expect it to be handled quickly and effectively, but I also don’t want to have the problems in the first place.

When we decided to cruise on Carnival Cruise Line, I did so with a cautious but open mind.  I really didn’t think a Carnival Cruise was for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I think they are a good line for many people.  I have some clients that love Carnival and I don’t think any differently of them because of this.

On the first morning onboard, I was reminded why I had low expectations of Carnival.  I attempted to log in to the internet and found it was misreporting my package.  I tried several times, restarting my machine and clearing cookies and cache, to no avail.  There was no information on the flyer about who to contact, other than during business hours, so I called Guest Services.  I used the preprogrammed button on the phone.

There were five choices on the first menu.  First was to hang up and push a different button.  The other four were options to select.  I selected “2” for onboard services.  Next was a menu with at least six choices, none that fit.  Option “0” was to go to the main menu.  Frustrated with all the options and menus, I listened longer and option “9” was to talk to someone.  I explained the problem and was told the computer manager would be at his desk at 9:00 am, in two hours.  I explained the error, said that the system likely just needed refreshing (based on my IT husband’s assessment) and was told that I should just purchase a new package.  I refused to do that as I didn’t believe that it would solve the problem.  She offered nothing else.

What bothered me was not the non-functioning internet, but rather the way Guest Services handled it.  As someone who is in Customer Service, I never want to say “there’s nothing that can be done” as a first response, especially when clearly there is something that could be done.  Tell me you’ll contact the manager and let him know, even though it might take time to get the system running again.  Do something!

We had a mostly enjoyable day and later that night we ended up talking to the cruise director as it was elegant night and he was chatting with many guests.  He asked how our cruise was going and I told him honestly.  He was apologetic and understood where I was coming from.  He sent a note to our cabin a night or two later, thanking us and wishing us an enjoyable cruise.  I thought it was nice.  It certainly helped us feel better and enjoy the cruise more.

We kept an open mind and things seemed to get better.  We enjoyed all the trivia.  There was always a lot of trivia, but it seemed like not much else was going on.  On port days, nothing happened.  An hour or two before all aboard, trivia started.  We did go to a few shows.  The main theater times were 8:30 and 10:30.  It was tough to stay up so late.

We did have a few other small issues, but had a good time with our shore excursions and meeting other guests.  What happened next was not Carnival’s fault.  Every night our neighbors across the hall would come in at midnight and talk loud outside our room.  Finally, I had enough.  I opened the door and asked that they take it inside.  I went back to sleep, only to wake up at 2:40 am by the phone.  No one was there.  I hung up and it immediately rang again.  After the third time, I called Guest Services (by this time I saw in the FunTimes that we could dial “7777” to get right to a person in Guest Services).  The agent said she would alert security and they would trace the calls, but to call again if it continued.  Unfortunately, taking the phone off the hook would not work as for security reasons, the phones would ring even if off the hook.  The next call happened a few minutes later.  I called again and while I was dialing I heard other phones nearby ringing.  The agent said security was alerted and she got other complaints.  They would trace who did it.

We went back to Guest Services the next afternoon to see what happened.  We weren’t asked for our name or cabin number and were told measures were now in place if it happened again that night.  They didn’t have measures in place before this, a trace needed to be set up, etc.  I may not know how each cruise line handles it, but I do know that they log all calls, all uses of key cards and videotape many if not all public areas.  I accepted the explanation, knowing it would just frustrate me more to argue.  Personally, I think it was a mistake the ship made with their system of automated calls and they didn’t want to tell us.  This was the final confirmation I needed to realize that Carnival just isn’t up to my expectations.

Customer Service is very important to me and this just didn’t measure up.  My full review of our Carnival cruise will be in a separate blog.  We did have a good time overall, it just isn’t a cruise line we will go back to in the near future.