Royal Caribbean monitoring Cruise Critic

A company like RCCL certainly takes reputation management seriously. With 64,000 employees, I am confident that scores of their employees read these boards every single day. As a matter of fact, they are probably harvesting everything posted on social media into a Hadoop cluster and gleaning marketing insights.

Having said that, I am wondering if RCCL posts on these boards. Have they taken a hands off approach to posting? Has anyone seen an RCCL respond in these forums?

I have seen them respond occasionally

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I think there are/was a few crew members posting in CC

Interesting Purescottish. I didn't think about that. Posts from crew sound more like an "unofficial response".

Yes, I have occasionally seen threads started by RCI, using their full name Royal Caribbean International. It's rare, but it does happen. I, too, have heard that crew members post here, which, I agree would be an unofficial response.

Karen, I didn’t find “Royal Caribbean” in the Critic Message Board Forum Member List. It doesn’t mean that it’s not there. It means I am clumsy at finding information.

I’m curious at what motivates corporate to respond. Is it to set the record straight, apologize, or some other reason?

I won a Cruise Critic travel coffee cup from a contest on CC. Whenever I carry it on board I have crew members tell me they read CC looking for mention of their ship. I have been told by more than one crew member if someone posts a review and names names, management knows about it and will even put a print out in the crew member's file.

I have seen RCCL start threads and respond to threads many times. Employees, I have no idea, but here is an example of RCCL responding to a question:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2383522

Thank you champagne123. This thread led me to their public profile and all their posts. RC isn't the most prolific poster, but they do post regularly.

Thank you champagne123. This thread led me to their public profile and all their posts. RC isn't the most prolific poster, but they do post regularly.

:):):)

While none of this is done in an "official" capacity...

There are a number of RCI employees who frequent here regularly, most of which are voluntarily reading and posting. Numerous helpful tips, suggestions, and general information is shared here by those posters.

It would also be reasonable to assume that at least some of the information here is reviewed and/or passed on to senior management, either in summary or abbreviated form - to help understand the pulse of their customers.

Both these practices are commonplace on message boards and for other industries.

Karen, I didn’t find “Royal Caribbean” in the Critic Message Board Forum Member List. It doesn’t mean that it’s not there. It means I am clumsy at finding information.

 

I’m curious at what motivates corporate to respond. Is it to set the record straight, apologize, or some other reason?

The threads that I've seen started were under the user name "Royal Caribbean International." I have never seen a response from them....only thread starters when they want to make some sort of announcement. Again, it is rare. In the 10 years I've been posting on this board, I've only seen it a handful of times.

Here is a link to all their posts,

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=93241381

They don't post often and frequently go a long time between posts, they also never seem to respond to the more difficult or controversial questions, just the easy ones and provide the same information that is on the website.

If you want direct responses and personal notes then try their F a c e b o o k page. They response within minutes.

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This quote is from the CEO. It’s from 2013 but enlightening about their social media strategy:

“We recently switched social media agencies, we went with R/GA in Austin and they have various listening posts capabilities they use in our behalf. Although you only pretty much have to go to Cruise Critic.”

While they don’t post much nor choose to respond to more controversial topics as you suggest Ken, it’s clear that they are reading every single post, aggregating them, and analyzing them for commercial insights. I suspect that responding to particular posts is of secondary concern.

CC represents a fractional portion of RCI's market share.

I really don't think the millions they spend annually on focus groups and direct passenger surveys would trump a few posts from a message board.

However, CC is a business that accepts advertising. Since the vast majority of the people who do post on CC. They people on the specific boards tend to be know as "cheerleaders" most posts would be considered tainted by that alone.

In all actuality, the people who do post on CC. Usually do so leading up to there cruise. Then fade back into obscurity. Also considering the amount of CC registered members, of those it's a very small percentage that post.

Now take some dummy like myself. I travel a lot, I participate in a few message boards relating to airline travel. It's the same thing. Tons of members, small amount of people continually post.

And if they read these board, it's probably for a good laugh. Not for any research purpose. But, I'm sure you guys will discredit this post anyway.

Oh well.... but, believe what makes you feel good.

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I think the Cruise lines use CC as an information gathering tool and not decision making tool, that's just my opinion :)

Interesting that Celebrity monitors CC and actually responds - usually clarifications - on that board fairly frequently. This is helpful and appreciated. I have not really noticed this on the RoyalC board. The parent corp RCI probably should have a consistent approach for all their brands on social media. Who knows- maybe they will see this post??

Those are some interesting observations Drumtech.

I don’t disagree with your assessment that posters don’t represent typical cruisers. However, I recently retired from the analytics industry and have worked with some big outfits like Marriott and Hilton. The hot area is analyzing unstructured data e.g. emails, forums, surveys, F a c e b o o k, etc.

These companies don’t seem concerned that the data may not be representative – they grab everything they can. There is software that can analyze sentiment, associations, etc.

A quick L I n k e d I n search shows almost 50 people at RC with social media in their title. So I do think there are RC employees reading every post.

Those are some interesting observations Drumtech.

 

 

 

I don’t disagree with your assessment that posters don’t represent typical cruisers. However, I recently retired from the analytics industry and have worked with some big outfits like Marriott and Hilton. The hot area is analyzing unstructured data e.g. emails, forums, surveys, F a c e b o o k, etc.

 

 

 

These companies don’t seem concerned that the data may not be representative – they grab everything they can. There is software that can analyze sentiment, associations, etc.

 

 

 

A quick L I n k e d I n search shows almost 50 people at RC with social media in their title. So I do think there are RC employees reading every post.

Can't compete with your background. However, FB, LinkedIn, instagram etc. have millions of active profiled members. So that data pool would be more reliable as the group is a larger representation of the markets for which the data needs to be collected for.

But, i respect your expertise. Can I use your background to help me in my football pool? I'm in45th place out of 48 participants.

I really need some data to help me[emoji857]

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CC represents a fractional portion of RCI's market share.

I really don't think the millions they spend annually on focus groups and direct passenger surveys would trump a few posts from a message board.

 

However, CC is a business that accepts advertising. Since the vast majority of the people who do post on CC. They people on the specific boards tend to be know as "cheerleaders" most posts would be considered tainted by that alone.

 

In all actuality, the people who do post on CC. Usually do so leading up to there cruise. Then fade back into obscurity. Also considering the amount of CC registered members, of those it's a very small percentage that post.

 

I agree. It's how business is run.

Karen, I didn’t find “Royal Caribbean” in the Critic Message Board Forum Member List. It doesn’t mean that it’s not there. It means I am clumsy at finding information.

 

I’m curious at what motivates corporate to respond. Is it to set the record s traight, apologize, or some other reason?

When the Quantum was first introduced "Royal Carib. Int'l" was posting as things developed.

CC represents a fractional portion of RCI's market share.

I really don't think the millions they spend annually on focus groups and direct passenger surveys would trump a few posts from a message board.

 

However, CC is a business that accepts advertising. Since the vast majority of the people who do post on CC. They people on the specific boards tend to be know as "cheerleaders" most posts would be considered tainted by that alone.

 

In all actuality, the people who do post on CC. Usually do so leading up to there cruise. Then fade back into obscurity. Also considering the amount of CC registered members, of those it's a very small percentage that post.

 

Now take some dummy like myself. I travel a lot, I participate in a few message boards relating to airline travel. It's the same thing. Tons of members, small amount of people continually post.

 

And if they read these board, it's probably for a good laugh. Not for any research purpose. But, I'm sure you guys will discredit this post anyway.

 

Oh well.... but, believe what makes you feel good.

Not discrediting your post, but I do disagree, very much: I think product forums of any type can be very influential.

It doesn't matter that there are a small percentage that post: a small, vocal group can have a very big impact on a business. And don't underestimate the lurkers: they read the posts by those vocal few and many make their decisions based on those posts.

...

Of coarse RCI monitors CC, how do you think they find about all of the tricks folks used to use. Booze smuggling, maximizing BOA credit card perks, etc. Folks bragging on cruise that's how.:rolleyes: