When is a 10, actually a 10?

[dunrobbin]

We have always had great service on our previous Royal Caribbean cruises

Wonderful wait staff, coffee for hubby delivered with desert, cheese plate on the table, great room attendant.

Did all the above staff ask for a 10?     Yes they did! 

When asked in the survey, "did anyone ask you to score them a 10"  I say no they did not, because I was very happy with all that was done for us.

 

I did tell the guy in the lobby of the MDR (with the clipboard doing the survey)   asking "How was the meal,"  exactly what I thought, as in October last year, there were a few meals already with issues.

 

First cruise since the changes is May 7th on Brilliance to Alaska.

I have found with the survey, if you score high on any questions, you often do not get to make comments, even if you really want to.

Staff DO ask for a 10, because they have issues if they don't get a 10.

Not sure what I am going to do this time if  service sucks.  

The only voice we really have is through the survey.  I think I am just gonna be honest.

Question:  What did you do, and will it change?

[Mum2Mercury]

I'm always 100% honest on the survey, regardless of whether anyone has asked me for a 10 or not.  

[moposh]

I am honest.  If they do a good job, they get a high score.  I probably gave 10 to waitstaff and steward.  I did answer yes to, did someone ask to give them a 10 because they did.  They can ask for a 10, but they won't get it just because they ask. 

 

The survey is important because that's how RC gets our feedback.  I didn't give high marks to the entertainment.  I was disappointed with that.

[Kathscof]

If its a Medallia survey, and they have the tracking system set up like my past employer had Medallia surveys set up, anything below a 9 is a concern.....I keep that in mind when I score....

[StanleyandGus]

I give 10’s and deal with any problems at the time of service. Honestly, there aren’t many. 

[JeffT237]

I wish the 10 scale would go away and be replaced with something more realistic.  Something like rate the service: Great, Satisfactory, Needs improvement or Poor.  1 to 10 is too hard to analyze or rate, I mean what's the difference between a 9 or 10?  We just got off of the Wonder and I feel the service was great all around, an example was our room steward was friendly and efficient our cabin was always clean and he either had our requests waiting for us or when asked for something had it delivered efficiently.  IMO that's great service and what I've come to expect, that should be enough for Royal. Is that a 10 or do I take one off because we had to ask him for a corkscrew for the wine we ordered from Royal pre-cruise?  

[blondie from arizona]

I am always annoyed when they ask me to give them a 10. I become more annoyed when they continue their speech even after I tell them that I don't want to hear their speech and that I intend to give them a 10. Even when I agree with them that they are getting a 10, they continue with a long monologue about it. Then I become extremely aggravated if on the next night we have the same conversation and they have wasted my time twice.  At that point, they may get a TWO.

 

We are Diamond +. They know we have heard the speech before.  Many, many times before.

[BecciBoo]

If I am happy and satiated at the end of the meal, everybody gets a 10. I really can't remember if that never happened or not...I guess I'm just a happy kind of traveler.  I have made comments to the Matre-d before about what could be prepared better though, and made special requests, but I stand by my  mantra, happy and satisfied...a 10~  I don't get annoyed with the constant begging for 10s...I just smile and keep eating!

Edited March 15, 2023 by BecciBoo

[gmerick]

To me, a "10" means: First, I received service that I cannot suggest improvement upon, Furthermore, the service I received went above ond beyond that first level of expectation.

If I am prompted to give a "10" rating, that breaks the "First" expectation.  I don't participate in ratings inflation.  

[orville99]

At least they don't use the rating scale that Disney used, where choices went from amazing at the low end to magical at the high end.

 

We rarely (if ever) respond to any survey question from any company with a 10. A 10 tells them that they don't have to bother seeing if they can improve anything with their operations or manage the environment properly to at least maintain that level of service - in reality the typical reaction is one of "we are overdelivering, so we should probably look for ways to cut back until people start complaining". Eventually a perpetual 10 rating creates a 7 or 8 level of service mentality and the inevitable slippery slope race to the bottom begins.

 

 

[mil76]

This past week was the first cruise where I stopped giving everyone 10s by default.  The food has gone downhill drastically in the past few months.  We had 1st time Royal cruisers with us and their feedback from the cruise was that they loved everything except the food, which was atrocious.  Their last cruise was 15 years ago on Carnival and all they did was talk about how great Carnival's food is.  Nevermind that we're in a race to the bottom everywhere in the mass-market cruise industry, but I don't see them on another Royal cruise.

 

My feeling is that we have gotten into this cycle where you are made to feel that the crew is going to be punished for things out of their control  if they don't get 10s, so we feel bad and just give 10s regardless.  The problem is Miami takes this feedback to mean that everything is great, and keeps making the cuts.  If the staff was great but the food was awful, I just put something like "Tommy the waiter was great, but the prime rib was like cutting into an old shoe".

[STEVE-O]

I've heard rating the food less than "10" is a black mark for the servers.

That's 100% not fair!

 

If we aren't honest about the food, it'll never get better.

[lovesthebeach2]

First time ever that I said YES to the survey that we were asked to give a 10. It then gave me choices of MDR or WJ and maybe another, I don’t remember.  But I honestly said YES they did.

In my final comments I said for the first time ever since we’ve been cruising, that the food in WJ was better than MDR. I said our servers were very nice, but obviously very new. I didn’t say the reasons I said they were new, that wasn’t necessary.

 

I’m not going to say NO to that question anymore. I’m asked on every cruise, by both WJ and MDR multiple times.

[not-enough-cruising]

1 hour ago, StanleyandGus said:

I give 10’s and deal with any problems at the time of service. Honestly, there aren’t many. 

You aren’t helping things to improve 

[not-enough-cruising]

14 minutes ago, STEVE-O said:

I've heard rating the food less than "10" is a black mark for the servers.

That's 100% not fair!

 

If we aren't honest about the food, it'll never get better.

That’s not our problem. 
 

Stop giving “pity 10s” or nothing will change 

[lovesthebeach2]

3 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

That’s not our problem. 
 

Stop giving “pity 10s” or nothing will change 

I agree with you.  In my survey I was much tougher than usual. I gave low marks for food in MDR and WJ. I also wrote what was wrong with the food.  Although our servers were not good, I didn’t say that in the survey. I focused on the quality of the food as well as the preparation.

[PhillyFan33579]

27 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

You aren’t helping things to improve 

In my opinion the problem is RCI uses these surveys to evaluate their employees, not as a tool on how they can improve in certain areas. I have been on 60 plus cruises, and with one exception when the service in the MDR was so bad, I have always replied all 10s for survey questions related to dining and cabin service. I think people should answer the surveys with whatever they are comfortable with, but personally I am not going to provide any feedback that could hurt an employee(s) future with the cruise line.  

[mil76]

5 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

In my opinion the problem is RCI uses these surveys to evaluate their employees, not as a tool on how they can improve in certain areas. I have been on 60 plus cruises, and with one exception when the service in the MDR was so bad, I have always replied all 10s for survey questions related to dining and cabin service. I think people should answer the surveys with whatever they are comfortable with, but personally I am not going to provide any feedback that could hurt an employee(s) future with the cruise line.  

I agree with the sentiment, but I'm starting to turn my attention from worrying about my favorite crew staying on the Royal ships to me still going on Royal ships.   My wife is starting to talk about trying other lines after this cruise, and the kicker was riding on the parking shuttle when we got back with a couple who were returning from a Regent cruise who talked about how wonderful everything was.

[PhillyFan33579]

4 minutes ago, mil76 said:

I agree with the sentiment, but I'm starting to turn my attention from worrying about my favorite crew staying on the Royal ships to me still going on Royal ships.   My wife is starting to talk about trying other lines after this cruise, and the kicker was riding on the parking shuttle when we got back with a couple who were returning from a Regent cruise who talked about how wonderful everything was.

With the prices Regent charges the experience better be good on their ships. 

[smokeybandit]

When you bug me every night to give you a 10, you're not getting a 10. I had that happen last cruise.

 

I

[not-enough-cruising]

10 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

When you bug me every night to give you a 10, you're not getting a 10. I had that happen last cruise.

 

I

Amen

[not-enough-cruising]

49 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

In my opinion the problem is RCI uses these surveys to evaluate their employees, not as a tool on how they can improve in certain areas. I have been on 60 plus cruises, and with one exception when the service in the MDR was so bad, I have always replied all 10s for survey questions related to dining and cabin service. I think people should answer the surveys with whatever they are comfortable with, but personally I am not going to provide any feedback that could hurt an employee(s) future with the cruise line.  

Of course they are evaluating the employees. They are evaluating everything.  
Allowing emotion to get involved is counterproductive in my opinion.  
we have run into more than a couple crew lately that are obviously not cut out for this work, I have no issue sharing that opinion on my survey. 
 

[Tree_skier]

I've rarely been asked for a 10.  For me, typically they will mention the survey and that is a 1-10 rating scale.  They hope that I have exceeded my expectations and that I will score accordingly.  They have specifically asked me to give them a 10 just lead me in that direction.

[orville99]

February Serenade cruise is the first time in more than 75 RCL cruises where I actually gave zeros on several of the food/dining related questions, and then explained why in my comments. Unfortunately, that’s like peeing in the ocean - you get a sense of relief and satisfaction, but the water level never changes.

[lenquixote66]

4 hours ago, Mum2Mercury said:

I'm always 100% honest on the survey, regardless of whether anyone has asked me for a 10 or not.  

Same here .