When Rudeness and Luxury Don’t Mix
I recently went on a cruise that considers itself to be in the premium market but uses the word “luxury” a lot. The ship itself was quite nice, but the service left a lot to be desired. What was most frustrating was the fact that it all had to do with training.
For example, when I was on deck, I asked for a pizza from the gentleman whose job it is to provide pizzas. When I made my request, he was gruff and acted as if he were doing me the biggest favor in the world by actually giving me a pizza. Clearly, no one had told him that he shouldn’t behave that way.
On my day of departure from the ship, the room steward knocked on our door and then immediately walked in three times, clearly hoping that we had vacated the cabin, even though the deadline for disembarkation was hours away. The mini-bar attendant on that same morning got an early start (7:30 a.m.) of banging loudly on doors, demanding to be let in so he could see if bottles had been removed from the refrigerator.
Who was driving this behavior? My only conclusion was that the staff onboard this ship had been clearly given leeway to act in this manner, even though it was detrimental to the customer experience. Yikes.
Luxury travel advisors can take a lesson from this. If even one person on your staff deems that it’s ok to be rude, or even indifferent in the way they respond to a client, it mars the experience entirely. It takes that bubble you’ve been so careful to put them in and bursts it in the most jarring manner.
My suggestion is that you hold frequent meetings with your staff to ensure that this isn’t happening. Better yet, instill the philosophy of treating the customer like a kid glove in your basic business practices. Sometimes, if people don’t know they shouldn’t be rude they revert to the way they’d react to an annoying sibling or a cousin they’ve grown up with, by treating them casually and familiarly. To a stranger, this can be downright insulting and they’ll certainly question whether “luxury” is a word that should be used to describe your product.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
We just returned from the Nautica in the Med. We also ran across some staff that were rude and inflexible. We also missed 3 ports which was handled badly. I sat back quietly and listened to passengers. opinions good and bad.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:40 am
In our experience the “premium luxury market” is so busy filling the ships and trying to keep up with costs that they forget who actually pays for the
cruise and often times the passengers are the last real consideration when it comes to treatment, consideration and acknowledgement of desires and wants that are reasonably expected in the “premium luxury product”. We try to keep in mind that there are always exceptions to the rules and often times the staff members make the cruse for our passengers. Also the cruise lines are busy spending money to keep up with the new innovations of their competiotn. To the point that a few extra dollarts spent on a passengers experience is out of the question.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:09 am
With behavior like that I can not afford to risk my professional reputation recommending “premium” branded cruise lines. When a cruise line advertises as a “premium” cruise and throws the word “luxury” around, then it is a safe bet that the cruise line is like the all-inclusive flashy resorts which do the same thing: market, market, market, then don’t deliver and the travel consultant loses a client. This is what our professional expertise is all about and the reason why consortiums are getting stronger. We encourage and reward the products which deliver which makes for a healthier industry, happier clients and higher commissions.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Luxury is thrown around by everyone, it has become a caricature. In you magazine you have articles of agents billing 50 million dollars, this issue has an article of a company billing 4 billion. Is luxury a myth?
Are the travelers acting as recipients of luxury, then the staff reacts to them properly. If the employees are treated well by their employees then they are happy and the actions will reflect that.
Try asking politely and saying please and thank you see how things change.