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In almost every social situation I have found myself a part of lately, someone has brought up terrible customer service. In fact, I just recently wrote on my LI and FB pages about an experience I had with an expensive beauty salon here in Sarasota. They completely ignored my very valid complaint, and in fact, never even said they were sorry. So this week when friends invited me to a birthday luncheon and began to share their horror stories, I chose to tell a positive story.
I mentioned our recent cruise on SilverSea, a high-end, all-inclusive cruise line which is now a part of the Royal Caribbean Company. Although the experience on the ship itself was
EXTRAORDINARY and some of the very best customer service I had ever experienced, the
communication BEFORE the cruise was the worst I have ever experienced.
As a result, when I returned home, I decided to write a letter to the brand new president of
the company, hoping since he was new, he might be interested in my feedback as a world
traveler (I have spoken in all 50 states and on all 7 continents). I spent several hours and
documented all the situations in which SilverSea dropped the ball or had no response to
either me, my travel buddy, or our travel agent for days and sometimes even weeks. I also
included some suggestions for improvement as well as praise for those few people (not
their jobs) who finally did respond…. as well as MUCH praise for the staff on the cruise
itself, so it was not a completely negative letter.
I emailed the president a copy of the letter and also prepared to mail a hard copy. Lo and
behold, within two hours of sending the email, I received a call from the Director of
Customer Relations. He was very open-minded and asked many questions as we talked for
over 45 minutes. He shared that they were working on a transformation of their systems,
asked for my advice, apologized over and over, and thanked me profusely for my feedback.
Then, not another hour later I received a personal call from the PRESIDENT of the
company! He thanked me and shared that a copy of my letter had been sent that morning
to all the senior managers in the company. He assured me they were committed to making many
changes, would love for me to stay in touch, and gave me his personal phone and email.
The next day the Director called to tell me about some changes they were already making
as a result of my letter. He then shared that he truly hoped I would cruise with them again,
so he was sending both me and y travel buddy a $1500 credit for anytime I wanted to book
a trip in the next two years. (That was certainly NOT why I wrote the letter, but it was a
meaningful recovery on their part, and I am very appreciative.)
Some of the lessons learned about great customer service were all things SilverSea did in response to negative feedback:
1. RESPOND quickly. A response within 72 hours will garner you the most loyalty.
2. LISTEN to their feedback and ask questions.
3. Let the person know you are SHARING their feedback with others in the company.
4. THANK them for their feedback – have a positive attitude and CHERISH that they
took the time to share instead of just telling lots of others and never using your
company again.
5. Do something concrete to RECOVER – a phone call, letter, or small gift.
6. Then TAKE ACTION and share what is being done.
I am now SURE that this company is focused on customer service. As I told them,
they had it really right on the actual cruise experience which is the hardest part – it was just
a travesty that the pre-cruise experience was so awful. They LISTENED and they are taking action. I can hardly wait to schedule my next cruise with them and so should YOU, www.silversea.com.
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