The pressure to provide "excellent" service

[melwill530]

We just got the same sort of speech at the Ford dealer when we bought our new truck. I've already decided that I'm not providing any ratings on that survey when I get it, but I will mention that I don't give "excellent"s as a rule, since I believe (as mentioned above) there's always room for improvement. And that I don't appreciate being told I need to provide "excellent" or it could affect their job.

They do this because it directly affects their pay. They are straight commission and it is cut when they score below the highest score. In addition is can hurt the dealership. They can actually loose the service line if they get enough scores that are low. In other words, Ford could remove all their cars and their ability to sell or service Fords.

 

[professorandmom]

we had to finally tell the servers to stop

...this...

Jennifer777, Your experience sounds horrific
There is no way I would sit through a round-the-table quiz...no matter how tired or hungry I was...so sorry it happened to you

 

[RedSox68]

They do this because it directly affects their pay. They are straight commission and it is cut when they score below the highest score. In addition is can hurt the dealership. They can actually loose the service line if they get enough scores that are low. In other words, Ford could remove all their cars and their ability to sell or service Fords.

I could see this when Disney was allowing you to place tips on your account as you see fit. Now that they have joined the industry norm and are automatically charging tips, I think this pathetic speech for ratings can stop.

 

[melwill530]

I could see this when Disney was allowing you to place tips on your account as you see fit. Now that they have joined the industry norm and are automatically charging tips, I think this pathetic speech for ratings can stop.

Sorry I was referring directly to the automotive industry.

 

[RedSox68]

Sorry I was referring directly to the automotive industry.

Got it. But it still refers to the fact that they are still doing it on the ships when they really don't need to! And UGH -- I hate car dealerships. I always feel out of my comfort zone there.

 

[Hundredacre]

Got it. But it still refers to the fact that they are still doing it on the ships when they really don't need to! And UGH -- I hate car dealerships. I always feel out of my comfort zone there.

Great, we've basically concluded (and good insight btw red Sox68) that going to the mdr has become like going to a car dealership.

 

[jdb in AZ]

You shouldn't have to skip dinner in the MDR because the waiter is pushy. You paid (through the nose) for the food, and you're paying the waiters to give you decent service without begging for an excellent rating.

 

[RedSox68]

You shouldn't have to skip dinner in the MDR because the waiter is pushy. You paid (through the nose) for the food, and you're paying the waiters to give you decent service without begging for an excellent rating.

We've never skipped MDR because of the speech or pushy waiter. We usually skip it on longer cruises for an in-room movie with room service or for a break from the rich food. Once we skipped it because of the ridiculous tablemates we were assigned, but otherwise we like to make the most of it because the restaurants are so different and pretty.

 

[Sytrace]

I fill out the surveys every cruise and give them the appropriate ratings based on service.
Out of the cruises so far there has only been one time I rated the dining team as Good (Fantasy) Another one I rated them Very Good (Dream 4 night) and the rest have been excellent on both Fantasy and Dream.
The good rating happened because the serving team was absolutely the worst we had ( I think it was the 5th cruise) The server was condescending to us in his speaking manner and rude to the assistant server every single night of the cruise.
He made sure we knew he was with the company longer than the Asst server and had come from Palo recently and preferred Palo diners over the MDR guests. I couldn't hold back and told him that we had dined at Palo and found it to be lacking in many areas and that we actually preferred the MDR's. That seemed to shut him up for a few minutes. Which was blissful. (This was the third night of the cruise) On the 4th night, the head server yelled at the assistant server (it was the asst servers second cruise) about something and then the asst server was not to be seen the rest of the night. The Head server was an absolute idiot who spent more time walking around and leaving things to the server than he did actually managing the tables. The ONLY times we saw him were on the first night and the last night when he came to beg for excellent ratings. Yeah, right, I will get right on that.
Oh and the last morning of the cruise we were finished and the server and assistant server were actually pleasant to each other (for the first time) The managing server shows up as we were getting up to leave, goes to shake Dans hand and then gets a phone call on his cell. He turned his back and walked away.
I have never been so glad to drop a survey into the box and leave the ship. I had rated the food as Excellent though because it was and the Cabin Host got excellent marks, but the serving team was definitely singled out as being Good.
We saw them on a later cruise walking around Cabanas or the pool deck. They remembered us, but none of us made an effort to chat.

Incidentally, after I rated them "Good" I was sent an email survey by DCL asking for more information. Which I was happy to complete.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I fill out the surveys every cruise and give them the appropriate ratings based on service.
Out of the cruises so far there has only been one time I rated the dining team as Good (Fantasy) Another one I rated them Very Good (Dream 4 night) and the rest have been excellent on both Fantasy and Dream.
The good rating happened because the serving team was absolutely the worst we had ( I think it was the 5th cruise) The server was condescending to us in his speaking manner and rude to the assistant server every single night of the cruise.
He made sure we knew he was with the company longer than the Asst server and had come from Palo recently and preferred Palo diners over the MDR guests. I couldn't hold back and told him that we had dined at Palo and found it to be lacking in many areas and that we actually preferred the MDR's. That seemed to shut him up for a few minutes. Which was blissful. (This was the third night of the cruise) On the 4th night, the head server yelled at the assistant server (it was the asst servers second cruise) about something and then the asst server was not to be seen the rest of the night. The Head server was an absolute idiot who spent more time walking around and leaving things to the server than he did actually managing the tables. The ONLY times we saw him were on the first night and the last night when he came to beg for excellent ratings. Yeah, right, I will get right on that.
Oh and the last morning of the cruise we were finished and the server and assistant server were actually pleasant to each other (for the first time) The managing server shows up as we were getting up to leave, goes to shake Dans hand and then gets a phone call on his cell. He turned his back and walked away.
I have never been so glad to drop a survey into the box and leave the ship. I had rated the food as Excellent though because it was and the Cabin Host got excellent marks, but the serving team was definitely singled out as being Good.
We saw them on a later cruise walking around Cabanas or the pool deck. They remembered us, but none of us made an effort to chat.

Incidentally, after I rated them "Good" I was sent an email survey by DCL asking for more information. Which I was happy to complete.

Do you get to rate the head server vs the asst server or are you stuck just giving a general review of the experience?

The sad thing is that guy probably blamed his serving team for all the bad ratings, as if that prevented him from doing his job effectively. People like that don't learn lessons, they just blame other people.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I could see this when Disney was allowing you to place tips on your account as you see fit. Now that they have joined the industry norm and are automatically charging tips, I think this pathetic speech for ratings can stop.

They will still do it because their survey results impact their jobs, such as whether they keep it or not. It also helps if they are wanting to move up.

 

[Sytrace]

Do you get to rate the head server vs the asst server or are you stuck just giving a general review of the experience?

The sad thing is that guy probably blamed his serving team for all the bad ratings, as if that prevented him from doing his job effectively. People like that don't learn lessons, they just blame other people.

I brought extra paper and made sure I wrote the dates and circumstances of each incident. I noted that the assistant server was trying hard, but that because of the situation with his team members that he could only do so much AND that it was a tense dining experience.
And the morning of debarkation situation was addressed on the email survery DCL sent me as I had already turned in the other one in the morning before breakfast. I think I will hang onto them until the last possible second if this ever happens again.

I agree, people like that don't take accountability for their failures and tend to blame everyone else.

 

[RedSox68]

He made sure we knew he was with the company longer than the Asst server and had come from Palo recently and preferred Palo diners over the MDR guests. I couldn't hold back and told him that we had dined at Palo and found it to be lacking in many areas and that we actually preferred the MDR's. That seemed to shut him up for a few minutes. Which was blissful. (This was the third night of the cruise) On the 4th night, the head server yelled at the assistant server (it was the asst servers second cruise) about something and then the asst server was not to be seen the rest of the night. The Head server was an absolute idiot who spent more time walking around and leaving things to the server than he did actually managing the tables. The ONLY times we saw him were on the first night and the last night when he came to beg for excellent ratings. Yeah, right, I will get right on that.

Not sure I would brag about that -- isn't it a downgrade to be taken from Palo service and put back in the MDRs?

 

[sabrecmc]

Our servers on the Fantasy on our last cruise handled it well, I thought. They told us the first night that they strive for excellent service and this is what Mickey expects, so if there is anything that we want done differently, like the tempo of the meal, drink service, whatever, to please let them know. Then, at the end of dinner on the second night, they asked how things were and if there was anything we wanted to change.

The only part that throws me off is the whole thing about the food rating being somehow on the servers. I know they make recommendations and such, but it still seems really odd to have that affect them. That's the one area where I have an issue b/c I sometimes want to rate the food lower than Excellent, but don't feel it should impact the servers. Their recommendations were the best of the bunch, but if I didn't like the bunch, then how to let DCL know? Ugh.

 

[Sytrace]

Not sure I would brag about that -- isn't it a downgrade to be taken from Palo service and put back in the MDRs?

You would think. We had another couple of servers who went from MDR to Palo and then back again who told us that they much prefer the MDR's to Palo serving. They said it was more fun to interact with adults AND they could also have fun with kids in the MDR's.

Maybe this dude did not want to be in MDR because he had to deal with kids and (ours are teens) ??? Who knows...but he was horrible and if we ever have the misfortune of getting him or the main guy again, I will definitely get a table switch.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Do you get to rate the head server vs the asst server or are you stuck just giving a general review of the experience?

On the comment "card" you rate the entire team:


and the overall experience:


But there's also a "Problem Resolution" section where you can be specific about issues you've had:


There's a small comment area where you can describe the problem, I usually bring extra paper to use for this section, as there's not enough room there to really write out a detailed description usually.

 

[85glht]

Our first two cruises it wasn't bad. They mentioned it on the last night but with the amazing service we had during the cruise it didn't feel like they were necessarily pressuring us, just letting us know it was important. I still don't think they should do this though, it impacts the results and if DCL was truly looking for honest feedback they would terminate this practice immediately. I find it hard to believe they don't understand that they aren't getting accurate results when it sounds like plenty of people have sent feedback on these sales pitches, which makes me wonder if maybe DCL wants those "excellent" ratings, which they can then use to sell their product (X% of customers gave our food and service the highest rating).

While it wasn't horrible our first two cruises, on our last cruise it was. In fact, the last time we ate in the MDRs our server actually stood at our table quizzing us after he gave us the speech (again), "now, would you say the service I'm providing you is good or excellent?", with emphasis on the excellent waiting for us to repeat the appropriate word. If we hadn't already waited well over an hour for our dinner (and were still waiting at that point) with restless kids, maybe we would have given him a piece of our mind but we were tired and hungry and just wanted to get our food and get out of there. We knew repeating anything less than excellent at that point would result in more interrogation as to why and there was nothing he could have done at that point to fix things, so we just performed the trick he was training us to do and didn't go back to the MDR again after that. We won't tolerate this next time though. Our last cruise was a short 4 days and we didn't want to waste more time at Guest Services (we had already been there a few times due to other issues). We will immediately request new servers if anything like this happens again and will be putting in a request pre-cruise to not get the speech at all.

Oh my! If it was that long to get food and they were "toying" with us.... I think I would have high-tailed it up to the buffet on deck 11 or any other food source on that deck, had my fill, then go to guest services to complain. I'm grouchy when starving. Holding out my food makes me "not happy"!!

 

[TestingH2O]

Also as a side note, I noticed no pirate attire on the servers for pirate night on our 3 night. Is that just a 3 night thing, or did they take the dressing up away?

Since they don't serve the Pirate menu, I think they wear the rotational uniform.

They told us the first night that they strive for excellent service and this is what Mickey expects, so if there is anything that we want done differently, like the tempo of the meal, drink service, whatever, to please let them know. Then, at the end of dinner on the second night, they asked how things were and if there was anything we wanted to change.

This is how our most recent team handled it too. I found it appropriate.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Here's my problem. I only like to give "excellent" or "10" on ratings if something truly extraordinary happened. Otherwise, good or very good are a normal, everything was up-to-par rating. I think excellent is when some extenuating circumstances or really above-n-beyond thing occurred. If every moment of every day was extraordinary then that stuff would all become just ordinary.

Personally, I play along. I'll get the jump on them when the speeches start by using the key word they're looking for and winking. Do I fill the card out? Not always. I'm leaning more towards not anymore. Maybe I'll skip actually doing the whole ratings thing and write into the comments I'd appreciate them not taking up my vacation time running the gauntlet of excellents I've been nagged about repeatedly. Send an email survey post-cruise next time.

 

[Ofinn]

Here's my problem. I only like to give "excellent" or "10" on ratings if something truly extraordinary happened. Otherwise, good or very good are a normal, everything was up-to-par rating. I think excellent is when some extenuating circumstances or really above-n-beyond thing occurred. If every moment of every day was extraordinary then that stuff would all become just ordinary.

Personally, I play along. I'll get the jump on them when the speeches start by using the key word they're looking for and winking. Do I fill the card out? Not always. I'm leaning more towards not anymore. Maybe I'll skip actually doing the whole ratings thing and write into the comments I'd appreciate them not taking up my vacation time running the gauntlet of excellents I've been nagged about repeatedly. Send an email survey post-cruise next time.

Im like you. As I said in a previous post I dont fill out the surveys. I dont even know how to define excellent. Ive always been happy with my service on dcl, but Im not that fussy. Im with you just send me an email.