Why didn’t they just say so in the first place?
Customer Experience When Messages are Mixed
I always wonder: Does senior leadership know what their customer is experiencing, or are they out of touch? Do they get to hear the truth from consumers of their product or service, or do unhappy customers just say nothing and never return?
My husband and I recently took all three (young adult) kids with us, and went on a week-long family cruise.
Verdict: I had fun. Hubby had fun. Kids had fun. We will go on other cruises in the future. But not on this particular cruise line. (Unless the CEO hires me as his coach, which he really needs to do!) Why have we chosen not to go on this particular cruise line again? Because their messages conflict with each other, and are incongruent with the experience they provide. Here are some examples:
Mixed Message One: We want you to get healthy. My step-daughter and I attended a (paid) session to find our Basal Metabolic Rate, our Body Mass Index, and learn how to get and stay more healthy. We were encouraged to buy several thousand dollars of “detoxification” products made from algae to take over the next 90-180 days. We were warned by the medical staff not to drink the tap water on board because of the toxic chemicals in it. There was a free ½ hour daily stretch class and you could buy a less-than-mediocre one-hour yoga class for $12. There was a “gym” on board. I was also able to get an acupuncture treatment (a very good one, I might add) for $150. The acupuncturist, next to the captain, the naturalist, and two comedians, was the most knowledgeable and capable person on the ship.
On the Other Hand: We want you to be and stay unhealthy while you’re here. The first day the cruise director proudly stated: “To get your best value for dollar on this ship you have to eat as much as you can. You can sleep after your vacation. Your two goals when you step off this ship once week from today are weight gain and sleep deprivation”. (Direct quote.) At that point, I had an urge to jump off the ship. You couldn’t bring water on the ship, and bottled water was sold at anywhere from $4 to $8 per bottle on board. The very basic bodily needs of a human being were not even provided, much less promotion of a culture of health. Much of the gym equipment was old, in disrepair, and the gym itself was about the size of a typical gym at a motor hotel.
Mixed Message Two: We promote family values. I noticed many activities listed for different age groups of children through 17. At first blush, it seemed the company had this message down very well, and the experience would be congruent.
On the Other Hand: Teach your kids to spend money on alcohol, gambling, and teach them how to shout and swear like a sailor. We were a bit early going into one of the theatre venues to get a seat for the upcoming show, thereby entering into the last part of a BINGO game. We noticed that there were as many children as adults, some of them running around randomly, others helping mom or dad with the multiple-game cards, anxious to win the big “jackpot”. Many of the parents were loose-lipped after copious amounts of alcohol. As I glanced around, kids were emulating them in the banter with the BINGO host. Crappy parenting is certainly not the cruise ship’s fault, but merely admitting children into the adult world of alcohol and gambling is a big mistake if you are promoting family values. Am I just being a prude? Is this something kids already do anyway? I’m not sure anymore.
Mixed Message Three: We love our job and aim to please. There were several amazing staff members who shone like a light in the darkness. No doubt, everyone on the ship works very hard under sometimes extremely difficult conditions. Quite a few staff members went out of their way to smile generously, whenever we passed by or asked a question.
On the Other Hand: We’re disengaged and dysfunctional. I overheard two staff members standing in the hall, commiserating about why they had so much to do, and two others in the elevator sharing work horror stories, indicating how awful their jobs were. Several times when we made a request in the restaurant, we were answered with a “sure, no problem” response, just enough for the staff member to disappear and never return again. It looked nice: uniform, smiles, head nods, but requests were either not understood or ignored totally. Folding towels up into animal shapes only goes so far when your request to replace the light bulb is ignored day after day. Underneath the smile and nod was this attitude: “Whatever…”
I have many examples I can give you about more mixed messages:
· We are an enriching experience (there was one naturalist for 2500 people, who was able to do only one educational session in a wildlife and history-rich environment).
· We are environmentally friendly. (They allow smoking and there was no good system for recycling trash, just for starters)
· We want you to have fun translates as “We make things look complimentary and then charge you for it.”
· We are a very elaborate and expensively appointed ship really means it is designed in the worst taste possible with the cheapest effects a glue gun can put together.
· We care about what you think. That must be why there is no place for suggestions on the “very important” customer satisfaction survey, and why there is no contact info anywhere on the survey.
What can we learn from this?
1. The senior leadership is very out of touch with the customer experience. Someone needs to be a “secret shopper” and see how decisions made at the top have affected the actual service. Preferably the CEO, whose name appears on the survey with no contact info.
2. Employees can smile and nod and be friendly and still give crappy (or non-existent) service.
3. We can thanks God we are not stockholders or on the board of this particular line or its parent company.
4. This cruise line needs to be thanked for showing us the possibilities of what a good cruise could be like, and we are excited to research which line to use for our next vacation, as well as encouraging companies to have their next retreat or off-site on a cruise ship, rather than an on-land resort, for a number of reasons I thought of while I was onboard dreaming of a nice cruise.
But first and foremost, we can learn that mixed messages don’t work. They become lies. Unintentional, perhaps, nevertheless, lies. Good customer experiences are all about relationships and expectations. If this cruise line would be upfront and honest in their advertising and descriptions, we would have been informed enough to make an intelligent decision. All they had to say was:
“Bring lots of money to spend on jewelry and other junk in all the shops we own at each port we visit. Be prepared to be a glutton, get inebriated, and ditch your kids into an activity program so you don’t have to deal with the little brats, and then you can gamble away all your money, and then hit an X-rated comedy show (which we call R-Rated because it sounds more family friendly). After you’ve laughed at things disgusting to most people, be sure to visit the 24-hour a day refined sugar and lard buffet, to make sure you can’t think straight, because we don’t allow clear-headedness when you visit our “art” auction, full of finger-paintings we found at garage sales. Be sure to buy at least $3000 in algae supplements, because Lord knows, you’re going to need a detox when you get home! Don’t try to exercise while you’re here, because it will take time away from your shopping and gambling; our exercise equipment is broken on purpose, DUH. And so is the light in your cabin. We don’t want you in there because there’s nothing to buy except an $8 bottle of water. Don’t visit your doctor when you get home, because your cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar will be off the charts and you’ll get admitted to the hospital, and you won’t be able to afford the hospital, because you’ll have the credit card bill to pay for the gratuities we added onto everything each day per passenger, after you already tipped them generously throughout your cruise. Oh yes, and be sure to buy some overpriced sweat-suits in our gift shop, since you won’t be fitting into any of your old clothes. Plus we like you paying for our clothing – it’s free advertising for us with our outdated logo all over it. Hopefully after you recover from your heart attack, if you’re not on dialysis, and if your butt isn’t to big to fit through our entryway, you’ll come back. We have a special deal for members of our VIP cruiser-boozer-loser club! We don’t give a crap about you, but we promise to act as though we do!”
Now, that’s truth in advertising, and congruency with the experience you can expect.
Why didn’t they just say so in the first place?
Tags: Branding, CEO, corporate culture, Corporate values, Cruise Line, customer expectations, Customer service, Disengagement, Executive Coach, Inconsistency, Mixed Messages, relationships, Senior Leadership, Truth in advertising, Unhappy customers
