Question: Twenty years ago, Celebrity Cruises, Inc., decided
Twenty years ago, Celebrity Cruises, Inc., decided to make a name for itself in the premium market by offering an “upscale experience at an intelligent price.†Evoking images of luxury similar to the Ritz-Carlton brand, this “hotel on the water†treats quality as if it is the heartbeat of the company. Consequently, Celebrity has consistently been awarded the “Best Premium Cruise Line.†In the cruise and hotel industries, quality can be hard to quantify. Traveling guests are buying an experience—not just a tangible product. So creating the right combination of elements to make the experience stand out is the goal of every employee, from cabin attendants to galley staff to maintenance to entertainers. The captain even has an important social role, often hosting dinners for a dozen guests a night. “Our target audience consists of savvy, discerning guests who know what they want from this cruise,†says Brian Abel, Associate VP for Hotel Operations. “We meet their needs by being best in the competitive class of modern luxury ships.â€
Crew-to-guest ratios at Celebrity, and other premium lines, are 1 crew member for every 2 guests. Employees are expected to greet guests with a formal style, to say “good morning†instead of “hi†and “with pleasure†instead of “no problem.†With crew members from 70 countries, such preferred phrases, dress codes, and many other manners of dealing with customers are detailed in employee training manuals. Employees sign 4- to 9-month contracts and then typically take 6–8 weeks off. They have difficult jobs, often working 7 days a week, but even with intense schedules, most Celebrity staffers remain on the job for 5 to 7 years. Food is a very important part of the cruise experience. “Food is the number-one reason people rebook a cruise,†says Abel. So everything served aboard a Celebrity ship is prepared from scratch. About 200 people work in the galley in a structured, well-planned operation, using years of historical data, to forecast demand for each component of each meal.
Guest surveys are provided online at the end of each cruise, and guests complete them at a high rate (about 85%), having been strongly encouraged to do so by their cabin attendants. The surveys serve not only as a measure of overall satisfaction, but two other purposes as well: (1) they are used as a brand marketing tool comparing Celebrity to other cruise lines, hotels, and competing entertainment venues, and (2) they provide management with specific feedback, down to the individual employee level in some cases. Abel personally reviews results of each completed cruise within 48 hours and takes action if defects are found in any aspect of the experience.
The initial part of the questionnaire appears in Figure 6.9. Celebrity’s main quality feedback tool is called the net provider score (NPS), which tallies the guests’ answers to a wide series of questions about their experience. The question: “How likely would you be to recommend Celebrity Cruises to a friend, family member, or colleague?†is critical and is the measure used to compare ships within Celebrity’s fleet as well as with competing cruise lines. Scores of 9–10 on this question label the customers as “advocates.†A 7–8 is “neutral,†and a score of 6 or below is a “detractor.†The NPS computation is simple: The percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of advocates. For example, if 70% of the guests score the cruise a 9–10, 17% score it a 7–8, and 13% give a 6 or less, the NPS = 70 - 13 = 57. An elite line tries to attain a score over 60 on each cruise. Celebrity averages a 65.
Discussion Questions
1. What unique aspects of the cruise industry make quality service more difficult to attain? What aspects help raise quality?
2. How does the cruise operation differ from that at a land-based hotel?
3. How could control charts, Pareto diagrams, and cause-and-effect diagrams be used to identify quality problems at Celebrity?
4. Suppose that on two successive cruises of the same ship, the cruise line receives NPS scores of: (Trip 1) 78% “advocates,†4% “neutrals,†and 18% “detractors†and (Trip 2) 70% “advocates,†20% “neutrals,†and 10% “detractors.†Which would be preferable and why?
5. List a dozen quality indicators (besides NPS) that Celebrity also measures. (There are 35 on its guest evaluation form.)
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