Is the customer always right?
In an interesting story from the Associated Press, the cruise line Royal Caribbean has taken the rather bold step of banning a Cleveland couple from its ships… for serial complaining. It would seem that Brenda and Gerald Moran, despite travelling with the company on six occasions in the last three years, have got Royal Caribbean’s back up for being vociferous on the Cruise Critic website with their complaints. Do you agree with Royal Caribbean’s stance on the issue? Will some people never been satisfied no matter what, or is the customer always right?
Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.
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In the new world of open social voice, the company has to be just as vocal in telling their story. So far I’ve not seen sufficient evidence from Royal Carribean to suggest that they offered their best effort. It’s not about offering the ‘chit’s after the fact — it’s proving that you’re doing something specific to address the problems from happening again.
Customers are tired of being ‘paid-off’ for their silence.
In this day and age of freedom of speech and the ability to get your view out to the world quickly by internet Royal Caribbean need to get with it by addressing the issues and being seen to do so rather than banning people and basically not playing. surely the morans have paid for their 6 cruises and i would think in this current climate refusing money is foolhardy.