Emailing Carnival CEO

[southbayer]

O.K., i'm not posing this question with a angry or upset tone, just in a curious type of tone, so don't SLAM ME ok ?;)

But why do so many cruisers on here feel the need to email the Chief Executive Officer of this major corporation and give him your thoughts on this or that, or something that irks you ?

I know conventional wisdom says to take your complaints or compliments straight to the top! But do you think he actually gets these letters himself, and why would you email him ?

This reminds me of hurricane katrina, where it seemed everyone bypassed thier elected officials and took thier grips straight to the president - forgetting thier mayors, governor, senators, congressmen, and gave them all a pass.

I mean if I work for a large corporation, and have problems, I'm not going to write or email the CEO, or if I get a bad experiance at a movie theatre I'm not going to email thier CEO.

I would first write to those who job it is to recieve these complaints and other issues first, such as guest relations etc... Of course, if you need to work your way up, you can point to the others who you have tried to work with and point that out to the CEO.

Is anyone reading this constructively, or will I be bashed now ? Like I said, just asking this calmely and curiosly.

[Guest bahamamama1]

Dont concern yourself too much fretting on behalf of the poor CEO; the letters are probly opened and read in a mail room and forwarded to the correct department anyway; those letters never see the light of day in the corporate offices.

[falkcor]

no, if people are writing cahill... which people do... it is definitely being read by a staff member.

 

seriously... ;)

[Kurbanfan]

I have no complaint:confused:

[rottiemom]

I work for a large insurance company and complaint letters addressed to the President do actually get to him personally. He reads them and then they are trickled down to the managers who actually run that dept. And when we write our responses, he wants a copy of the letter. You would be pleased to know how much importance is placed on customer service. And I am going to guess that since Carnival is all about the fun ship experience that they do read the letters Or at least have someone close by who does the actual reading. I have always been pleased with Carnival's service and this has kept me coming back as a loyal customer.

[Mrsg324]

I wrote the CEO of RC when they pulled ships out of Galveston. I got responses that were not general letters typed up from both that I sent. The reason I know they were not a standard form letter is because several things I addressed were answered.

 

Did Richard Fain write the letter? I don't know but the response came from his email.

 

If not one addresses concerns with the higher ups, then they don't know how it is affecting people.

[jessemon]

I wrote the CEO of RC when they pulled ships out of Galveston. I got responses that were not general letters typed up from both that I sent. The reason I know they were not a standard form letter is because several things I addressed were answered.

 

Did Richard Fain write the letter? I don't know but the response came from his email.

 

If not one addresses concerns with the higher ups, then they don't know how it is affecting people.

I got a letter from him (or staff) one time over a booking mix-up while standing at the check in counter in FLL...Long story.....

I was advised to write a letter to him directly by the travel agent I use. So I did.

Several weeks later I received a nice letter personaly signed by him and it did address the problem. Also included was a $250 dicount for a future cruise....

[ivycruise]

Fortunately, I've only sent emails to the CEO's based on excellent service with positive comments. Now, did Gerry Cahill respond directly? This was the response I received to comments from the great dining staff we had on our March 2009 Glory cruise:

 

Thanks very much for your kind comments. It is great to hear as that is exactly what we are striving to achieve each day--to create fun, memorable vacations for our guest. I will pass on your comments to the mentioned crew memebers.

 

Hope to have you sail again in the future.

 

Gerry

 

Maybe that was a staff member and maybe not, but it was sent 540AM and that seems more likely to be senior exec start time over most staff. But, either way I know for sure it got passed as the lead waiter actually called us to thank us from one of the ports. He and his assistant were thrilled that we had done this, and that they had been honored as employees of the month and according to him, "no one had ever done this before at this level" and he was so thankful.

 

That was all I needed to hear to validate that this was a good idea for exceptional service. I know that we all had also put this in the normal feedback cards but pretty sure that only gets to a lower management level and then probably rolled up statistically. I think in business its good for the top dogs to also get feedback from their customer base even if its being read first by staff members. The impression I have is that normally, they only hear from those with major complaints and not at all often enough from those of us who encountered truly exceptional service.

 

I had similiar feedback from Alan Goldstein from feedback I sent RCI on exceptional staff encountered and also received confirmation from followup trips on the same ships that it was passed on and the individuals recognized above the normal feedback cards.

[G'ma]

I think it makes someone feel "better" to send their complaints straight to the top.

 

I also think it's ridiculous that the CEO sits around his office all day reading emails from disgruntle passengers.

 

I'm sure that there are folks who ply through these emails and only certain ones are brought to the attention of higher-ups.

 

So many complaints are simply ridiculous or so minor and insignificant that no more attention is given them beyond the "delete" button.

 

Certainly Carnival Corporation doesn't pay the CEO several thousand dollars a year to read emails!!!!

[UAMEMBER91]

Why does this upset you? Are you that board?

[lillian marie]

I doubt the CEO actually reads the letters or emails. An assistant would most likely answer them even if you think he signed the letter. I take Carnival Cruises because they are a bargain and expect that their maybe ups and downs in the service.

[bobsfamily]

How could it possibly cause you concern that someone would send a letter to the CEO? Are you the CEO posting with a fake name to ask us to stop? I mean seriously if this is causing you pain you need to get out more!:D

[firefly333]

Dont concern yourself too much fretting on behalf of the poor CEO; the letters are probly opened and read in a mail room and forwarded to the correct department anyway; those letters never see the light of day in the corporate offices.

 

I dont know if enough time has passed that Im allowed to say this, but at American Express, if you address someone important, the CEO or board members, there is a specific staff that handles them, not the regular customer service staff. They worked in Florida .... and had the calls routed thru NYC so the calls came from NYC, not from Florida when they called you. At the time I was not allowed to divulge that the calls were being rerouted thru NYC, from the special group who handled correspondance to important board members and ceo etc. ... they did get special attention from folks with more experience than regular staff. It was a much sought after group to work with.

 

this could have changed, since there have been many changes since I left about 5 years ago ... but it does go to show you that if you address something to higher ups, you do get better attention.

[Nunu]

I think it makes someone feel "better" to send their complaints straight to the top.

 

I also think it's ridiculous that the CEO sits around his office all day reading emails from disgruntle passengers.

 

I'm sure that there are folks who ply through these emails and only certain ones are brought to the attention of higher-ups.

 

So many complaints are simply ridiculous or so minor and insignificant that no more attention is given them beyond the "delete" button.

 

Certainly Carnival Corporation doesn't pay the CEO several thousand dollars a year to read emails!!!!

 

As a CEO myself I like to hear from all the little people

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok I have 4 employees. :(

[Pegs222]

As a CEO myself I like to hear from all the little people

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok I have 4 employees. :(

 

You have four more than I do :D I will bet you good money that you have more employees than most on this board.

[ilionite65]

rottiemom, Sorry but I find it hard to believe that any president of a large insurance company has the time to read all the letters of complaint that come in! Especially to an insurance company! I imagine they have a department set up just to handle all the complaints!

[Nunu]

You have four more than I do :D I will bet you good money that you have more employees than most on this board.

 

I'm too busy to answer this but will have one of my mid level managers respond later in the week.

[Aussiegrlfl]

I have written to Mr. Cahill.....I wanted to know if it was possible to utilize HMC on the 3 day bahamas cruise instead of being in Nassau 24 hours.....he wrote back to me and said he was passing it on the the team that handled that....and they did contact me.....he is the one that wants the feedback.....

[Nunu]

I have written to Mr. Cahill.....I wanted to know if it was possible to utilize HMC on the 3 day bahamas cruise instead of being in Nassau 24 hours.....he wrote back to me and said he was passing it on the the team that handled that....and they did contact me.....he is the one that wants the feedback.....

What was their response?

[rottiemom]

rottiemom, Sorry but I find it hard to believe that any president of a large insurance company has the time to read all the letters of complaint that come in! Especially to an insurance company! I imagine they have a department set up just to handle all the complaints!

You are half right. There is no special dept that handles complaints, though. He gets (most) of them and they go thru his personal assistant. If the letters are well written and state the facts clearly, he will read them. When they trickle down to me, they are usually the letters that are a little nutty. However, the "serious letters" do get read by him and he expects a copy of the response. Also, I have to copy about 3 other VPs and AVPs directly under him. Remember, these industries are federally regulated and complaints have to be handled a certain way. And, oh yeah, everybody hates insurance companies. G'head, go on and complain about your agent or a claim and see what happens.

[southbayer]

But the question is why email all the way up to the top ? Why don't folks just "start" by emailing lower level employees who might actually be of more help ?

 

 

[StillPooh]

But the question is why email all the way up to the top ?

Why not? I've gotten more action 9 times out of 10 going straight to a CEO than to some undermotivated peon lower down the food chain.

[southbayer]

Hmmm. what kind of action did you get ?? :rolleyes:

Why not? I've gotten more action 9 times out of 10 going straight to a CEO than to some undermotivated peon lower down the food chain.

[StillPooh]

Hmmm. what kind of action did you get ?? :rolleyes:

Direct responses addressing my concerns, from the offices of the CEOs.

[LemurCat]

But the question is why email all the way up to the top ? Why don't folks just "start" by emailing lower level employees who might actually be of more help ?

 

 

 

Because most large corporations have a protocol whereby the CEO is emailed or notified and it's then kicked around to the various people who can actually act on the complaint.

 

People like to email or call the president, it makes them feel like they're going to the top of the food chain and not dealing with some phonebank employee (usually offshore and making pennies on the dollar) who isn't authorized to do anything.

 

It's basically become the corporate standard.