E Mail From Mr A Buckelew Re Food

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

I E Mailed the CEO and said I was concerened about recent changes

 

in the Princess experience as it related to the quality of food and availability, below is the reply, I do not expect it is from the man himself,

 

however I thought it was a nice reply and worth letting you all see.

 

Reply came back within a few hours and was sent on a Saturday morning.

 

yours Shogun

 

Thank you for your concern and comments. We at Princess know that food is

an essential part of the cruise experience and thus is something we alter

with great care and tracking. Food is also a subject on which everyone has

a strong opinion so when we do make changes we make a lot of people happy and few are unhappy.

 

That said, we track how our customers feel about every aspect of our product, including food and if we make changes and the scores drop we unwind those changes immediately.

 

We also talk to our customers personally about food offerings to better understand how they feel about our food, as sometimes a survey isn't the best way to get a full understanding of the issue.

 

I appreciate your concern and hope my short answer to your concerns helps you better understand how we approach this critical aspect of our onboard product.

 

Sincerely,

 

Alan B. Buckelew

President & CEO

Princess Cruises

[crusinpeg]

Thanks for sharing...I have faith that Princess will do as much as they can to address certain passenger concerns.

[RickEk]

It's good to know that you have Mr. Buckelew's ear, Shogun! But I fear that his answer will not sway those that are disappointed in the recent changes...

[betterthanworking]

It sounds like a politician answer. Did he answer the question or did he just skirt around it. I am assuming your email was cocerning the closing of the MDR on port days.

 

You realize that if you did it this morning it is only 7 am in California right now.

[Princess Patches]

I hope he does "unwind those changes immediately". However, the reply was indeed very vague.

[Shogun]

Hi betterthanworking,

 

Given the time zone my e mail would have been timed about 5.00am with a reply at about 7.00am,.

 

it would be possible for a computer to spot an incoming e mail from the UK and re direct it to Southampton

 

yours Shogun

[Woobstr112G]

Shogun;

 

Thanks for sharing your email and Mr. Buckelew's reply. While I'm not to fond of some of the recent changes I actually believe what he said in his email (Just My Humble Opinion).

 

Since I basically work right next door to Princess HQ, I'm always going by hoping to run into Mr. B. Would be great to have a face to face chat with him.

Bob

[TracieABD]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop...:)

[BigTimeCruiser]

Hi All

 

I E Mailed the CEO and said I was concerened about recent changes

 

in the Princess experience as it related to the quality of food and availability, below is the reply, I do not expect it is from the man himself,

 

however I thought it was a nice reply and worth letting you all see.

 

Reply came back within a few hours and was sent on a Saturday morning.

 

yours Shogun

 

Thank you for your concern and comments. We at Princess know that food is

an essential part of the cruise experience and thus is something we alter

with great care and tracking. Food is also a subject on which everyone has

a strong opinion so when we do make changes we make a lot of people happy and few are unhappy.

 

That said, we track how our customers feel about every aspect of our product, including food and if we make changes and the scores drop we unwind those changes immediately.

 

We also talk to our customers personally about food offerings to better understand how they feel about our food, as sometimes a survey isn't the best way to get a full understanding of the issue.

 

I appreciate your concern and hope my short answer to your concerns helps you better understand how we approach this critical aspect of our onboard product.

 

Sincerely,

 

Alan B. Buckelew

President & CEO

Princess Cruises

 

I guess the bottom line is, be sure to express your concerns, likes, or dislikes on the post-cruise survey sent to each of us by email.

[jnc411]

Shogun: Thanks for sharing your email with us. I figure it never hurts to ask , so perhaps your email might make a differance. But I am impressed you got a response within a few hours, that being said would you be willing to send another email re chair hogs ??? hmmm

Shogun you have a way with words so may be you can convince the CEO to impliment a chair hogs overboard policy . Just asking. :)

Cori

[recyclelady]

Ask him to bring back the original Love Boat Dream and I'll be happy.

[Northender]

Just don't let my favorite dish, Fettucini, disappear:D

[SkinnyDennis]

Maybe I should FedEx him some Horizon Court coffee...:eek:

 

So far the only thing it's unwound is my large intestine.

[montgomeryfamily]

Shogun, I also appreciate your contacting Mr. Buckelew about the food changes. However, I am puzzled as to how the way customers were supposedly tracked as to how they feel about having lunch in the MDR on port days or on having the buffet open all night because we have never been asked these questions, even on the last three post cruise surveys we have taken in the last nine months (we have been on three Princess cruises within the last nine months and have filled out the post cruise survey for all of them.)

 

We have also never received any email or written survey re this issue nor have we seen any such survey or poll posted by Princess on the Princess Facebook page. So I do not understand how the scores can change/drop if the these topics have never been scored before?

 

As far as I can tell, the only place to even express an opinion about this is in the comments section of the survey, where the customer must actually bring it forward as it is not asked. In addition, I also know from personal experience that there is a character limitation on any response, which for us meant we could not even post some of the positive and negative comments we had on our last two cruises.

 

Also, we were never contacted by Princess about any of the wheelchair accessiblity and service issues we encountered on the Grand Princess theatre (and these problems were not resolved even after contacting the onboard Customer Relations Mgr.). So does Princess even read the comment section on the survey or does that just go into cyberspace?

 

Anyway, now that you have gotten Mr. Buckelew's ear about the food issues, he will be more cognizant of them and concerned about their overall impact.

 

Also, I think your suggestion of opening the Crown Grill with a limited menu on port days for lunch is an excellent idea, if it is fee free. (Following the concept of the pub lunch offered on sea days.). Did you suggest this to Mr. Buckelew? I think I will send another email with this suggestion.

[Shogun]

Hi Kathy,

 

Princess reads cruise critic, items regarding ships crew etc are edited and

the ship gets informed of what is said,

 

major issues are raised these get refered to some one in Princess HQ,

 

as to the comment cards they do get read and scored, coppies of them can be found in the gallay and other crew notice boards, like wise letters to HQ about a crew member or ship get posted as well.

 

However, I still think it is a good idea for folks to write to Princess

or e mail them

 

yours Shogun

[broberts]

It's great that there was a quick response. But the response seems to boil down to "Thanks for sending us your comments. We don't make changes lightly. We know some people will be upset by any change we make. Have a nice day." A canned, say nothing response if ever I saw one.

[SRQfireman]

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not buying that email as to that it came from the boss man. The chance he's up at 7 bells on a Saturday sending out an email to a passenger seems almost impossible. I guess the other question would be, who else in their system is replying to emails then? As mentioned, maybe somebody across the big pond :o

[Loonbeam]

This came up before. Most large orgs operate a 'Chairman's Desk' or 'Office of the President' or similar which is usually manned by experienced customer service teams who act in the executive's names. Depending on the company in question, there are either protocols for escalating to an actual executive, or sometimes randomly selected ones are sent upwards for review.

 

My understanding is that Princess has a similar structure.

 

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm not buying that email as to that it came from the boss man. The chance he's up at 7 bells on a Saturday sending out an email to a passenger seems almost impossible. I guess the other question would be, who else in their system is replying to emails then? As mentioned, maybe somebody across the big pond :o

[argenta01]

That sounds like a canned reply sent to anyone talking about anything related to food. It is so generic and impersonal. Surely drawn up by legal and sent out by the person assigned to food related matters. :) I'm sure if you wrote about the cabins you would get a similar vanilla reply.

 

I'm not saying it wasn't nice to get a reply, but I would guarantee that Mr. Bucklew never even set eyes on your email. :(

[pigg10]

Shogun, I also appreciate your contacting Mr. Buckelew about the food changes. However, I am puzzled as to how the way customers were supposedly tracked as to how they feel about having lunch in the MDR on port days or on having the buffet open all night because we have never been asked these questions, even on the last three post cruise surveys we have taken in the last nine months (we have been on three Princess cruises within the last nine months and have filled out the post cruise survey for all of them.)

 

We have also never received any email or written survey re this issue nor have we seen any such survey or poll posted by Princess on the Princess Facebook page. So I do not understand how the scores can change/drop if the these topics have never been scored before?

 

As far as I can tell, the only place to even express an opinion about this is in the comments section of the survey, where the customer must actually bring it forward as it is not asked. In addition, I also know from personal experience that there is a character limitation on any response, which for us meant we could not even post some of the positive and negative comments we had on our last two cruises.

 

Also, we were never contacted by Princess about any of the wheelchair accessiblity and service issues we encountered on the Grand Princess theatre (and these problems were not resolved even after contacting the onboard Customer Relations Mgr.). So does Princess even read the comment section on the survey or does that just go into cyberspace?

 

Anyway, now that you have gotten Mr. Buckelew's ear about the food issues, he will be more cognizant of them and concerned about their overall impact.

 

Also, I think your suggestion of opening the Crown Grill with a limited menu on port days for lunch is an excellent idea, if it is fee free. (Following the concept of the pub lunch offered on sea days.). Did you suggest this to Mr. Buckelew? I think I will send another email with this suggestion.

DH yesterday received an e-mail from Princess to participate in their survey, "Please share your thoughts on Formal nights" it looks like Princess are making changes good or bad

[Coral]

It could have very well came from Mr. Buckelew.

 

Bob Dickinson from Carnival used to personally respond to emails cruisers sent him. Other top execs with other cruise lines have done so also.

 

It is when the big execs don't pay attention to opinions of their customers, they lose perspective on what they clients want. This is why the Jet Blue President flies as a regular passenger on his planes regularly and speaks with passengers. I have heard of other execs who periodically call their own 800 number and see how they are treated.

 

If Buckelew is concerned about his line, he is smart to periodically monitor emails sent directly to him, even if he doesn't have time to reply personally to each one.

[lovevacadays]

Ask him to bring back the original Love Boat Dream and I'll be happy.

 

Me too! Nice to know they are paying attention to the surveys but I think this email response is probably a standard response they would send out to anyone with the same concern.

[rdsqrl]

It was just boilerplate; it didn't say anything. When you can't even divine what the question or concern was that prompted the response, that should be a clue that it was a just a form letter back. That, and the fact that the response took just two hours. Please. It takes me longer than that to craft a response to a student who has a question about their grade on a paper!

[TracieABD]

It was just boilerplate; it didn't say anything. When you can't even divine what the question or concern was that prompted the response, that should be a clue that it was a just a form letter back. That, and the fact that the response took just two hours. Please. It takes me longer than that to craft a response to a student who has a question about their grade on a paper!

That's because you really care about your students!:)

[srpilo]

 

 

 

Thank you for your concern and comments. We at Princess know that food is

an essential part of the cruise experience and thus is something we alter

with great care and tracking. Food is also a subject on which everyone has

a strong opinion so when we do make changes we make a lot of people happy and few are unhappy.

 

That said, we track how our customers feel about every aspect of our product, including food and if we make changes and the scores drop we unwind those changes immediately.

 

We also talk to our customers personally about food offerings to better understand how they feel about our food, as sometimes a survey isn't the best way to get a full understanding of the issue.

 

I appreciate your concern and hope my short answer to your concerns helps you better understand how we approach this critical aspect of our onboard product.

 

Sincerely,

 

Alan B. Buckelew

President & CEO

Princess Cruises

 

Wow just curious.. I wonder exactly how many "Alot people happy" is, and how is making food and dining choices less available on Princess ship is making them so happy ??

 

 

Shogun thanks for taking the time and effort to receive and post his reply

Srpilo