This post is the part two follow up to last month’s where I shared with you the very frustrating experience I had with MSC Cruises.

Things unfortunately went from bad to worse in the end. There’s actually a ‘part three’ but that’s for next time. For now however the story goes like this.

After having made contact with the brand’s UK Managing Director I was offered a sincere apology, much thanks for bringing our issue to their attention and for the suggestions on how to improve the experience for future guests. I was also offered a goodwill gesture for a future cruise whereby I would be given an additional 20% discount on any entitlements my Gold Loyalty Card entitled me to. (Whoa! I hear you say.)

It would appear on the face of it that this would be the end to the matter. So last December I reserved a family cruise over Chrsitmas. This was to be the first full family holiday we had had together for several years. My wife and I were also celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife her “xyz” birthday (big milestone) and my daughter her 21st, oh and it was Christmas.

We were told everything had been communicated to the ship, discounts would be applied and that there shouldn’t be any problems. I should have known better. Upon arrival on board I took a copy of the letter we had been sent from MSC Cruises in the UK with the details of our goodwill discount, and presented it to the Customer Service Desk aboard the ship. They took a copy saying they would give it to the Customer Service Manager. And we enjoyed our holiday; until the night before we were due to disembark that is.

Discount, What Discount?

So I’m standing at the Accounts Desk alongside of several other people all checking our bills the night before disembarkation. You’ve guest it, nothing that we were entitled to had been applied to our bill. No discounts. Nobody had received instructions about any discounts and furthermore unless they had specific instructions from their head office then there was nothing they could do. Not even when I presented to them the letter from the UK.

I’m not one to get annoyed in public but this was the last straw. What really got to me was the fact that the Customer Service Desk where I handed a copy of the letter at the beginning of our holiday was only metres away from the Accounts Departmen’s reception area, in full view. Talk about lack of communication.

What We Did Next

So broken promises, poor communication and yet more negative experiences for the customer. It didn’t stop there of course because we had to then go back to the UK and sort it out with them. This meant more emails and letters and then a dispute with them over exactly what we were due and what we weren’t. Having promised to keep the UK MD in the loop we have a third part of the story to share next time.

Now however let’s take the key messages:

• Whenever you apply a solution to a customer problem make sure you follow through and ensure what is supposed to have happened has happened.
• Follow up early on in the process. Don’t leave your follow up too long as you don’t have chance to ‘nip it in the bud’ if things go astray.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate. They say no news is good news. Rubbish, I’d rather hear than not hear. Confirm things back even if there’s no news. Keep the customer in the full knowledge that everything is going the way it should.
• Pre-empt what might go wrong. If it can happen it probably will with the customer that has already had issues.

Points For You To Consider

What you should consider from this:

1. To what extent do you follow up to make sure what should have happened actually did?
2. When was the last time your solution tripped itself up and how did it happen?
3. How good are you at communicating within your organisation those pieces of information that are critical for a successful customer outcome?