Reference no: EM13153733

Grand Gaudeaux Cruise Lines specialized in talking passengers on luxury cruises to the Gaudeaux island chain in the Caribbean. Because of its financial success and good reputation in the industry, Grand Gaudeaux had recently been able to expand its passenger capacity by adding two brand-new, large ships to its fleet. The guest-satisfaction measurement team was meeting this morning with Steve Weitzman, CEO of Grand Gaudeaux, to discuss some surprising low guest-satisfaction ratings received from passengers on these two state-of-the-art ships. The company practice was to mail departing guests a survey about a week after their cruise, asking them a variety of questions. The recent data were troubling. Grand Gaudeaux had hoped to delight its guests by providing these new ships; instead guests were reporting dissatisfaction.
The topic today was the dramatic downturn in the satisfaction scores. Knowing that this meeting was coming up and realizing the CEO's depth of concern, the measurement team had done some further investigation into guest opinions through a variety of means. The most interesting insight was gained from a series of focus groups in which guests from the newer, larger ships had indicated their frustration with the departure routine. It appeared that the larger the ship, the more difficult it was to get everyone ashore after the cruise ended. This long wait tended to give "cruisers" on the two newest ships an unsatisfactory last experience with Grand Gaudeaux Cruise Lines. Because of the "recency effect" - the psychological theory that the most recent events are best remembered and have greatest impact - the passenger problems in departing the ship were overshadowing the many excellent aspect of the cruise experience.
The team recognized some system solutions; for example, the port facility could be retrofitted with larger capacity to accommodate more departing passengers. Such a retrofit would involve significant expenditures. But even if the budget were available to make such improvements over the long run, the guest-satisfaction measurement team realized the acute need to improve the management of the passenger wait experience in the short run. The team knew of Weitzman's personal pride in and high hopes for the new ships. They knew he would want some answers as to what might be done to fix this source of guest dissatisfaction.

If you were on the guest-satisfaction measurement team, what steps would you recommend to Weitzman?