Case Study: Grand Gaudeaux Cruise Lines specialized in taking passengers on luxury cruises to the Gaudeaux island chain in the Caribbean. Because of its financial success, guest satisfaction ratings were 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 satisfaction scores. Knowing that this meeting was coming up and realizing the CEOs 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 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 tend
ed 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 the greatest impact-the passenger problems in departing the ship were overshadowing the many excellent aspects of the cruise experience. The team recognized some system solutions; for example, the port facility could be retrofitted with a 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 Weitzmans 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.
Question: If you were on the guest-satisfaction measurement team, what steps would you recommend to Weitzman?