June is here and our employees are working harder than ever to ensure that you, our guests, have an unforgettable time out on the water. Last week on our OSS call, we discussed, debated and ultimately chose two OSS Level 10 WOW winners:
One Critical Moment of Service Internal WOW Winner and One Customer Service WOW Winner.
Read below to learn all about some of the WOW stories submitted from across the country, and to find out who won!
Critical Moment of Service/Internal WOWs
NOMINEES:
• Lalo from Chicago – Chicago was recently very short-staffed for a cruise – the Restaurant Manager on duty did not have a Bartender or Host for the busy Saturday lunch cruise, and could not find anyone to cover the shift. The Restaurant Manager called Lalo to inform him of the situation, and he volunteered to help her out by coming in on his day off. Lalo did everything – he was a Bartender, he set the buffet and he cleared tables!
• Chris from Chicago – Due to a recent inputting error in our computer system, additional groups were booked onto a private deck for a cruise. The fast-acting Odyssey team opened a deck for a deck charter. The only problem – there was no DJ for the group. Chris came to the rescue by offering to postpone his HR duties in order to DJ for these groups, allowing the Chicago team to provide a great experience for these guests.
• Captain Phil & Captain Edgar from New York – On a recent Saturday, a party of 27 cruising to celebrate a 70th birthday showed up on the New Jersey side of the river when they were booked to sail from New York. Captain Edgar on the Spirit of New Jersey quickly called over to Captain Phil, who was on the Spirit of New York. Captain Phil agreed to bring the boat over to Lincoln Harbor to pick up these guests. In order to make sure the New York guests received their full harbor cruise experience, Captain Phil sailed for an extra 20 minutes before dropping the New York guests off. Finally, Phil brought the entire birthday party group back to New Jersey!
And the Critical Moment of Service Internal WOW Winner is…Lalo from Chicago!
Customer Service WOWs
• Matt from Chicago – DJ Matt went above and beyond for a senior group onboard Mystic Blue recently! Matt kept the seniors dancing the entire cruise – they were doing the YMCA, the Electric Slide, and Matt even had a conga line going! The seniors all got into a circle and Matt had each person enter the circle and perform a dance while the others cheered them on. The Mystic Blue team has never seen seniors have so much fun or dance so much!
• Josh & Will from Baltimore – A couple chose to celebrate their second anniversary aboard Spirit of Baltimore after they had spent their first anniversary 6,000 miles apart due to husband Tom’s deployment in Iraq. Tom had emergency surgery the week of the cruise and needed handicapped seating. Josh and Will went above and beyond to help this couple, assisting them with boarding and taking care of them throughout the cruise. The guests wrote a letter to the team thanking Josh and Will for their exceptional service and for making their anniversary special!
• Jim from Norfolk – Guest Dave cruised on a recent Spirit of Norfolk dinner with his mother. Jim saw them park in a handicap space and went over to their car – he not only greeted them at the car, but also helped Dave’s mother out of the car and onto the ship. Dave wrote a letter stating that Jim “is one of those people we could use more of walking the earth.”
• Trista & Leah from Norfolk – Guest Mrs. Sharp arrived at the Norfolk ticket booth recently to ask about dinner cruises on future dates. Trista and Leah had already closed but willingly re-opened and re-started the computer to get the information Mrs. Sharp needed. She told them she would be back later to book a cruise – when she came back later that evening, they again had shut down the booth and were getting ready to leave, but again re-opened the booth and assisted in selling her the tickets she wanted.
• Richard & Joey from New York – The New York team found out that an individual onboard a recent Bateaux cruise was going to propose to his girlfriend. The team set up a very nice intimate table in the Orion room, away from everyone else. Server Richard worked with Joey and the band to get the guest, Mario, to slow dance with his girlfriend in front of the band. Joey then asked Mario if he had something he would like to say – he proposed and his girlfriend said yes!
• Stacey from New York –Stacey had seen a note about a guest who wanted to propose to his girlfriend – her favorite song was “Suddenly” by Angry Anderson. When the Restaurant Manager got onboard and approached the DJ about playing the song, he said Stacey had already made arrangements for the WOW and already loaded the song into the DJ system!
And the Customer Service WOW Winner is…Jim from Norfolk!
Congratulations to not our only our winners, but our nominees and all those who took party in nominating and recognizing them.
I share these stories with you not only to acknowledge and recognize our very special, creative and hard-working shipmates, but because I do truly think this is an interesting part of the company I am a part of. It is these critical moments and WOWing our guests that make us the organization we are. Any company can run some boats. But no company does it with the care and compassion that we display every single day.
