CRO Issues

[VAgal76]

Is it me or the number of CM's in reservations that are just not "happy" and not at all helpful increasing? I've found I have to call back at least once to get anyone that knows what they are talking about. It's actually getting to be 50/50 to get anyone that's in a chipper mood. I kid you not, but I heard a bunch of announcements in the background on one phone call recently. I never used to hear any background noise at all. Now I get to hear them page their employees or make an announcement? I wish I could remember exactly what it said so maybe they could match it up. I had to make 3 phone calls tonight to make a simple code change. I'm so very thankful for the person that helped me. I guess the third time really is the charm. She did what needed to be done, was in a great mood, talked about events going on and even made suggestions on what not to miss at them. Now THAT'S the Disney style I'm used to.

It's truly sad to even have to resort to hanging up and calling back. I really don't remember having so many issues in the past. It would just happen every once in a while. Now it's every time I call. What is happening?

 

[Alicnwondrln]

yes but they have serious goals to meet and from what I understand VERY HIGH turnover. Not that it makes it ok but I think Disney has low standards for those jobs sometimes.

 

[mbanks21]

Bad luck maybe? I didnt even know they had PA systems in the reservation centers...

 

[mbanks21]

yes but they have serious goals to meet and from what I understand VERY HIGH turnover. Not that it makes it ok but I think Disney has low standards for those jobs sometimes.

I dont think thats true at all. In market dine may have a high turn over but the other communities dont. Theres a large push recently to return to guest satisfaction...

 

[VAgal76]

Bad luck maybe? I didnt even know they had PA systems in the reservation centers...

I KNOW! I haven't heard it since. Maybe I got re-routed to a back-up call center or it was just that particular reservation center? Whatever the case it was distracting. She'd ask a question and some guys' name is being announced. I was listening to the announcement and not the CM.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

whats market dine?
I centers in FL have high turnover as I know people who work in them.
The agents have goals to book and can earn comission based on those goals.
I can usually hear people talking in the background when I call and that doesnt bother me at all. What bothers me is when I want to fix something or change something and it takes forever as they dont know what they are doing or I cant understand them.

 

[VAgal76]

I dont think thats true at all. In market dine may have a high turn over but the other communities dont. Theres a large push recently to return to guest satisfaction...

Then they need to train their reservation CMs.

Let's see:

Tonight I was told that once the AAA rate is returned to inventory it goes back to rack rate. I'll NEVER get that rate. The 2nd person changed names without me asking him to. I just wanted to apply the AAA rate to ONE day out of my reservation. 20 minutes later and a lot of "please hold" it's still not done and it was like I wasn't connecting. Ummm, let's see. Thanks anyway, please keep as is.

I've been told several times the AAA rate is for 1 bdrm, 2 bdrm and Presidential suites. That's got to be a coding error in the system, but they don't discount those suites.

On yet another phone call, I was told that my CL room wasn't available at the non-discounted rate. I'm staring at it online. That was yet another hang up and call back to get it fixed. The guy was looking at AAA rates only even though I asked him to look at non-discounted rates. Again, I'm pretty sure I was speaking clearly when I asked for him to check for the category without the discount.

These are just the few of the calls that I've had recently. I know I've seen some posts slamming CRO and all I could think was "give 'em a break" but now I see the frustration. I want my fun-lovin' "Have a Disney Day" CMs back. I don't care how they do it, but they need to get it done. Service is what is suppose to set them apart. It's what I tell all my friends, family and co-workers whenever they contemplate a trip like that. They spend quite a bit of money but they are paying for a service driven product. From the moment they make the reservation until they leave. Their first impression will be what they get from CRO. They can not forget that fact.

What bothers me is when I want to fix something or change something and it takes forever as they dont know what they are doing or I cant understand them.

Yep, second guy.

 

[mbanks21]

Then they need to train their reservation CMs.

Let's see:

Tonight I was told that once the AAA rate is returned to inventory it goes back to rack rate. I'll NEVER get that rate. The 2nd person changed names without me asking him to. I just wanted to apply the AAA rate to ONE day out of my reservation. 20 minutes later and a lot of "please hold" it's still not done and it was like I wasn't connecting. Ummm, let's see. Thanks anyway, please keep as is.

I've been told several times the AAA rate is for 1 bdrm, 2 bdrm and Presidential suites. That's got to be a coding error in the system, but they don't discount those suites.

On yet another phone call, I was told that my CL room wasn't available at the non-discounted rate. I'm staring at it online. That was yet another hang up and call back to get it fixed. The guy was looking at AAA rates only even though I asked him to look at non-discounted rates. Again, I'm pretty sure I was speaking clearly when I asked for him to check for the category without the discount.

These are just the few of the calls that I've had recently. I know I've seen some posts slamming CRO and all I could think was "give 'em a break" but now I see the frustration. I want my fun-lovin' "Have a Disney Day" CMs back. I don't care how they do it, but they need to get it done. Service is what is suppose to set them apart. It's what I tell all my friends, family and co-workers whenever they contemplate a trip like that. They spend quite a bit of money but they are paying for a service driven product. From the moment they make the reservation until they leave. Their first impression will be what they get from CRO. They can not forget that fact.

There is NO commission. The agents do have goals to meet as in any call center.

When a AAA or any other package room is returned it does go back to rack rate. You cant apply a discount to ONE night of a reservation. Never have been able to. You would have to do a res for that one night and another res for the other nights. you cant say "I just want the AAA rate on the first night and not the rest".

I understand your frustration but even at a company at disney there are a few people that need to be retrained or go there just to collect a paycheck. But tell that to the women who tried to book a sold out waterview room at the yatch club for her 20th anniversary (where she's been for the last 20 years) online and called the res center and got the room she wanted and started crying she was so happy...

 

[mbanks21]

whats market dine?
I centers in FL have high turnover as I know people who work in them.
The agents have goals to book and can earn comission based on those goals.
I can usually hear people talking in the background when I call and that doesnt bother me at all. What bothers me is when I want to fix something or change something and it takes forever as they dont know what they are doing or I cant understand them.

and I guarantee 95% of the time theyre waiting on the computer, its not because they dont know what theyre doing.

 

[VAgal76]

There is NO commission. The agents do have goals to meet as in any call center.

When a AAA or any other package room is returned it does go back to rack rate. You cant apply a discount to ONE night of a reservation. Never have been able to. You would have to do a res for that one night and another res for the other nights. you cant say "I just want the AAA rate on the first night and not the rest".

I understand your frustration but even at a company at disney there are a few people that need to be retrained or go there just to collect a paycheck. But tell that to the women who tried to book a sold out waterview room at the yatch club for her 20th anniversary (where she's been for the last 20 years) online and called the res center and got the room she wanted and started crying she was so happy...

I know you can't do the discount without splitting it up. He was trying to say it was an all or nothing situation. No splitting the reservation. Just like I know they can transfer money but the CM has to request it. He didn't want to do that either. YES, AAA discounts go back to inventory. How come my AAA rate dates are sometimes there and then not? The only logical way to explain that is that it goes back into inventory. Someone has cancelled their AAA booked room rate for that to happen. They don't release AAA rate rooms at various times.

They simply aren't listening. I said to check the room type without a discount. He obviously did not. I refreshed my on-line search and it popped up again. I call that not knowing what you're doing or obviously not wanting to do the extra work involved. I ended my conversation, hung up and called back. I asked three times before doing that if he was positively sure. I got "yes" each time. So 10 minutes later on another call it's back into inventory? I don't think so.

I've made tons of reservations. It used to be once in a while that I get a less than stellar CM. Ok, no biggie. But it's now every single time practically? So, I'm guessing that because of the increase in popularity they are farming out their reservation call centers. It's really showing.

 

[Luv2Roam]

On line inventory and when you call in is not from the same inventory.
From what I have gathered here throughout the years is sometimes/depends on if inventory is returned to be rebooked. I suppose it really comes down to how close they are are fulfilling that particular inventory for that particular package/inventory allotment.

 

[mmmears]

I have spoken with some genuinely wonderful, caring, and knowledgable CMs at CRO. They have been willing to spend 30mins trying to fix mistakes that others made to our reservations.

I have also spoken to some who are not ready to handle this job, due to attitude, lack of training, a misunderstanding of the meaning of "customer service", etc.

I can also usually tell which type of CM answers my call in the first 10 seconds of the phone call, and I do find that surprising. I always give them a chance to prove themselves, but if they cant seem to understand what I am trying to request, I give up and call again, and hopefully get a knowledgable one.

No company has all of its employees perfect, but I do agree that the ratio of great to unacceptable has moved in the wrong direction. This is made more troublesome now that I dont have a toll-free number and have to spend more money and time making reservations than I would like.

 

[bicker]

YES, AAA discounts go back to inventory.

No, they don't.

How come my AAA rate dates are sometimes there and then not? The only logical way to explain that is that it goes back into inventory.

There are other logical ways. If you would like to learn about them, I'm sure folks would be happy to discuss them with you here.

They simply aren't listening.

Some do, some don't; just like all of us. Disney reservationists probably have the most complicated job of any that work for a specific hotel chain, because of the extent to which people who call them insist on maniacally detailed answers to maniacally detailed questions. Considering that, they do a really good job, despite the fact that they make relatively little money.

 

[ElizabethB]

I find most CRO's I deal with are clueless or close to it, both in hotel reservation bookings and in restaurant ADRs. It's very frustrating. Just a few days ago, I told a dining CRO that I could book HDDR category 1 for the 9:30 p.m. show using 2 DDP credits. He told me, "No way". Sigh . . . .

 

[dawgsgirl]

Try calling and acting like someone who doesn't know a thing about WDW and wants to book a package. That's what they are trained to do. You will get great service and the highest price you could possibly pay. It's all of us who know the ins and outs and what ifs that mess them up. CRO has gone steadily downhill. I feel like I am playing poker every time I call them.

 

[bicker]

The more you learn about WDW, the better you are your own best resource (or researcher) for information. The CMs you call are, as you point out, trained to help the folks who aren't as well-versed about these things as we are.

 

[FirstNo]

There is NO commission. The agents do have goals to meet as in any call center.

As someone who worked CRO at the Orlando call center, the agents DO receive commission on what they book, unless it has changed since I was there. It's one of the reasons they repeatedly ask you if you want to make a deposit because once the deposit goes on the reservation, the agent gets the credit for it...as well as the commission.

I left CRO in late Aug of 05. I know when I left, they were making changes. At the time I left, the agent had to pass 3 monitorings made by an independent company each month. You never knew when you were monitored. For someone like myself, I did every thing (made room only resvs, packages, air fare, dining, etc). Within a day or two of being evaluated, you received, in writing, all the info concerning the call and whether or not you passed.

I **think** you could fail one of your monitors and still get your commission, but it has been awhile. The changes they were making were, so they said, make it easier to pass because there were opportunities to gain points, not just lose them.

At the end of the month, all of your bookings (that had a deposit and inclusive of Cirque and any thing else that required a deposit) were tallied up and you received a percentage of that total. There had been talk of changing it to not receiving any thing until the guest checked in, but I do not know if that change has been implemented. I don't believe the union would allow that to happen. As to goals, we did not have goals to meet. We answered calls. We attempted to help the guests. We were expected to remain on line (able to answer calls) the majority of the time. If someone was taking too much down time, they had to answer as to why, but there were no goals to meet when I was there.

I can tell you one of the reasons I left was their booking system sucked. It was slow and tedious and not user friendly. And, we were not supposed to let the guests know that the reason they were having to wait was because of the system. It got to the point I wanted the guests to know that I wasn't an idiot and I told them it was the system and not me. We would chat about what they were planning to do to pass the time. And, if I had a problem I could not resolve, I had to contact our guest services. More often than not, it was a long wait both for me, and the guest. And, it cut into my earning time so, believe me, the agents aren't trying to waste your time when they need help.

I can also tell you that most of the agents I spoke with had never spent a night in any Disney resort. Most had visited at least one park, but there were two people in my training class that had never visited DW....ever. I always wondered how you were supposed to sell a product you had never used, but I imagine it was difficult for them since they had to look up every thing a guest would ask....which wastes more time.

 

[FirstNo]

Try calling and acting like someone who doesn't know a thing about WDW and wants to book a package. That's what they are trained to do. You will get great service and the highest price you could possibly pay. It's all of us who know the ins and outs and what ifs that mess them up. CRO has gone steadily downhill. I feel like I am playing poker every time I call them.

The problem with that is there are different categories of agents to handle the different categories of guests who call in. When you call in, you're asked a series of questions. Depending on how you answer determines to which category of agent you get. You had agents who were trained to deal with first timers. There are agents trained to deal with those who have been before, but maybe it's been 10yrs since the last trip. You had agents like me, who were supposed to be dealing with people who know what they want and can book it all for them. However, it was obvious to me that most guests don't bother answering those questions and just keep hitting numbers until they get a "live" person because I had some guests who had no clue as to what DW had to offer or what they wanted.

 

[mbanks21]

There is NO commission. The agents do have goals to meet as in any call center.

As someone who worked CRO at the Orlando call center, the agents DO receive commission on what they book, unless it has changed since I was there. It's one of the reasons they repeatedly ask you if you want to make a deposit because once the deposit goes on the reservation, the agent gets the credit for it...as well as the commission.

I left CRO in late Aug of 05. I know when I left, they were making changes. At the time I left, the agent had to pass 3 monitorings made by an independent company each month. You never knew when you were monitored. For someone like myself, I did every thing (made room only resvs, packages, air fare, dining, etc). Within a day or two of being evaluated, you received, in writing, all the info concerning the call and whether or not you passed.

I **think** you could fail one of your monitors and still get your commission, but it has been awhile. The changes they were making were, so they said, make it easier to pass because there were opportunities to gain points, not just lose them.

At the end of the month, all of your bookings (that had a deposit and inclusive of Cirque and any thing else that required a deposit) were tallied up and you received a percentage of that total. There had been talk of changing it to not receiving any thing until the guest checked in, but I do not know if that change has been implemented. I don't believe the union would allow that to happen. As to goals, we did not have goals to meet. We answered calls. We attempted to help the guests. We were expected to remain on line (able to answer calls) the majority of the time. If someone was taking too much down time, they had to answer as to why, but there were no goals to meet when I was there.

I can tell you one of the reasons I left was their booking system sucked. It was slow and tedious and not user friendly. And, we were not supposed to let the guests know that the reason they were having to wait was because of the system. It got to the point I wanted the guests to know that I wasn't an idiot and I told them it was the system and not me. We would chat about what they were planning to do to pass the time. And, if I had a problem I could not resolve, I had to contact our guest services. More often than not, it was a long wait both for me, and the guest. And, it cut into my earning time so, believe me, the agents aren't trying to waste your time when they need help.

I can also tell you that most of the agents I spoke with had never spent a night in any Disney resort. Most had visited at least one park, but there were two people in my training class that had never visited DW....ever. I always wondered how you were supposed to sell a product you had never used, but I imagine it was difficult for them since they had to look up every thing a guest would ask....which wastes more time.

That has changed. There is NO commision. There are incentives payed out if you reach a certain goal but they do NOT get paid a commission and once the goal is reached they dont get more money for making more reservations. The incentive is paid out for the hours they work. Other than that youre mostly correct:] About the system issues and hold times with guest services.

 

[FirstNo]

That has changed. There is NO commision. There are incentives payed out if you reach a certain goal but they do NOT get paid a commission and once the goal is reached they dont get more money for making more reservations. The incentive is paid out for the hours they work. Other than that youre mostly correct:] About the system issues and hold times with guest services.

WOW....no wonder the agents are crabby. I can't believe the union approved that. From what I was told, they fought so hard to get the commission and now, they don't.... I'm not surprised they're unhappy and I wouldn't be surprised if they have a higher turnover now than before.