The "Excellent" speech

[Muushka]

We cruised last month on the Magic. I had read so many times on these boards how persistant some of the servers are with the "excellent" speech. I did not want to hear it for 7 nights, so I was prepared. The first night our assistant server started talking about the fact that the service was going to be "excellent".

I said "Excellent is something you are, not something you talk about". I guess he thought about it and he did not give the speech again. We would occasionally joke about the fact that the dinner was "excellent", but it was always tongue in cheek.
We did give him an excellent grade, because he was. And he did get more of a tip. It worked out pretty well for all of us!

Edited because I didn't realize "speech" wasn't spelled "speach"!
How sad is that?????

 

[staylor]

Good idea! I'll have to remember this.

 

[sillysmom]

I never heard that on our cruise, NOT ONCE, AND THEY WERE. So I guess the ones that keep reminding you aren't EXCELLENT most of the time!

 

[CheapMom]

Do they normally do the excellent speech all 7 nights- I thought it was just the first night.

 

[tvguy]

We had Roberto and Marin on the Magic, and they skipped the speech and just gave excellent service.

 

[minniemouse1]

We had Richi on the Magic and everynight he ofcourse would ask how your food was I would always reply "very good". Well that wasn't good enough for him. He wanted me to say excellent everytime! This was annoying to me and if it happens on our next cruise I will definately use the excellent comeback of Muushka's. Richi was a very good server and very attentive to our children and to us but this IMO could of not been said every night!

 

[ThreeCircles]

Originally posted by Muushka
I said "Excellent is something you are, not something you talk about".

Wow. With all due respect I think that was a rather rude thing to say. Especially since you just met these individuals and it was the first night. And then to make jokes at the servers’ expense? I certainly hope they did not hear.

Can't the serving staff be proud of their job? I would hope so. I see nothing wrong with the serving staff wanting to emphasize that they want to provide excellent service.

In four cruises I've never once encountered this so-called "excellent" speech but I can assure you that the service I've received has far exceeded anything I would rate as excellent.

Sorry, just my opinion.

 

[floridaminnie]

On both of our 7 day cruises, we heard the "excellence" speach every single night. On our 3 and 4 day cruise, we didn't hear it once. We received excellent service on the 3/4 day cruise.

 

[Muushka]

Wow. With all due respect I think that was a rather rude thing to say. Especially since you just met these individuals and it was the first night. And then to make jokes at the servers’ expense? I certainly hope they did not hear

I guess it is hard to convey a conversation on the internet. Trust me, I had a sincere smile on my face, and the server received the comment in the spirit in which it was given. There was no malice and if I had to do it over again, I would.

The server did hear the occasional joke, I said:

We would occasionally joke about the fact that the dinner was "excellent", but it was always tongue in cheek.

This joking was with the server, not behind his back. Again, you must believe me that it was all in fun, and the server was very good natured. And I think he would rather joke with someone about it rather than trying to convince someone of it.

Can't the serving staff be proud of their job? I would hope so. I see nothing wrong with the serving staff wanting to emphasize that they want to provide excellent service.

Certainly they should be proud of their job, but actions (giving excellent service) speak louder than words (talking about giving excellent service).

 

[randytenn]

We've received the excellence speech only once, on the last day of our 7 day cruise. It really didn't bother me. They were just trying to say that if you feel you received excellent services, please say that, and don't feel you have to "grade on a curve".

This reminds me of my local Toyota dealership. Whenever we have work done there, I get a call 2 days later from them wanting me to rate their service. This is the exact line they give me on the phone, each time:

How would you rate our service, on a scale of One to Five, with five being completle satisfaction, and anything lower than a five being complete failure to meet your expectations"

On the third time I received this call, I actually interrupted the woman calling me and paraphrased it to her:

"with five being complete satisfaction, and anything lower than five meaning abject failure and humiliation for our employees, resulting in their immediate termination, public floggings, and their children's Christmas presents being taken from them and returned!"

She just laughed!

 

[BuzzBoyMom]

Muushka - I think what you said was great - certainly not rude.

Three Circles - you often seem overly sensitive to comments made about the "Excellent Speech". Since you have not actually ever heard it, you might not know how bothersome it is. I have been on the receiving end of it and I found it to be unbelievable that someone would have to tell me how good they were. Just liek Muushka said - it isn't something you should have to talk about.

 

[mickeyboat]

I have to agree with BuzzBoyMom -

We got the "Excellent" speech twice on our 7 day. One time our server pulled me aside to discuss it. He said that he was not only responsible for her serivce but also for the food.

I was extremely uncomfortable. We thoroughly enjoyed our food and service. I tipped the server and his assistant over and above the suggested amounts. But I never give the highest rating in any survey. There is always room for improvement. To me very good is just that VERY GOOD! Nothing wrong with that.

That being said, I felt so bad that a less than excellent rating would affect the server's employment record, that I did mark "excellent" on my survey.

I just don't like the whole thing.

Denae

 

[TheWog]

We got the excellent speech the last night, it went on a little long and was not needed as the server and assistant were both excellent. We politely said the speech was not necessary as they did a wonderful job. It does make you feel a bit uncomfortable or at least it did us. They received a great rating as well as some extra in the envelope which they appreciated.

 

[UMTerp]

We got the "excellent" speech every night! The first night it was funny because we kind of knew to expect it. But when it went on and on each night it got old.

The next to the last night the head server stopped at our table and told us that an excellent rating on the evaluation form for food services (or whatever the the specific item was - she told us exactly what the item was) was very important for the careers of the servers.

In my opinion the head server explaining which item on the eval form was important to the servers and why was sufficient and appropriate. I think that getting the excellent speech in one form or another every night is not acceptable and most likely backfires many times.

Just my 2 cents!

UMTerp

 

[delo4]

We also got the excellent speech the first few nights. It so got on our nerves when the server would ask how are dinner was and we would say it was good or great, she would always correct us and say excellent? Yes, our food was wonderful and we so appreciated it, but was it excellent every night, no it wasn't. Did she need to correct us every time we did not use the word excellent, again no. She would continue to push until you said the word excellent. Finally on or about the fourth night, we told her that we would consider it excellent service if she never used the word excellent again! I think she got the point, until the last night when she gave us the speech once again. The sad thing is she would have been an excellent server who was very knowledgeable and prompt and courteous. The only reason we didn't give her an excellent rating is because she tried to brainwash us with the excellent word. If you have never experienced it, trust me it is very uncomfortable and actually quite annoying after awhile. We tried to ignore it, understand it, or put up with it, but after a few nights of it, we frankly had enough.

Just my opinion.

 

[ivanova]

I don't think they give the excellent speech because they want to or enjoy doing so .... it's their management telling them they "need" to in order to ensure they get an excellent rating on the survey, and that anything less than excellent is "an issue."

On our one cruise (4 day on Wonder) we only got the excellent speech on our last night. That's the first time we were even aware of the survey. Each prior night our server did ask how everything was, if there was anything he could do to improve the experience, etc. but he didn't give "the speech" on those nights.

 

[din]

We also got the speech on the first night, and on the last night. We actually got the speech from the room steward on the last night.

I made the "mistake" of saying very good one night at Palo and the server kept teasing me about it.

They all were great and we tipped appropriately. I agree with mickeyboat that excellent means no room from improvement.

It sounds like like that the staff is being evaluated by the ratings we give and DCL, IMHO, needs to stress the need for excellent instead of making the staff ask for the excellent rating.

 

[jrabbit]

RE: the "excellent" speach

It's not like you get the speach just from your wait staff. It seems like every night at the shows the cruise director would give some form of the "excellent" speach, preparing/brainwashing us for the final blast from the wait staff the night we get the surveys. The constant drone of excellent starts to wear on me. Makes me not want to put down excellent in the survey even when the service and everything else has been excellent.

This reminds me of my local Toyota dealership. Whenever we have work done there, I get a call 2 days later from them wanting me to rate their service

I get the same calls (even after a simple oil change). My response to them lately has been "Up untill this phone call every thing has been excellent, but now it's just OK, not good, not very good, not excellent, just OK."

The other call from the car dealer thats totally annoying is once again a couple of days after the work is completed. "Dear sir, we just finnish working on some obscure part deep in the bowels of your vehicle. Was the work done correctly?" My response is I'm not a mechanic, and didn't really know that anything was wrong, but your sensors picked up some glitch in the system (and found some cash in my bank account that you wanted )"

And my favorite followup call. We just did the recall work on your airbags. Do they work correctly now? And I respond, I don't know, I haven't driven my car into a wall lately!!

 

[ivanova]

We just did the recall work on your airbags. Do they work correctly now? And I respond, I don't know, I haven't driven my car into a wall lately!!

Ok, that one made me laugh!!!

 

[Muushka]

Well, they say DCL reads the Dis Boards, hopefully they will read this thread. Maybe it will give them a clue.