Decision Making Failure For the second time in two months, one of the world’s mo

Question

Decision Making Failure

For the second time in two months, one of the world’s most famous cruise lines has faced “troubled waters.” One ship lost power and as a result, the boat restricted the ability of passengers to go on and off the boat. Another of the cruise line’s ships lost its ability to steer properly and had to be towed to the next destination. In order for the cruise line to redeem itself, it is now offering vacation trips at $38 a night.

Click here to read the article titled “Carnival Cruise Line in More Troubled Waters." http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/15/travel/carnival-problems

Click here to read the article titled “Another Problem Cruise: Second Carnival Ship in Less Than a Week Experiences Trouble at Sea." http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/15/second-carnival-cruise-in-week-experiences-trouble-at-sea.html

Now, using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research on other situations similar to the one given above. Based on your research, create a 3- to 4-page Microsoft Word document that provides the answers to the following questions:

Are discounts enough to satisfy customer demands? Why or why not?

What other actions can the cruise line take to assist with rebuilding their reputation and making passengers happy in the future?

What led to malfunction of the cruise line? Explain. Use the provided articles and research from two other reputable research sites to support your answer.

Did leadership on the cruise line use the right course of action during and after the incidents? How have they tried to compensate passengers who are in this uncontrollable situation?

Were proper ethical actions used in these instances? How? How did they answer for the malfunctions? Was the answer appropriate from ethical perspective?

Explanation / Answer

Discounts are not enough to satisfy customer demands.

People who spend on cruise lines typically do so during their vacations. They are not as price sensitive as most other people. What they would actually want is an enjoyable and pleasurable experience. For such customers, offering a discount does not, in any way, compensate for the inconvenience they have been through.

In general, customers usually have a sense of “you get what you pay for”. Thus, associated with discounts is the perception of poor quality. This is definitely counter-productive and impacts the branding of the business extremely negatively.

There are multiple other actions that the cruise line can take to assist with rebuilding their reputation and making passengers happy in the future.

First and foremost, the crew has to be more forthcoming with information and must communicate transparently to the passengers. They are the only source of information for the passengers and must affirm the trust reposed on them.

The quality of the offering cannot be compromised on. In this example, building redundancy so that the technical; obstacles are overcome is one approach.

They need to provide an authentic experience, rather than just gimmicks. Over time, this definitely would pay off in rebuilding reputation. Attentiveness, recognition and personalization are key players that go a long way in providing an experience.

The pain points of the customers need to be mitigated. An open and transparent mechanism of soliciting feedback has to be institutionalized. Customers should be able to see the merits of providing such feedback.

The causes of the malfunction of the cruise line were manifold.

The Carnival Legend was having technical difficulties that were affecting its sailing speed.

Carnival Dream lost power and some toilets stopped working, and no one was allowed to get off the vessel docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

Carnival Elation had to be escorted by a tugboat because of a malfunction in its steering system.

The Carnival Triumph had an engine room fire that left it crippled and adrift in the gulf of Mexico.

The leadership of the cruise line did not take the right course of action during and after the incidents.

The main gap was in communications. All the passengers would have felt much better if they could trust what was being communicated to them. The frequency and effectiveness of the communications to the passengers leaves a lot to be desired.

They tried to compensate passengers who were in the uncontrollable situation by providing air and bus transport and refunds and discounts on future cruises.

Proper ethical actions were not used in these instances. While most of the steps were operationally the right decisions, the communication and way the clients were handled left a lot to be desired.

Passengers go on cruises during well deserved breaks and providing transportation and discounts is not a solution to the problems they faced.

Lack of transparency in communication clearly compounds the problem.

The Carnival Staff were in a state of denial and that further adds to the disgust of the passengers. Their answers were totally inappropriate from an ethical perspective.

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