Guest satisfaction

The satisfaction of our guests is top priority. Here at AIDA we do our best every day to make sure that our guests always feel comfortable and well attended to on their vacation whether on board or on land. Our customer management department is responsible for communicating with our guests before and after the voyage. Customer management includes the three areas of customer dialog & loyalty, customer intelligence, and customer relations. As such, it is our most important tool for doing our best to give our guests what they want. For example, our dialog with guests involves travel information, direct marketing, and our AIDA Club loyalty program. Customer management also compiles all quality assurance information. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and market research are also included here. Customer management also represents the interests of our guests in corporations and actively works to incorporate their suggestions and requests into developing new products.

We capture the satisfaction of our guests in various ways such as detailed guest surveys. These surveys give us valuable insight into how we can further improve. Suggestions and requests are always welcome, but we also appreciate criticism from our guests. In 2014, our guest satisfaction rate was 92 percent.

If any guest has cause for complaint, we have a specific contact person available on board and on land who will gladly address the concern. Making shoreside contact can be accomplished through all communication channels such as phone, email, or social media. Depending on the channel, complaints are processed within five business days or less.

We not only require all guests be offered the best service at all times, we also put ourselves to the test: Hotel and restaurant experts regularly travel incognito on board to see what an everyday cruise experience with AIDA is really like. They evaluate every part of the trip based on clearly defined quality and service standards and give us valuable feedback on further improving our guest satisfaction.

In addition to plenty of positive feedback from our guests we were also delighted to receive the German Cruise Award 2014 in the category of "Best Family Product". This award is given out each year by the renowned Koehlers Guide Kreuzfahrt (Cruises). In Germany’s largest ranking of services, AIDA Cruises once again came in first place in 2014 and was awarded the Golden Seal for best service quality. AIDA prevailed against nine other cruise operators and earned the highest score for the best customer service experienced in the cruise industry.

AIDA was also awarded the German Fairness Prize in 2014. The German Institute for Service Quality worked with TV channel n-tv to survey more than 40,000 users about fairness. The survey's main focus included price vs. value, the reliability of products, services, or company promises, as well as the transparency of information about prices, products, and contractual performance. Around 350 companies from 31 industries were assessed.

We are very pleased with these awards, but not in terms of contented complacency. Instead, we see them as further incentive to continue improving our service.