Marriott CS favourite activity: Open a case
 

Called the T line today to change the # of people in a booking. I told the CSR the situation: I attempted to change in online but it priced with the latest pricing = 4k points more. It's a TPS so there's no extra person charge.

The first thing the CSR said was, "Let me try to change it". She got the same result me = 4000k more.

I told her that this is exactly my point - I couldn't change it online, hence I called for help. She said, "in this case, I need to open a case to the hotel".

I was so shocked to hear that a case is needed to even something that's so simple. I told her that I think it's too much to open a case to inform a hotel about changes of number of case, and I said I would rather call the hotel myself and asked them directly.

She said, "If you call the hotel directly then I won't open a case".

I said no thanks to her.

A few weeks prior to this, I called asking Marriott to reconsider extending the SNAs and that I receive no promotion for a long time.

The same thing happened, "I'll open a case for you". I thought it was a bit much but they said it's the only thing they can do so I said ok. A week or 2 later I got a standard reply saying promotions are targeted.

If little issues like this need to open a case, there must be trillions of cases now.

Basically Marriott CS are pretty useless these days, why are they even there? Maybe they can actually put out a recording saying that we can't do more than what you can do yourself online instead of promoting a credit card that I'm not eligible for since I don't live in the US.

Either Marriott's systems have gotten so big and unwieldy that only "super-users" can do anything but the most basic tasks, or Marriott has completely neutered all their guest-facing associates to the point they are not empowered to do much of anything at all. It's disappointing, as they used to be a company that prided themselves on delegating tasks, especially those relating to guest satisfaction, to as low a level as possible.

Why even change number of occupants for TPS properties? Those properties don’t really care how many people you stuff in :p.

Nothing new

they open a case every time I claim for wrong posted points …

it means an average of 40 new cases per year …

I'd hazard a guess that this could be the bean counters at Marriott wanting metrics - everything has to be measured and tracked nowadays.

Can we have a metric on the additional costs created by collecting metrics? :p Sorry, couldn't resist.... Back to the regularly scheduled thread discussion...

--Jon

Opening a case might well result in the problem being solved rather than the symptom, I have a feeling some times hotel customer service just wants to get the customer satisfied so they make adhoc solutions that result in the systematic problem not going away, then again this is Bonvoy ......

Providing an immediate resolution for the customer and opening a case for further investigation to determine and correct the root cause are not mutually exclusive. I agree fixing the root cause(s) for issues is ultimately what needs to be done. Dragging the customer through an extended troubleshooting process on what is frequently a time sensitive issue is poor customer service. MR CS agents should be empowered to fix most common issues themselves. They should also be trained on when to open a case for further investigation to facilitate identifying the root cause and fixing it. Off SoapBox....

--Jon

P.S. I hate to be one of those people who talks about the good old days. For this issue, I will make an exception. MR CS agents used to be very empowered and have a lot of discretion in solving customer issues and handling customer requests. It made for a great customer experience and helped build customer loyalty. Today Marriott and the hotel industry in general seem to have lost that concept. Airlines have similar issues. The empirical results is less customer loyalty across the board and more price shopping including considering independents when making choices. When Marriott was very loyal to me, I returned the loyalty and %99+ of my stays were Marriott. Approx. 10 years ago, I added IHG as a secondary program. Currently i still look at Marriott and IHG first, however, I am also much more willing to deviate and stay elsewhere.

For airlines I am now heavily influenced by schedule and price. With the operational issues all of the airlines are having, I also look at the available backup options should my flight get cancelled. When booking air travel, if schedule, cost, and backup options are similar, I prefer SWA and to a lesser extent United. My air travel has been spread across 5 airlines this year. Granted I never had higher than mid-level status on any airline, so never got tons of perks. I do have UA Silver and SWA A-List. A-List is handy to get out of the 24 hour or pay for Early Bird check-in game. UA Silver is of minimal value. The last devaluation when E-Plus access became at check-in time rather than booking took away most of the value prop. YMMV....

I wasn’t suggesting they were exclusive, however in my experience where agents are empowered to make changes the causes are rarely fixed, laziness presides. A good balance of both would be nirvana.