I was blessed to be raised by parents
who modeled positive life behaviors for me long before I understood
what they were or why they were important. As a teenager, I rolled my
eyes when my mother listened to teachings aired on Christian radio while she cleaned or did dishes. I mean, how boring can
you get, right? (It wasn't until years later that I realized she was
employing the principle of keeping your head full of good things and
wise teaching.)
These days, she's more likely to listen to Dr. David Jeremiah than Focus on the Family, but the good habit persists. Imagine my parents' surprise when, after patiently saving up for and scheduling their first Alaskan cruise, they heard that Dr. Jeremiah (from Turning Point, I believe) and company were going to be on the exact same cruise ship they
were booked on two weeks later! Seeing a once in a lifetime opportunity, they called their travel
agent and asked if it was possible to just swap their bookings for
that week. Everyone was wonderful and in no time they were all set.
Then
they called Inspiration Cruises (the company who runs almost all
major Christian cruise programs) and the headaches began. The
customer service agents were uniformly rude and unhelpful. My
parents were informed they had to completely cancel their current
plans (thereby cheating their very sweet and helpful travel agent out
of any commission, despite all the work she'd already done for them)
and rebook with Inspiration – paying hundreds of dollars
more for the exact same thing!
Turning Point staff, when contacted, were extremely concerned and
apologetic, but ultimately helpless. Inspiration controlled all
decisions and refused to budge. My parents ultimately decided not to
deal with the nonsense and stopped pursuing it. They were able to
attend one Sunday chapel service on the ship at which Dr. Jeremiah
spoke, but that was it.
As
someone who has spent years in business, I was appalled.
First
of all, there is never any excuse for customer service reps to be
rude. Ever.
Secondly,
this company handles cruises for Christian organizations. Whether or
not they are Christian themselves, their behavior directly reflects
on the Christian companies they represent. Bad press can be
devastating to any company; being held to higher than average
standards, faith-based companies should be particularly conscious of
and conscientious about their image and the choices that shape it.
Third,
the entire situation could have been avoided with proper management
in the first place. No mention is made on the website or in
literature for the cruise about the restrictions of booking only
through Inspiration at higher prices. Travel agents are unaware of
the restrictions, making them unable to offer relevant counsel. Every
company gets to set its own rules, but if yours don't uniformly align
with common sense then the onus is on you to make sure they're
consistently and clearly stated to prevent confusion, frustration and
waste.
I
close with two words of caution. To potential cruise-goers: tread
carefully with Inspiration. To Christian companies: choose your
partners carefully – their conduct reflects on you! In the world of
Twitter and Facebook, you will never catch up with or smooth over all
the bad publicity a poorly chosen partner can churn up.
