Who's opinion would you trust?
I'm thinking about this because I was watching a show the other night that mentioned the definition of an expert was someone who had spent over 10,000 hours on one particular subject.
Being the geek I am a quick bit of maths work followed and I'm ashamed to say I can probably only get to about 5,000 hours talking about/studying/booking/sailing on/ thinking about cruises.
So does this mean I can no longer call myself a cruise expert?
It brings to mind an anecdote from a previous job when I sold insurance. I was trying to advise a rather rude customer as to the best level of customer when he said -
"I've been insuring my car for 20 years now. I think I know a lot more than you."
I obviously left the decision to him without offering any further comment but wanted I really wanted to say was -
"On the assumption that you spend at least one full day a year, (8 hours), of ringing around for quotes, comparing policies and checking your paperwork that gives you about 160 hours of experience. Which would still leave you in training for most insurance companies"
Getting back to cruising I remember when I first started I recommended an MSC cruise on this blog even though I'd never cruised with them and I remember someone getting ever so offended that I'd dared to recommend a cruise line without having first sailed with them.
The point is in this job we have nearly daily visits from all the different cruise lines reps, (don't forget we're independent), all visiting to give us the latest info about their ships and the cheapest offers they have going at the time.
Most of us spend hours and hours of our own time completing online training courses with all the different cruise lines to make sure we know what we're talking about if someone asks us.
We spend all day every day talking about nothing but cruises and cruise holidays.
We spend all day every day talking about nothing but cruises and cruise holidays.
However, I still think our best resource is you. Every time I book a cruise for someone I make a point of calling them after the cruise to see how things went. This gives me a tremendously accurate and up to date knowledge of what cruise lines are doing what and when.
Who's standards are slipping?
Which ships have the best cabin stewards at the moment?
Who's serving the best food lately?
On top of all that I spend hours at home reading all the latest cruise news, (driving my wife crazy in the process), keeping on top of all the latest changes and developments in the industry.
So maybe I do have a few more hours to put in before I can call myself a cruise expert but I'm proud to call myself a cruise geek!
Happy cruising.
Frankly I call myself a bit of a cruise expert and get called a tech geek by family and friends - I cant stand the term geek!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! This is an inspiration for those who are looking for cruise experts as well as for those who want to become one. Keep up the good work!
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