🎤Discover the CX of the Seas in “The one with a ‘More Than Perfect’ cruise experience” with Paul Rutter in CX Passport episode 49🎧
🚢The number 1 CX lesson learned from a career at sea
🐶How a dog called Fraulein got Paul into the cruise industry
🤑Loyalty so strong that customers book the next trip BEFORE the current trip is over
🙈Oh...you'll hear about clothing optional cruises too
🤯Try delivering great customer experience when you LIVE with your customers
😲Try delivering great customer experience when you live with your CO-WORKERS
🌏A global cast of employees delivering experiences for a global passenger set
Check out Paul’s book “You Can’t Make this Ship Up: Business Strategies, Life Lessons, and True Stories from Forty Years at Sea”
💭“So we have one goal on board our ships. And it's one goal only. And it should be the goal of every business, no matter where they're located. And that is to create such an exceptional experience that exceeds expectations that our customers will book their next cruise before this cruise is over.” - Paul
TRANSCRIPT
Rick Denton: 0:05
You're listening to CX Passport, the show about creating great customer experiences with a dash of travel talk. Each episode well talk with our guests about great CX, travel...and just like the best journeys, explore new directions we never anticipated. I'm your host Rick Denton. I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport. Let's get going. Today's guest Paul Rutter brings a perspective I've not had on the show before, with over 25 years in the hospitality industry, but specifically decades in the cruise industry. Paul knows what it takes to create experience that keep customers coming back cruise after cruise after cruise. Now take all of the challenges with creating great great customer experience finding ways to listen and know your customer creating a team best equipped deliver CX restoring customer relationships when things go wrong. are you designing diverse experiences to delight a global audience? Now, put all that on a floating city where customers some who may or may not be wearing clothes, and employees live, eat, play and rest together. That'll create a unique challenge to delivering great CX. Now before you think you'll be wearing a life jacket the entire time, I'm curious to hear how all those at sea lessons apply on land as well. With that many decades in the biz, you know, Paul has some great travel experiences. So Paul, welcome to CX passport.
Paul Rutter: 1:33
Thank you, Rick, what an introduction. Wow, I really can't wait to hear what I have to say that was exciting. Thank you,
Rick Denton: 1:40
then that makes two of us because I can't wait to get you recorded to get the episode down. I'm really looking forward to this one. So let's just start with basics. Let's just start about getting into the cruise industry. How did you get into this? What drew you to a career at sea?
Paul Rutter: 1:53
Well, this is an interesting story. Just to get a started right here. I was it was 1970 a long time before you were born. 1976 I just graduated college. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate it. It was 1976. I was home in Connecticut. I had just graduated Boston University with a degree in education. And I lived across the street from the high school I went to so grew up with an absolutely beautiful German Shepherd. Her name was Fraulein. And we would take her across the street to the high school to get her exercise, I'd throw the ball she'd run all over the place. It was great for everybody. So one day after graduating college, I took Fraulein over to the high school. I was back home wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had a teaching degree wanted to travel just across the country, the United States just to take a year off. And as I took my dog across the street to the high school, I ran into the high school principal who was leaving for the day. And we had known each other when I was in high school because I was part of the music program. We have a very popular music program, we actually traveled through Europe. And that's another whole story. But I ran into the principal. And he asked me what I was doing knew I just graduated college, she and he looked at me out of the clear blue sky and said, How would you like to work on a cruise ship, and I went, excuse me what I looked around to make sure he was actually talking to me. It turned out that there was a parent at the high school who was starting a project, they had put a few slot machines on a cruise ship. And they needed people just to make change. You know, I was a cashier basically. And it was getting cold in Connecticut. And the winter was approaching it was October of 76. And so he this parent was looking for people to work on the ships that that the principal knew that was a good person. And I met with the guy who gave me the guy's name, the parents name, I met with him interviewed. And the parents said, Okay, you're overqualified. First of all, you have a college degree, you're overqualified, but I just need you for three months to stay on board. You go on you make change, somebody gives you a $10 bill, you give them $10 in quarters or whatever. And he said if he can stay three months, that's great. And three months has turned into over I know you said 25 years to begin with, but over 40 years in the cruise industry, only because I took my dog for a walk at that particular time on that particular day. And if it didn't happen, I would not have run into the principal. And you and I would not be talking right now. So how's that for a story?
Rick Denton: 4:30
What a great origin story. So I guess the moral of the story today is if you want to go into the cruise industry, get a dog named Fraulein and walk that dog and you will suddenly find yourself in the cruise industry. But now what a great origin story and it is true. How many of our life journeys are started by an incredible coincidence of events. Now, you did just pivot me there saying you know, not just 25 years but for decades, which blows me away. And so I think about that, and I think about that the loyalty that you've expressed to that industry to your work to doing that. But it reminds me of the people that I know that love cruising. I've got some folks here that are friends of mine. And they are incredibly loyal to a brand. And some of them even get particularly loyal to a specific ship. And so what is it that drives that loyalty in a cruise customer?
Paul Rutter: 5:18
Well, I'll even take it a step further. For you, Rick, we have some of our guests who are loyal to certain crew members, and will only sail on certain ships where those crew members are Wow. So obviously what today in social media, they keep in touch with some of these crew members. And they say, oh, what should be done to be on we want to cruise in February, and the crew member called Salomon, they'll book a cruise on that ship for certain entertainers for bartenders for waiters in the dining room. It really that's how loyal these guests are. They're loyal to a specific crew member, which, which leads us into a very interesting dynamic, because of the cruise industry is one of the very few industries in the world where we actually live with our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so they're very loyal to us, because we actually live with our customers. And so when I do work with land based businesses, that's the first question I asked them is, could you or your company survive, if you had to live with your customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, we're in the middle of the ocean on this, you know, big metal boat, right? Some of the largest cruise ships in the world have over 6000 guests on board, they have over 2000 crew members that's, you know, over 8000 people on a metal boat in the middle of the ocean, what could possibly go wrong in that situation. It's a very interesting dynamic of having to live with your customers. And so you have to create policies and procedures and principles, that one that that make these customers want to come back with you because obviously things go wrong on a ship. But we have to take care of these problems right away. So for instance, if a customer comes to us and says, you know, my the air conditioning in my room isn't working, you know, if it's a Friday, we're not going to say, well, we don't work on the weekends, we'll send somebody out on Monday, that's not going to work. Our answer is well, we'll have that fixed in 30 minutes or less. And then we follow up and then make sure it's working the next day, and then maybe send something to them for their inconvenience. And so businesses need to know that if there are problems, if you correct any problem right away, customers are extremely loyal, you're building that relationship, you're building that trust with them, if things go wrong, and that's where loyalty comes in, when you're building that relationship with them.
Rick Denton: 7:36
I like that you chose that word because it hits a phrase that I use a lot. It's very strongly stolen from Disney, I try to give credit Disney every time I say this. And it's don't fix issues restore relationships. And if you adequately restore a relationship, it when a particular customer experience goes off the rails. Even though that customer went in sort of a trough, they were there in the pit of dislike for you and your brand and everything associated with it. If you restore their relationship, oftentimes they become more of a celebrant, or a promoter of your brand than they would have had you just given them a steady, streamlined, regular good experience. Now, no one recommends going out there and purposely disappointing your customer so that you can restore relationships. But it sounds like especially on a cruise where you can't get away from that customer physically can't get away from that customer restoring relationships is extremely vital to get that right.
Paul Rutter: 8:28
So we have one goal on board our ships. And it's one goal only. And it should be the goal of every business no matter where they're located. And that is to create such an exceptional experience that exceeds expectations that our customers will book their next cruise before this cruise is over. And they can do it on board our ships, they give us like $100 deposit, it's nothing, they don't even have to tell us the ship. They don't have to tell us where they want to go in the world. They're just reserving a room on one of our ships for and it's $100 a person just to reserve it and it's fully refundable. But we have learned that 98% of the people who give us that $100 deposit take their next cruise without so what if land based businesses knew that of just they just create a great experience that 98% of their customers will keep coming back over and over again
Rick Denton: 9:22
that that idea, you know, I'm sitting here thinking okay, so how would that apply on land? And I realized I'm now comparing apples and oranges, right? But the idea of okay, so you go to a restaurant, and you have a phenomenal experience at the restaurant, the restaurant says hey, would you like a table, you know, in the next six months, put down a $10 $100 deposit or whatever that might look like? And and that idea of locking someone in with that. But even outside of that financial commitment, as you said, it's sort of a soft commitment anyway, because it's refundable, but it's that idea of planting that seed of Did you really love what you're experiencing now you can experience that again and again and again. And it does seem like the cruise industry and then you know certain travel operations on land as well. really have nailed that, that idea of you're experiencing it now, do you want to keep experiencing it, let's get a commitment. And let's lock that in going forward, and it wouldn't happen if you didn't have those exceptional experiences.
Paul Rutter: 10:12
And even land based businesses can take advantage of that, you know, you use the example of a restaurant. So we give our best deals, when people book their next cruise, we give them our best deals. So if a restaurant would say, Listen, you want to book a table, you know, we'll give you 10% off your next meal here. If you book it, you know, and studies have shown people will spend a lot of money if they're guaranteed good service, they will pay more money, if they know that they're going to get great service, which we all do when when it's a special occasion, we go to a much better restaurant because it's a special occasion because we know the food is going to be better we know the service is going to be great. So we're more than happy to spend extra money if we know we're guaranteed a great service experience.
Rick Denton: 10:53
Let's let's amplify that a little bit. Now I do I don't want to lose the employee thought. But let's come back to that later. Because the idea of living with my co workers is sort of a mind blowing one. But I want to go back to that experience. You've been the cruise director, right, you are the face of the ship the trip the experience overall. So it's your responsibility to create that exceptional experience. What is that responsibility like, especially in the context of that floating city?
Paul Rutter: 11:18
Well, as a cruise director, my job is in charge. And my and my team's job is in charge of all activities and entertainment on board. So we're the fun people, you know, we're the ones that host all the activities and call the bingo games into the line dance classes. And I host the shows every night, we have singers and dancers. And so I am the liaison between the company and the guests. But I'm the face and the voice they see me on stage. Every night, I do a morning talk show every morning on the our TV system to tell them the highlights of the day and what's happening and what the shows are that night and just have some fun that they can wake up to every morning, I host the big events with the captain and all those things. So yes, I am the face and the voice of the company. And so you have to project exactly what the company wants you to project. I mean, yes, there are there, there are times when I some guests might get under my skin a little bit and something but obviously I don't I try try to remain professional at all times. But it's it's working together with your team. And it's an interesting experience that you are the face and the voice of the company. And so the main thing I want to project is to be out with the guests, because the worst comment a cruise director can ever get is never saw the cruise director. So you want to be out scene you want to be I always walk through the lounges, you know, and do my rounds and talk to people before the shows where I know a lot of people are going to be and so that that's what you want to you want to be seen around the ship and be there for the guests so that people know that they can come up to you if they have a problem, that they feel very comfortable coming up to you so that you can help them now I can't solve every problem, but I know where to send them in order to get those problems fixed. And then I personally will follow up with them. Let's say they had a problem in the dining room, their meal was cold for dinner that night. So I will then take their name their state room number just to get in touch with the dining room manager, the maitre d just to say, Okay, I had a little issue with this customer, and then follow up the next day, and then I'll hear oh, yes, the maitre d came by and he was very nice, and he offered us special meals. And so thank you for you know, following up, that's all they want, they want to know that somebody is listening, if they have a concern
Rick Denton: 13:43
you that you really know there's so many things you just said in there that I'm sitting here because we are going to talk about how this can apply to the land I definitely don't want to leave this episode without hitting that. But you hit so many things there in that last one, that idea of they just want to be heard first and having that cruise director out front to listen to them to be their their their issue therapist their their their relationship restoration person. That is such a important piece of that. And I love the fact that you're out in front of everyone, right? That's how many times we say to in customer experience, hey, go out and live in your customers shoes, you are living in your customers shoes, almost a literal sense of living out there with them.
Paul Rutter: 14:21
Well, I just tell my team you cannot manage from behind a desk, you have gone out with the public
Rick Denton: 14:26
man. There are a lot of lessons here to those of us that are the land lever. So but let's let's take a quick pivot here. I want to talk about with all of the experiences that you've had with those decades. You've seen the world. We talked about your trips to Alaska, you mentioned some trips to Egypt or China. We even talk about some of those more unique voyages that you've had such as that aforementioned clothing optional voyage, but it let me just open this to you. What are some of your favorite travel memories working in this industry?
Paul Rutter: 14:55
That's such a hard question.
Rick Denton: 14:56
I bet so
Paul Rutter: 14:56
It's an easy question But it's a hard question because you My greatest memories are not of the places I visited. But of the people that I've worked with. It's really, I just came out with a book and I dedicated the book to all the crew members that I worked with, because I have heard such incredible stories and have worked with such incredible people, that it's the people now, I will tell you, I have visited some unbelievable places, right? And you pretty much mentioned all people say, What's your favorite itinerary? And you know, I'll, I always say on the ship where I am, I'll say, Oh, the cruise we're on now wherever we're going this, you know, the Caribbean. But the honest answer is, I will encourage everybody to take a cruise to Alaska. It is absolutely magnificent. It the wildlife and the weather and the scenery, and it's just an incredible place. So I always encourage Alaska, you mentioned Egypt, I did 10 and 12 day cruises over to Egypt. Sailing out of Civitavecchia row a Rome, that church vecchia Italy is the port city for Rome. Oh yeah, sailed out of there went to Turkey and Greece and Egypt and Israel and just incredible opportunities. And the thing is that we here in the United States think that you know, 350 years or 200 300 years of history is a lot, right, go to Europe and you know, Asia where they have four and 5000 years of history, and it really, it really brings things home for you and puts things in perspective. So China is fascinating. Egypt, there's a whole story, I have a thing on my website called more than perfect. It's a service model. So if anybody's interested, they can go to my website. paulrutterspeaks.com And I'm sorry, that's a shameless plug. I just slipped in there. So I apologize for that.
Rick Denton: 16:43
We'll get that shameless plug again, don't you worry.
Paul Rutter: 16:45
Okay. But on the website, there's it's called a more than perfect service model. And it says and how and it's how I work with companies on land, and how they can get to put together a really great customer service model. And it comes from one of my trips to Egypt. And I don't know if we have enough time for a quick five minute story. But I was doing, I was doing trips to Europe, sorry, an Egypt and we overnighted in Egypt. And so when you go to Egypt, of course, you go to the pyramids, you can't go to Egypt without going to the pyramids, but we docked in Alexandria, which is about three hours away from Cairo, which of course where the pyramids are. And so when we the ship docks in Alexandria, it's a three hour ride. And of course, we put 1000s of people on buses, and they go to the pyramids, and it's a lot of people there and it can be a bit of a cattle call. One day of guests came up to me and said, Paul, I booked my own tour online with this Egyptians tour company. Do you know anything about them? And of course I didn't. There's 1000s of tour companies in Egypt. I didn't know anything about them. I said, but when you come back, let me know how it went. And I didn't see her for a few days. And when I finally saw her, she had Paul, it was incredible. This tour guide was wonderful. He was an Egyptologist, we went all to all these different places, and we had the pyramids to ourselves because we went when those throngs of people weren't there. And she just described an incredible tour. And the reason I was interested is because my family was coming a few weeks later, and I wanted to take a tour and I didn't want to go with the 1000s of people from the ship. I wanted a personal tour. So she gave me the guy's name. His name was Yasser. I contacted him. My family was on I went with the officer. It was an incredible tour. Fast forward, I thought it was a perfect tour. Fast forward six months, we're back doing the same cruises the same tours, I have more family and friends coming on, they want to go to the pyramids. I said, No, you're not going with the ship. You're going to go with the officer. And so I contacted Yasser again. And he set up another tour for them. And I took them out. I didn't go this time, because I had just been and it's a long day, obviously. So I took my friends and family out there and I said, Yasser, just give them the same perfect tour you gave me last time. He said no, no, no, Mr. Paul, no, no, no. This tour will be more than perfect. More than perfect. I went, Yeah, okay, whatever, just give me the same a tour and everybody will be happy. And so I saw my family and friends the next day, and they can pull it was incredible. We went here and we did this and they explained the exact same tour that I did. And they had dinner outside of the pyramids at night with the light show and the music show at the pyramids. And that's what we did as well. And then we came home and then they said and then at midnight as we were about to come home Yasser said, I've arranged for a one hour cruise down the Nile River. Would you like to take a cruise down the Nile River, and they looked at him and they said, Of course we want to take a cruise down the Nile River, and I said wait a minute. I didn't get to take a creek Nile River. So he actually made that tour more than perfect because he went above and beyond He gave a little bit something that was not expected. And he made that tour more than perfect.
Rick Denton: 20:12
What a glorious story, Paul, that that just it makes me, you've already made me want to do a cruise to Alaska. Now you've made me want to do a cruise to Egypt, you made me want to make sure that I find this particular tour operator and I've been to Egypt, but I want to do it again now because of what you said so. But with all of your travels, I would imagine there is a time and a need for some rest. And so why don't you join me here in the first class lounge. Let's take a little rest. Hopefully, we'll have a little bit of fun move quickly here. Now a question I asked every guest, you may have already answered it. But what is a dream travel location from your past?
Paul Rutter: 20:47
Wow, we have really. Now now I just want to go to a resort and chill out and lie on us on a beach chair somewhere but a travel from the path. You know, you have to you have to say the pyramids or I mean, it's just one of the wonders of the world and you just can't really do better than that.
Rick Denton: 21:07
There's something when you're standing at the base of one of those and you look up thinking how like that's That was the question that just kept coming to my mind is how and then the fact that they've been there that long. So now this may be a hard one for you. A dream travel location you've not been to yet it might simply be what's a place you haven't been. But what is a dream travel location you've not been to yet?
Paul Rutter: 21:27
Well, there's a number of places on the bucket list. And the first place is I'm a scuba diver and so I want to dive the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia. I I've flown in and out of Australia but really haven't had a chance to explore. Also New Zealand I understand is absolutely beautiful Singapore Vietnam, I here is an incredible place to go and tour. So still, and I'm sorry to say there's still lots of places in the United States I want to explore as well. So but Australia is right now at the top of the bucket list once they open up and can travel freely.
Rick Denton: 22:07
Yeah, these are all COVID COVID willing questions for sure. I've done Vietnam a beautiful place the others I need to do as well. I still have not had a chance to do there. What is a favorite thing to eat?
Paul Rutter: 22:18
I'm a seafood guy. So any fresh fish or lobster or is I'm a real seafood lover so and my downfall is sweets. I'm a dessert guy as well. So give me any you know dark chocolate and
Rick Denton: 22:34
so give you a little some good. Some good grilled seafood and then some dark chocolate and you're set well what let's go the other way here. What is the thing your parents forced you to eat but you hated as a kid?
Paul Rutter: 22:44
Asparagus and beets?
Rick Denton: 22:46
That was fast?
Paul Rutter: 22:48
Yes. And now I like asparagus, but I definitely do not like beets.
Rick Denton: 22:53
I love I love it when a guest can answer that just immediately. Asparagus. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. Hands out. What is one travel item? Not including your phone? Of course. But one travel item you will not leave home without?
Paul Rutter: 23:08
That's a good question. Wow. I've never been asked that before. I always travel with a with a trail mix sort of thing I always. So I always have nuts and raisins and little things because you never know when you're going to go a long time without eating something that's my comfort, knowing I have that in there that I'm good to go no matter what and and a bottle of water.
Rick Denton: 23:34
Hey, when we travel, we got to make sure that we are well fed and well watered. So that is a wise one item to delete. There's so many things that I want to ask you as we get close to the end here. We did talk about that floating city and living and experiencing life with your customers. And you amplified quite a bit of what that means when you have to live with your customers. Let's talk about the employee side of that because your customers might be there for 10 days, your employees might be living together for months as I understand it. So how does that work? When you're trying to deliver a great customer experience? You need to have a great employee experience. What does that look like when you're talking about living with your co workers for that long?
Paul Rutter: 24:14
So there's the age old clutch question, who comes first the customer or the employee? Right? So in our business, it's always the employee, because happy employees will take care of your guests. If you take care of your employees, they obviously will take care of the guests. And so we have to create a culture on board. But the very unique thing about what we do is when we have let's say 1500 crew members on board one ship, they come from close to 70 different countries. Yeah. So Americans and Canadians and Brits were the minority on board. Most of our crew members are not most but many come from the Philippines and from India and from China and from Croatia. In Serbia, so how do you keep all of these different type nationalities happy so that they're willing to spend 468 months on board, and on always have a smile on their face and willing to deliver outstanding service. And so we try to make sure that everybody feels welcome on board. So we go out of our way to, to make sure that they have a little bit of home on board the ship. So for instance, when you go to the staff mess, or the crew mess, we call it where all the crew members eat, you and I may have for breakfast, bacon and eggs and cereal or oatmeal, but somebody from India or the Philippines may have rice and fish and beef because that's what they normally have for breakfast, they're not going to want to eat cereal and eggs because they don't normally have that. So if they see that we're making an effort to try and feed them the food that they're comfortable with. So for instance, for dinner, you and I might not eat chickens feet. But to some of our crew members, that's a delicacy, those go incredibly fast, when they put out a pan of chicken feet, they're gone in two minutes, because some countries love them. So we know that if we can make them feel comfortable, first of all, what they eat on board, and that they're comfortable in their living accommodations. Most crew members are to to a cabin with their own private bathroom, they have a TV and a refrigerator, they have Wi Fi. So we know if they're comfortable and where they live, and that they look forward to going home at night, right because there's nothing worse than going after a long day thinking, Oh, my bed is so creaky or Yeah, mattress is so old, I can't get a good night's sleep. So we we try to make sure that their their home and what they eat, are really comfortable for them. And so that they're that way, they will look forward to going to work. And then we celebrate all the different nationalities, if it's to make an Independence Day, we'll have a big party for the crew on the back deck. Or if it's Indian Independence Day, or, you know, the Fourth of July, or Canadian Day, we celebrate the different nationalities on board. And it has been such an incredible experience sailing with all these different crew members from all over the world, they have incredible stories to tell that that are just so inspiring. And I do talk a little bit about it in the book, but just it's been the greatest experience of my life to be able to work with these 1000s and 1000s of crew members from all over the world.
Rick Denton: 27:37
You know, what I really hear in that if I were to summarize, which is almost impossible to summarize, it's this spirit of empathy. Understand who your employee is, what they want, what their desires are, and how you can then act upon what you have learned about them and and do something. So if it's the food, if it's the living situation, if it's the celebrations, or if it's all the above, being responsive to their culture, recognizing that their culture is not your culture. And that's, that's great. And how can we celebrate and enjoy that difference of of community that exists on the ship and the employee base, and imagine that, in turn, turns them into folks who are empathetic towards their customer and the wide diversity of the crews customer base. So we are now out of time, but I'm going to cheat and go a little bit longer, because that's theater podcast, I can control how long I want to go. But maybe I want to talk about that landlubber aspect of it. And then you know, and I'm sure a lot of that comes up in the book, but it is, you know, our final port is insight, sadly. But all these lessons you're talking about, I know you've helped, and we've even talked about it a little bit help those that are on the land, how you apply lessons at sea, to those of us that are land based companies, what are some of those highlights? What are the kind of the things that you would want to make sure that somebody listen to this says, Hey, person who learned this lesson from those of us who have been at sea?
Paul Rutter: 28:55
The absolute number one lesson I always tried to let people know about is that attitude is everything. You you you hire for attitude, you train for skill. So attitude is everything. And that's I just keep saying that to everybody. Because in our industry, it's so important.
Rick Denton: 29:14
But so attitude is everything. And I know we've talked about some other lessons in there, like how do you celebrate your employee base, and many other ideas that came out? Paul, there's so much wisdom that you have that is beyond what we have talked about here. You've alluded the website, you allude to the book, tell me those things. How can people get in touch with you? What are some of the ways that they can contact you to learn more?
Paul Rutter: 29:35
Well, I appreciate the opportunity, Rick, my website is www.paulrutterspeaks.comand letters are R-u-T-T-e-r, Paul writer speaks they can email me at anytime at Paul at Paul Rutter speaks dot com. I have two books out my first book four years ago is called repeat business Inc the business of staying in business and why repeat businesses is so important to every industry. And my latest book that just came out a few months ago. It's called you can't make this ship up and talk about all the great stories that happen on board and what land based businesses can learn. The subtitle of the book is business strategies, life lessons and true stories from 40 years at sea. So it's really a business book that businesses can learn from. Now, you alluded to at the introduction about a clothing optional Cruise is I didn't really have time to talk about that. But yes, I was on the ship with every, all the guests were naked. And that was their choice. And it was a full ship charter. I do talk about that in the book. And those are extremely popular talk about somebody who has found a niche and has exploited it. This one company, that's all they do is clothing optional cruises.
Rick Denton: 30:51
Well, I'm glad that those cruises exist for that community. I think I will keep my swimsuit on. You know, but I'm glad this and what a great story. And I think that's a great reason to go check out the book. Paul, thank you so much for taking the time talking with me today. Thank you for teaching the lessons of the sea. Thank you for sharing the stories. It's been a blast. I've enjoyed talking with you today,
Paul Rutter: 31:09
Rick, really appreciate it.
Rick Denton: 31:14
Thanks for joining us this week on CX Passport. Make sure to visit our website cxpassport.com where you can hit subscribe so you'll never miss a show. While you're at it, you can check out the rest of the EX4CX website. If you're looking to get real about customer experience, EX4CX is available to help you increase revenue by starting to listen to your customers and create great experiences for every customer every time. Thanks for listening to CX Passport and be sure to tune in for our next episode. Until next time, I'm Rick Denton, and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.
Host - Rick Denton
Rick believes the best meals are served outside and require a passport.
A sought after keynote speaker and CX leader, Rick transforms CX and VOC programs from Survey & Score to Listen and Act.
After a successful corporate career, Rick launched EX4CX - Execution for Customer Experience to bring CX victories to a wide client base.
Rick combines these loves by hosting the CX Passport podcast, a weekly talk with guests about customer experience and travel.