Sharm - Day Dream?
A Customer Service Test!

by Alison Boler, April 2007

I don't suppose it's that normal to try and organise a single day's diving at Ras Mohammed when you are only going to be in Sharm el Sheikh for a scant 10 hours. However, that's what I had to try and do just a few weeks ago and it was an interesting experience.

Why?

We were on a cruise passing up through the Red Sea and calling into Sharm just for the day. As 4 qualified divers we didn't want to miss the opportunity to dive Ras Mohammed. We would dock at 7 am and sail again at 5pm - so not a lot of time in port, but surely possible. WIth the amount of cruise boats calling there these days (there were 4 in port on the day we were there) surely not that unusual either? Well, not as easy as you might think. The first response I received gave me a shock and so I decided to turn my quest into a kind of customer service exercise.

Other Considerations:

We were on long holiday and already loaded with suitcases so we didn't intend to take our diving kit with us as well as we would only be managing 3 days diving in different locations. We took our masks and our computers but we would have to hire the rest. This meant giving the dive centre our rental requirements (including sizes) in advance as there wouldn't be much time (if any) for a "fitting" before going to the dive boat.

We have been diving out of Sharm for over 20 years (30 years in Bob's case) and we wanted to dive Ras Mohammed or Tiran, not local sites. Bob and I are BSAC National Instructors and the girls are BSAC Sports Divers with over 100 dives and we've all dived this year, so not an unreasonable amount of experience. We weren't looking for any "favours", just a normal day diving.

Price - it was only a day's diving, didn't want to totally break the bank!

Arranging It.

I decided to try the obvious candidates first, our BSAC Centres. I emailed Emperor first because I had dived with them before and I thought they were good. Their response stunned me (see below) so I tried the others. Camel Dive Club and Ocean College giving all of them the same info: our arrival departure information, diving qualifications, log book info, kit requirements including weights, Red Sea experience and asking the same thing:
* A day's boat diving in either Ras Mohammed or Tiran
* Full rental equipment less masks and computers
* Price
I also made it plain that we would have been diving only the day before in Safaga.

The results were disappointing and surprising.

Emperor - Sorry, it is an unbreakable rule that we never allow divers to dive Ras Mohammed or Tiran on their first day of diving with us. I went back and pointed out that we had all dived with Emperor before and restated our experience and our familiarity with the sites around Sharm but to no avail. Amazingly inflexible.

Over and above the inflexibility their price for 2 local dives was:
4 x 54 euro, 2 local boat dives
4 x 4 euro, lunch
4 x 5 euro, Marine park fees
8 x 5 euro, nitrox
4 x 25 euro, full equipment hire.
Tax: 18 euro
Total: 410 euro - £279

So, they fell at the first and the third hurdle. Not only inflexible but amazingly expensive for a couple of dives only about 20 minutes maximum from the harbour.

Camel Dive Club: OK, we will take you to Ras Mohammed or Tiran (cannot confirm which one) but there won't be time for a weight check so if you've got your weight wrong, you will have to go back to the boat (fair enough if a bit offhand!). The price will be:
57 euro x 4 2 boat dives
5 euro x 4 Marine Park fees
5 euro x 4 Lunch
5 euro x 8 nitrox
21 euro x 4 Equipment hire
40 euro sales tax
Total: 432 euros - £294

Ouch! Seemed a bit steep, to say the least.

Ocean College: OK, yes, we'll take you to Ras Mohammed for the day. The price will be:
60 euro x 4 2 boat dives
5 euro x 4 Marine Park fees
8 x 5 nitrox
5 euro x 4 lunch
25 x 4 Equipment hire
38 euro sales tax
Total: 458 euro - £312

Ouch! Ouch! Even steeper!

So, Emperor failed at the first hurdle. Camel and Ocean College fell at the third - just too expensive.

Now, I'm not a cheapskate, even though I live in Yorkshire, but nearly £80 each for 2 dives seems extremely expensive. It wasn't just the price that hacked me off either. It was the slow response and the less than interested attitude at best and the totally unacceptable (Emperor) at worst.

Clearly, things are going so well for dive businesses in Sharm el Sheikh that they really don't have to put themselves out anymore (this was made more marked by the contrast with the wonderful customer service I got from a centre in Safaga when I made the same request, see that report).

So, sadly, 'cos I like to give my diving business to a BSAC Centres especially as I always write a trip report which hopefully brings them some more business, I had to look further afield. Could I find a decent dive centre that would tick all my boxes?

Answer:

Yes - I found TGI Diving Website and the difference was quite staggering! They're an Italian diving company with 7 centres worldwide and an office in London and many other cities around the world.

From the very first email we were into a whole different experience. A really nice lady, Saskia, (excellent English) came right back to me by phone and then confirmed our conversation by email. She seemed interested, keen to get our business and very professional - I was impressed. She'd been in contact with their base manager in Sharm el Sheikh and could confirm that we would be able to dive Ras Mohammed on the day in question, that they would pick us up at the dock gates, with a full set of equipment, nitrox 32 - no problem!

The Price:
4 x 45 euro, 2 boat dives
4 x 5 euro, Marine Park Tax
4 x 5 euro lunch
8 x nitrox FREE!
4 x 12 euro full equipment rental
Total: 268 euro - £182

Wow! That was £130 cheaper than the previous offer and included Nitrox 32!

So, the price was right, the pre-sales service was superb but would the service on the day match up?
Answer: Yes!

The Diving:

We arrived in Sharm on schedule at 7 am and disembarked, walked to the dock gates and called Kathy, the base manager, who knew exactly who we were immediately and informed us that their representative was on the way to pick us up. Within a couple of minutes a taxi arrived with a TGI rep in it and we were whisked down to the harbour.

It was still pretty early, so we sat down at a table by the little coffee bar (fantastic espresso and cappuccino, you can tell there are a lot of Italians in Sharm now) to wait for the main party. Kathy arrived and joined us, absolutely bubbling over with enthusiasm. All ladies present immediately felt like enormous heifers as she was incredibly stylish, gorgeous and absolutely tiny!!! We went through the paperwork again and talked about diving - we'd dived in Roatan at the same resort where she had spent several years. She rechecked the equipment requirements just in case she needed to change anything before the boat was loaded, but everything was fine.

She also rechecked the time we needed to be back and assured us that she would have us back in the harbour for 4:30 even if it meant bringing us back and then taking the boat back out again! I looked a bit concerned at this and she laughed and said, no don't worry, we will all be back for 4:30. Then our dive guide, Wendy, arrived with the rest of the party and we boarded our boat, Royal 1 which was fairly new. It was about 8:30.

Sharm harbour was as chaotic as ever, in fact I think it was worse because now they have bag checkers and an x ray machine set up at the entrance. Hundreds if not thousands of divers moving through. You always feel that if you sit there long enough, you will see someone you know! The system really needs a rethink because it is chaotic, potentially quite hazardous due to the pushing and shoving that goes on with heavy equipment being wheeled past at the same time - and it just doesn't work. There is a lot of show of security, but it is totally ineffective and just serves to slow everything down.

The dive boat was large and the standard Sharm model. Large dive deck, large semi covered sun deck and big saloon. It was pretty plush - very nicely fitted out with plenty of room for everything. There were two shower/loos with - heaven! - conventional flushing toilets!!! Yeah! - no more buckets....

Our rental equipment was fine - all Mares and in excellent condition. The wetsuits were 5mm steamers and fitted well, if a little snugly (well, we had been on a cruise for over a week!!). I hate diving with rental equipment but I can't fault what was supplied at all.

We put our gear together and then chilled (wrong word really) on the sun deck for the 45 minutes it took us to reach our first dive site, Jackfish Alley.
We were grouped into a wave of 6 divers but Wendy made it plain that she was happy for us to either follow her or do our own thing as long as we had 40 bar minimum in our tanks when we got back on board and also that our dive time was not longer than an hour. She also said that if we chose to dive with her, that we should not necessarily surface with her if the other divers in her party ran out of air early. This was great - diving in Sharm can be over restrictive in my opinion, and qualified divers should be given credit for the qualification they have achieved, not forced to conform to the lowest common denominator in the group.

Had a great dive at Jackfish Alley. Visibility was extremely good considering it had been very windy for several days and surface conditions were still fairly "brisk" - at least a Force 4. They put a current line out for re-entering the boat (boat crew could do with some practice at deploying this. They kept letting out more line after the divers were attached! ) and there were two good Xmas tree style ladders. Then, a nice long surface interval during which lunch was served. The boat put into a bay near Ras Gadzany to get out of the swell. The scenery was spectacular and a reminder of just how stunning all of the Sinai coastline used to be before the construction work began.

We had our second dive at Ras Gadzany along the reef wall there. I like this site - I've dived it before with an Italian group and they seem to go there quite often although many other operators miss it. I think the corals there are extremely good - very colourful and many of them.
Had about 55 minutes on both dives. Good value.

Wendy was an excellent dive guide. Her English was superb, she was helpful, knew the sites, gave a good briefing, didn't swim too fast underwater! Most of all she was obviously concerned (as was Kathy) that we had a really good day - it was very personal, we didn't feel like a cog in an anonymous machine.

The boat had us back in Sharm by 4. We walked straight off and found Kathy back by the coffee stand again! She asked us how we enjoyed the day, gave us a questionnaire to fill in and then got the mini van to take us straight back to the ship. We were in plenty of time.

Conclusion:

We liked TGI and we'd definitely dive with them again. Obviously, the price was right but it was far more than that. They really cared about their service. It was obvious and it came through in everything they did. They tried very hard to ensure that absolutely nothing was going to get in the way of a great day's diving. They also gave us credit for experience and didn't over regiment us.

Now, why was their customer service so much better than the other 3? Is it something about volume - are the others so big now that they can't individualise much? Is it that they are too successful to feel they have to bother anymore? Is it something about British divers that makes the centres that deal mainly with Brits feel they don't have to try very hard? I don't know the answer but I do know that the whole exercise was very illuminating. If they can't put themselves out for a day's diving, why would it be any better for a week's? In future, I'm certainly going to make the same sort of test again and choose my operator accordingly. Why settle for expensive indifferent service when you can have a wonderful personalised experience at a fraction of the price?

Links:

TGI Diving: Website

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