In 2008 I joined Holiday Club South Africa with the impression that I’m entering into some kind of an investment. I appreciate the concept of this ‘Club’ and feel that I wouldn’t have had any form of holiday savings without such disciplined agreement to save. Holiday club is believed to be the largest in the industry, of which I got to know on 26th May 2010 when I responded to the call for a presentation starting at 17h30 by an agent from Durban.

You will agree with me that Holiday schemes are one of the targets for scammers and I’m happy that I joined one that is not – Holiday Club South Africa. The only thing that I didn’t like about today’s experience is the lie on punctuality. To me (and i’m sure to others too), this was an extremely bad experience.

Mimicking Punctuality

 

In the name of punctuality, Holiday Club agents (Futurevest) rejected prospects at the door entrance because they came at exactly at 17h30 (and I believe the couple I found at the door had come even before the time), which was the starting time of the presentation. I got to the door 3 minutes after the starting time and I was also rejected.

The Futurevest attendant told us (even the couple that made it for 17h30) that the reason we are rejected from the presentation is because we didn’t make it for the set starting time. What a punctuality company Holiday Club seemed to be, I was amazed but came to realize the agent is hiding inefficiencies that were catching up with them – they had invited more people than they can handle.

You will want to know what kind of presentation would have limited entrants. Yes, Futurevest (Holiday Club) recruiting procedures are one-on-one based interviews, so if you respond and come in your numbers they can’t handle more that the number of agents they have in their panel. So, the rest of us that came at exactly the starting point have no agent to engage with and the most seemingly reasonable reason is that we were not punctual.

As you would expect, many couples came in their numbers while we were trying to reason with the one agent that was at the door, rejecting us like idiots that didn’t know their reason for coming for a presentation. I was furious about this because I have to drive all the way and only to be rejected at the door.

Giving it Some Business Sense

 

Below I will mention a few things that I think Holiday Club should not do if they want to maintain a good name for their business.

  1. It was wrong for the Durban lady to invite more people than her company can handle. It doesn’t make it right to hedge against risk at the cost of prospects – that’s what holiday club did to us.
  2. Nobody bothered (I think this is an accurate guess) to study the market they are venturing into. Actually, what happened proves that they didn’t review their records on previous presentations in our country. Just so I make my point clear I will pick two things about the Swazi market that any business person should know about:
    1. We are not punctual people but;
    2. We keep our promises – if a Swazi tells you they’ll be there, they surely will get there but maybe slightly later.

 

  1. At the least, the lady that invited the multitudes should have told us that if you do not make it for 17h30, don’t come or you’ll have to reschedule or pick a date that you are sure you’ll make it 15 minutes earlier.

 

The Reality Lie

It is obvious that even if all the invited came 30 minutes earlier they would still be rejected because the nature of the presentation is restrictive and for some reason every invited couple has shown up.

This is a lesson to all business people that you must plan well for the response that may come from your prospects. I actually am in the process of drafting a powerful article on the ’24 Major Challenges for Success’, where this point is highlighted. Do come check for it because it will give some insight into what I have practically experienced to have made me loose lots of business profits.

By the way, is it worth investing in these guys?????????

Related posts