Suggestions for Diamond...

[Doggy50k]

Here's one idea...

We used a load of points for a 2 bedroom "Elite" at the Santa Barbara a number of years ago.  The roof was leaking rendering half the unit unusable.  

We complained for 2 full days before being offered a lower spec apartment above a loading bay.  We declined this offer as the apartment was noisy and smaller than even half the "Elite" unit.

We asked "why not let us have the 'Show Apartment' for the week", or failing that a unit in a different complex (we have so many nearby) - we were forcibly declined and told that because we had refused the one offered there was nothing more they could do.

If you want to be different - put your existing customers first - we are the ones that end up talking to the prospects more than the sales people.  

If needs be give up the show apartment if you have to - for goodness sake it had lower point value than what we were forced into using!

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Doggy50k

Here's one idea...

We used a load of points for a 2 bedroom "Elite" at the Santa Barbara a number of years ago.  The roof was leaking rendering half the unit unusable.  

We complained for 2 full days before being offered a lower spec apartment above a loading bay.  We declined this offer as the apartment was noisy and smaller than even half the "Elite" unit.

We asked "why not let us have the 'Show Apartment' for the week", or failing that a unit in a different complex (we have so many nearby) - we were forcibly declined and told that because we had refused the one offered there was nothing more they could do.

If you want to be different - put your existing customers first - we are the ones that end up talking to the prospects more than the sales people.  

If needs be give up the show apartment if you have to - for goodness sake it had lower point value than what we were forced into using!

 I agree Graham.
 We can do a better job for a good honest company than the sales reps but first we need to gain confidence in the new company.
 Given what we have been through in the past it is understandable that many are a little hesitant.
 Having spoken to Stephen Cloobeck I am very hopeful as he came across to me as sincere in his hopes and aspirations.
 It is very difficult for him to reach all the members and putting postings on the internet and making statements on the The Former Company website is not as effective as meeting the members face to face or speaking to them individually on the telephone.
I know that Stephen has spoken face to face with many members by visiting resorts and going out of his way to meet as many of us as possible but we are a very big club and so those he has spoken to face to face are just a small cross section. He is trying very hard and listening very attentively and also putting in the hours.
 This is why I am calling for a little patience from the membership to allow him time to stamp his mark on the new evolving company.
 He is a family man and when he has spoken to me it has been at the weekends, he was still working one Sunday lunchtime when he telephoned me.


 If we get a flow of ideas we can compress them into a thread which can be forwarded to his office and also Citrus House.
 I do not care if the ideas come from elsewhere as on other sites postings get quickly pushed into the archives. By creating a thread on here it is possible to get all ideas together in one easily accessible place rather than having to search back for them.
 If people wish their ideas to be personally attributable I cannot see any objection to that.

  It does seem to me to be fairly logical.
 Any thoughts on this anyone?

[Martin4Jay]

Hi Tom,
We would like Vicky to be demoted to Diamond disability adviser with out a pay cut.
As members can't afford the £299 + £39 per year with 13000 points? It should be open for any members with a disability.
We know we are ex members but we still have disabled friends with the club who we care for.
Cheers
Martin & Jay

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Martin4Jay

Hi Tom,
We would like Vicky to be demoted to Diamond disability adviser with out a pay cut.
As members can't afford the £299 + £39 per year with 13000 points? It should be open for any members with a disability.
We know we are ex members but we still have disabled friends with the club who we care for.
Cheers
Martin & Jay

 Hi Martin
 I think that this idea crosses over into other future problematic areas which I and I know Stephen Cloobeck have been thinking about.
 Firstly though lets look at Vicky.
 When someone is moved upwards or sideways it can sometimes leave a skills gap particularly if the person moved has not been good at delegating. We do not know if the promotion of Vicky has left such a gap. Vicky seemed to be very good at what she did and very intelligent so we must assume that she has left adequately trained replacements behind her, we just havn`t found or heard from them yet.

 Disability issues link into a future looming problem which is the problem of the ageing membership.
 The Former Company has been growing for nealy 20 years now and so those who joined at the start when they were in their 50s are now in their 70s so we begin to get an ever growing percentage of members with possible mobility issues.
 At home we can get a carer via Social Services to pop in to help someone get dressed or get a shower, get undressed for bed etc. Usually they allot about 20 mins per task so it at most it means two short visits a day. Around where I live a small charge is made for this service.
 Nothing like this is avaliable via any resorts that I know of so this discourages the elderly and infirm members from continuing to partake in the club experience.
 The carers who visit the homes of the elderly around here are not particularly skilled or well paid so to put some sort of a care package together would probably be a fairly simple task for the now disbanded Disabled Steering Group that Vicky was involved with.
 So by linking in the disabled with the elderly an effective solution could be created, then tested and refined at one resort. Then rolled out to other resorts.

 A couple of weeks ago or more I did email this idea to Stephen Cloobeck as we had touched on the subject of the ageing membership over the phone. He did acknowledge receipt so he will no doubt be either using it or expanding upon it or rejecting it.

[Doggy50k]

OK - here are some from me:

1.  Better disabled access in all resorts.

2.  Free WiFi in all resorts.

3.  Stop the "Adult only" swims at all resorts - those of us with children have paid to join the club too (and we have probably bought more points than those without children due to greater point cost in school holidays) - there are no "Children only" swim times...  Is our membership of a lesser value - I hope not?  If you disagree, then as a compromise make the "Adult only" times after 8PM.

4.  Stop reps from lying to sell the points - how many times have we heard them saying that they "can only hold the points at this price for a short time".  How many times have they said "there is a big hush hush deal in the pipeline which will lead to a great many more resorts coming on-line".  We don't need it - it is deceitful - the product is good enough to sell itself.

5.  Let us know how many units are available (of each type) in each resort for each week of the year.  At present we only see one of each type (each week) when the availability is checked.

6.  Stop allowing the resort facilities to be taken over by external functions.  We went to Pine Lake; when we were there, some local organisation was having a function (which I hope The Former Company got some money for and it wasn't trousered by someone else).  Whilst this function was on, the members could not get served for love nor money - not good customer service.

These are a start, I will add more when I have a think about it.

[Magpie473]

Why is it assumed that we want to have a meeting with the rep. I do not want part of my valuable holiday time waisted by the reps looking for an opportunity to sell points. This is often done under the guise of keeping the members informed. I want to be kept informed but donot want to listen to their lies. These two functions can easily be divided. If the members need to be kept informed then prepare a power point presentation to be given as a group session, say once or twice a week. This can be prepared at HQ to ensure that there is a standard level of quality and content disseminated.

From an efficiency perspective, Diamond can then employ less reps and better target their efforts to those who want to buy more points or potentially new members.

[Mavo]

Here is a simple one.
 Can we have a notice in all apartments on the following lines:

           Anything not working
             Anything broken
             Anything missing            
            Please let us know  
  If you do not report it we cannot fix it!



*I hate going into apartments to find things not working when they had obviously not been working for the previous occupier who had not bothered to report the problem.

[Bazrat]

Hi there one thing springs to mind after visiting thurnham hall the beds are too soft as i suffer with my back (accident).

[Doggy50k]

quote:Originally posted by Bazrat

Hi there one thing springs to mind after visiting thurnham hall the beds are too soft as i suffer with my back (accident).

How about orthopaedic matresses, or those ones with memory foam???

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Bazrat

Hi there one thing springs to mind after visiting thurnham hall the beds are too soft as i suffer with my back (accident).

Thanks for the input.
 Our new owner seems to be going down the line of even softer fluffier bedroom comforts.
 I find the beds really hard abroad and confess to not having experienced the resort beds in the UK apart from a short invited break at Pine Lake which was so forgettable that I cannot remember the beds. Probably very hard with pine planking instead of springs. My main memory of the "log cabin" was pine, pine, and yet more pine.
 The food was good and plentiful in the resort restaurant so at least we were not pining -- groan.[:I]

There are I believe products available which you can place under a mattress which would give the rigidity that you require.
 So another idea develops. Why not have a minimal amount of these rigidity products available for hire or FOC at all resorts?  

[Doggy50k]

Another from me:

Stop relying on other peoples brochures - why not have some local information on where to go and what to see - get members input - all the secret little places...

Personally I'd like to see more info on fishing locations, but you could have local gardens, playgrounds for kids, restaurants, pubs clubs etc.

If we employ people in the area, should they not be able to pass on a few gems of info?

[Bazrat]

One thing i would like to see change is the running of the restaurants food is normally good but service is usually abysmal for the price you pay.
hello everybody.
Barry

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Bazrat

One thing i would like to see change is the running of the restaurants food is normally good but service is usually abysmal for the price you pay.
hello everybody.
Barry

 Hi Barry
 I did notice elsewhere that a member well known for his liking of good food has been frequenting the hotel around the corner from Thurnham rather than use the restaurant at the resort. This does not bode well, as Kevin from Thurnham has been charged with organising the restaurants at all the resorts around Europe in order to create some consistency of quality. So we may be going down the road of poor service and poor quality too.
 If nobody speaks out nothing will get done so here`s hoping.

[Bazrat]

Hello not being frequent user's of any resort apart from the White sands beach club we try them all out to get our own idea about the standards,Wychnor park aside the standard of service as got to be improved as for Thurnham hall which had a postage stamp dining area Kevin will have his job cut out.
Barry

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Bazrat

Hello not being frequent user's of any resort apart from the White sands beach club we try them all out to get our own idea about the standards,Wychnor park aside the standard of service as got to be improved as for Thurnham hall which had a postage stamp dining area Kevin will have his job cut out.
Barry

 Hi Barry.

 Stephen Cloobeck promises Quality and Customer Service.
 The restaurants/pool bars are part of that quality and customer service so we must expect improvement if all is not well and I am sure that the members will vote with their feet if what the resorts provide is not value for money and it will soon show up in the P&L accounts of the catering section of the business.
 They are in a competitive industry with alterative catering establishments very close to many resorts so it is a case of compete or fail.
 If they are failing it will not only show in the accounts it will be posted on here.
Yes we do want Diamond International Resorts to become s resounding success but we also want to to see some "passed down the line benefits"
 I want to be able to recommend the product, the restaurants, the apartments, the resorts to others and I look forward to the time when I can do that with confidence.

[smasters]

quote:
 I want to be able to recommend the product, the restaurants, the apartments, the resorts to others and I look forward to the time when I can do that with confidence.

Amen to that Mavo.  

I would like for the following in order of priority:

1 Truthfull reps, they don't need to lie.
2 Get rid of the bl****y bingo, or at least read out the numbers fast so its over quickly, moto could be snooze you loose
3 Adults only swimming no no, our children are the future members.
4 Any units not quite up to standard reduce amount of points, people will be pleased with the bargain
5 Receptionists to get lessons in smilling, who wants to be greated with a frown!!

With regards to broken items etc, we are equally responsible, some people just don't care as they feel it's not theirs.  My children treat the units better that they do our own home as I have told them any damage they pay for it!!!!  I always leave a tip for the cleaners with a little note (bablefish is good) in the language of the country saying many thanks, our unit is absolutely immaculate even going so far as to put my make-up back in my little-make up bag.

Take care and to borrow a phrase "happy holidays!"

[Mavo]

A little thing I noticed that seemed very popular at a Pestana Resort we stayed at.
 Each morning someone from reception would get the popular english papers, photocopy the crosswords and the sudoku and leave a dozen or so of these copies around for the guests. They had invariably all gone by lunchtime. Simple and easy and a nice little touch.

[Doggy50k]

It might cost a bit in some of the resorts, but I was impressed by the security at La Quinta when we stopped there (I think the Sahara Sunset is not too bad for it either) - how about having the resorts as almost "gated communities"?

At La Quinta (take it as a compliment please Roger) there are gates all around the resort.  You get a key for them and they close after you when you come in.  The only way in without a key is through reception.  If you are stopping at another The Former Company resort nearby you could show your pass for there and go in and have a nosey.

It keeps the non members out.  

This is not presently possible at the White Sands Beach Club (one of our favourite resorts), and a group of children (not from a The Former Company) who came in and used the pool left us all a little present floating there.

It would be good if we could make it a bit more exclusive?

[Mavo]

quote:Originally posted by Doggy50k

It might cost a bit in some of the resorts, but I was impressed by the security at La Quinta when we stopped there (I think the Sahara Sunset is not too bad for it either) - how about having the resorts as almost "gated communities"?

At La Quinta (take it as a compliment please Roger) there are gates all around the resort.  You get a key for them and they close after you when you come in.  The only way in without a key is through reception.  If you are stopping at another The Former Company resort nearby you could show your pass for there and go in and have a nosey.

It keeps the non members out.  

This is not presently possible at the White Sands Beach Club (one of our favourite resorts), and a group of children (not from a The Former Company) who came in and used the pool left us all a little present floating there.

It would be good if we could make it a bit more exclusive?

 Hi Graham
 At La Quinta you can just go into the resort via the Bar/Restaurant entrance as it is open to the public and I think there are some steps at the side which take you into the resort. There is also a lift there which does the same. LABC has gates at the front if I remember but at the back it was open for anyone to wander around.
I have been into RSBC many times and have never stayed there but have never been stopped from moving around the resort. Similarly Sunset Harbour has gates but you can access the resort by going through the bar at the front of the resort and bypassing reception.
 With bars and restaurants being franchised they are not interested in where you are from but more what you will spend. I often look around resorts of other developers as I want to compare products. I have even been known to tag onto someone being shown the apartment standards on a presentation.[] I have never yet been challenged.

[Jeff]

quote:Originally posted by Martin4Jay

Hi Tom,
We would like Vicky to be demoted to Diamond disability adviser with out a pay cut.
As members can't afford the £299 + £39 per year with 13000 points? It should be open for any members with a disability.
We know we are ex members but we still have disabled friends with the club who we care for.
Cheers
Martin & Jay

Hi M & J
I am told that Vicki is still working as the disability advisor, but that she is also involved in other things as well.

I hope you are both well? Perhaps you could email me privately, so that we can have a chat[]