Making smart stag do booking choices … beware imposters!

If you wanted an expert to help you achieve a better result you wouldn’t take advice from someone who really had no hands-on experience in that area … would you? You wouldn’t go to the barman to service your car just because he said he knew a thing or two about them, just as you wouldn’t go to a garden centre for a haircut because they had some scissors, a mirror and a chair. If you did you’d be more than likely to get a poorer, underperforming result and miss a lot of the significant benefits of professional delivery. As far as value goes, you really wouldn’t be getting much, in fact you’d likely be making a very underwhelming investment.

The kind of hard earned, benefit wielding, advantage laden experience that puts consumers in an advantaged position simply isn’t qualified by non-experts yet there’s an awful lot of “short cut” companies who claim to be experts but who’ve no intention of doing the hard yards required to deliver at a high standard. They do however, have every intention of taking your money and guess what, there’ll be no comeback and no contingency.

I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t expect a company with no real professional credentials or commitment to actually deliver. As a seasoned consumer personally speaking I certainly wouldn’t be confident and experience tells me not to put myself in a potentially unfavourable position ie based on an unverified source’s say-so. In terms of the travel industry for example there are very basic pre-requisites that should form the backbone of any decision making, for example …

Is there recognised financial protection in place (eg ABTA or ATOL for flight inclusive packages)?
Does the company have an established reputation?
Does it demonstrate the necessary experience to put me in a good position?
Does it have good credit worthiness?
Is there contingency?
Are they professional?
Are their terms of business obvious and available?
Does any public face follow standard legal guidelines, eg real addresses (not PO boxes), company registration numbers on websites and letterhead, etc, etc.

These points should come to light pretty quickly, but a few minutes considering them could make all the difference. Certainly it will be the difference between a protected, professional relationship and a potentially underwhelming one.

In terms of advertising services, which seem to proliferate greedily, who has qualified the advert / recommendation? What due diligence been done on the advertising recommendation (it’s actually rarely a recommendation – read the small print) and have essential insurances been verified, what about health and safety, what about financial viability and protection, has an experienced overview of the value been undertaken? Or more likely is it a case of simply selling advertising and passing it off to the consumer? Services like these make their revenues on advertising and have no intention of going the extra mile. Why would they, that constitutes extra expense.

By way of an analogy if you will permit me, Coke and Pepsi have been imitated many times, over many years, but in the Cola category there still really only remains Coke and Pepsi. The reason is they’re the top of the tree, they’ve earned their spurs and provide unrivalled selection for the consumer. They invest heavily and maintain the highest standards. Nothing else comes close or has done. Sure you can buy something cheaper, but it never tastes the same does it. Value-wise it’s not the same result, it’s not even in the same ball park.

Customers are valuable commodities, and many companies (beware in the internet age – some won’t even be companies) will try and tempt you with their wares and claims, especially in a tough economic environment. Just make sure you do yourself a big favour and take a minute to look at it from an considered point-of-view, it takes commitment and invested experience to deliver better results … gentlemen beware the Imposters.

And finally when it comes to stag weekends, StagWeb raises the bar higher. We know what it takes, we also know you’re responsible for the success of a significant even and the finances of multiple guests. We don’t take chances on your outcomes, year in year out we’re committed to walking the walk. Bottom line … you can absolutely, 100% rely on us – the extra mile gentlemen comes as standard.

Share this post!