Gary Player Country Club - Your decision....

As you know I travel constantly around the world and experience great customer service almost everywhere I go, especially in Asia.

I have returned to my home country South Africa for a vacation and booked into Sun City for the week.

Unfortunately my experience of customer service here leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, this will not be on my list of places to visit in the future.

Today I decided to treat the two ladies in my life to manicure, pedicures and hair treatments (at London prices) at the Gary Player Country Club.

My mom is in a wheelchair and as there is a massive staircase, I decided to take her in the elevator. Imagine my surprise when I found the elevator full of furniture which I had to unload myself.

The elevator was in such a bad state of repair that my mom was a nervous wreck when we reached the top. It stopped and started, jolted and at one stage I thought we were going to drop to the ground.

My mom said that she would rather slide down the staircase than get into the elevator again.

I asked for the manageress, Ms Vermaak, who was no help at all. She just pushed the blame onto maintainance and said that is it was ok with them, there was nothing she could do about it.

As I had to sit around waiting for two and a half hours, I asked if Marie and I could use the jacuzzi as I was going to spend a substantial amount on the treatments.

I was told that as they were going to have the treatments, they could use it, but not me.

I said that my mom would not be using it, so could I use it in her place.

I was told that the rules stated that under no circumstances could that happen.

Don't you hate it when bad customer service always hides under the 'rules'.

How easy would it have been for her as a manager to allow me to use it while waiting, but unfortunately her service experience did not allow her to even think of that.

How sad, a wonderful country club and resort is so badly let down by lack of service.

Fortunately for me, I am an international speaker, so will be sharing this story with thousands of people in my talks and books around the world.

My only advice to the Gary Player Country Club would be to buy a copy of my book 'Walking with Tigers - success secrets of the world's top business leaders' and read the section on Pam Wilby who manages the Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai.

They could learn a lot......well maybe not