Over the Easter Holidays we paid a visit to Bluestone Resort in Pembrokeshire. This is the first time we have been to the two year old resort. We have been to Center Parcs several times before.
For those of you that do not know either of them, you stay in chalets or log style cabins, no cars are allowed on site when you have offloaded your luggage and you cycle or walk everywhere. Use of a large swimming pool with a wave machine and outdoor hot tubs is free to use. Center Parcs then encourages you to use their other facilities, all of which cost a lot of money. Once in Center Parcs they like you to stay on site and spend, spend spend.
However, Bluestone encourages you to visit the beautiful Pembrokeshire Coast and surrounding areas. It is a much smaller site and although it does have activities you are not constantly reminded about them or encouraged to try them. There is less to do, but because it is in such a beautiful setting, if you have the beautiful weather which we did, there is enough walking in woods, swimming and cycling to keep you entertained.
Center Parcs was the dominant force for many years if you wanted a holiday of this type. I think this dominance has show signs of complacency and disregard for their customers as often happens with bigger companies. For example, on one visit I made most of the entire outdoor swimming pool was shut for maintenance for the entire week. When we challenged the staff on reception why they had not advised us of this when we booked the response was “well we knew you would not book then”. Now if you bear in mind that practically the only free entertainment you receive is the swimming, to shut the pool and not tell customers shows a real lack of respect for them. On complaining, we were offered a £50 discount off our next visit. Next visit? You have to be joking!
Thankfully, now there is a second, and in my opinion far more enjoyable, option. Bluestone could have said that Center Parcs already exists, they do everything so well, what is the point of trying to compete with them? They could have bemoaned that someone else had got there first and launched the business that they wanted to launch.
This is the same in any business sector. If you are thinking of starting a service that is already offered by another firm, or starting a new law firm, don’t worry that you already have seemingly unbeatable competition. If your message is even slightly different it will appeal to a different market. The fact that other firms are already offering this service shows that there is a market for it. If you open with the right message you might convert clients from another firm to yours.
I am now a Bluestone Resort convert. If you like this sort of holiday, it is well worth a try. Who are going to be the converts to your new service or law firm?
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