DECEMBER 2015www.endeavourmagazine.com

INSPIRED BY YOUR SUCCESS

Beekman GroupSetting The Standard For

Vacation Providers

The Beekman Group has gone from strength to strength for one reason; they care about their customers. Not in a standard, it’s good for business way, but in a focused and genuine sense, with their well being and happiness firmly at the front of company priorities. Endeavour Magazine spoke with John Beekman to find out more about this ‘customer first’ pioneer.

WRITTEN BY AMY TOCKNELL

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR VACATION

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We asked John to explain the key focuses back in those early days, “It started off with timeshare development, but we identified the limitations in conventional timeshare

and diversified our portfolio with the addition of a Points-based product, The Holiday Club™, which paved the way for many more years of success in the leisure market.”

Many more years is right, but not by sitting back and hoping that success would simply come to them. In fact, the group has diversified into a huge number of relevant interest areas including, but not limited to; vacation management services (resort and vacation management), Vacation Compass (an IT management system), iExchange (timeshare exchange provider), Beekman Managed Portfolio (select properties exchange network), Anytime Holidays (holiday rentals), Body Bliss Day Spas™, residential property development and commercial property ownership. With such a wide range of commercial interests, it would be easy to assume that the focus has shifted from customers, community and staff, but that is demonstrably not the case.

John tells us about the importance of community and how open communication is considered to be a cornerstone of good business practice at The Beekman Group,

“The Beekman Group is committed to being a responsible and contributing corporate player in the leisure industry in Southern Africa. Our strategy for community investment is therefore designed to advance the relationships between our resorts, our developments and our other subsidiaries with the communities in which they operate and to be seen as an added platform to

BEEKMAN GROUP

The Beekman Group is a holding company for a huge number of successful interests, but it all started back in 1970 when John and the late Bram Beekman founded Beekman Brothers and felt confident about branching out and growing their brand to include property development. 1982 saw their first timeshare property completed, at Banana Beach and four other Suntide resorts soon followed.

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communicate our brand values and vision to our stakeholders. This is not just good for our reputation - which is built on what we do as part of the communities in which we live and work - but it is also the right thing to do.”

That is the key difference between The Beekman Group and so many other organisations the world over. They act the way they do not because it’s good for business, but because it’s the right thing to do. How many companies can you genuinely say that about? Perhaps it’s the family ties and values that permeate every facet of the organisation keeping it grounded and focused on what is truly important, but either way, it is clearly a company of its word, as staff retention rates are excellent and with little under 1,000 team members onboard, this is critical for company longevity,

“Since our Head Office is based in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, away from the traditional city centres, the area creates a great lifestyle opportunity for staff to work and live at and it shows in our retention rates.

Countrywide and at Head office 66% of employees have been with us for five years or more. This includes 35% of employees who have been with us over 10 years, 17% of which have been with us

for over 15 years and 8% of our employees who have with us for more than 20 years.”

The reason for this extraordinary staff retention is that at every level, from ground up, the Group seeks to involve team members in company-wide initiatives, especially those concerning the environment. With a firm belief that an investment in the earth is equal to an investment in the future, The Beekman Group has been proactive in its desire to contribute to ecological charities, but are also planning some initiatives a little closer to home,

“Our new focus is for the entire Group – at all resorts and Head Office – is to go Carbon Neutral.

We have commissioned energy audits at the various resorts including monitoring and implementation. Our first audit was done at Cayley Lodge (Winterton) and although our existing green projects showed a very real saving already, a further possible energy saving reduction of approximately 65% has been identified.

These audits and energy-saving initiatives will form part of an exciting new process with the end result being a solar farm that will generate enough power to easily satisfy the Group’s energy requirements.”

BEEKMAN GROUP

There is that underlying concern and duty of care for staff coming out again and it was further reinforced by Wayne Beekman, Group Director, at the Green Roof opening,

“We are equally committed to protecting our environment, as we are to enriching staff welfare. This was a magnificent project that catered for reaching both these objectives.”

With economic downturns and unexpected fiscal turbulence having been a major player in recent years, most industries appear to have taken a knock, but the leisure industry appears to have weathered the storm better than most, as John explains,

“One would think that increasing economic pressures would lead to a steep decline in holiday-makers but we’ve seen nothing but a steady increase. Sure, people may choose to holiday closer to home or go for shorter periods, but there is definitely still a strong holiday culture in South Africa. Currently, we’re refocused on the customer journey, as people need to de-stress and find a way to spend quality time with their loved ones, so we are busy improving the technology behind our product offering in order to ensure that our members and owners have a seamless dream holiday experience from start to finish.”

This is not where the comprehensive customer care ends, however, as John goes on to tell us how The Group is constantly seeking out opportunities to engage with customers, via a multitude of mediums, to find out if and how they can improve their products and services. With a 48-hour response mandate in place, coupled with the new instant feedback platform that allows queries to be handled in real time, customers are left with no doubt that their thoughts are being treated with the utmost consideration. This is also reflected in the after-sales programme, which again, asks for feedback about the service provided. We didn’t feel that we needed to ask what strategies are in place to keep The Beekman Group ahead of their competition, as we think we already know why they are lauded as such industry pioneers, but John was keen to draw our attention to their cutting edge nature,

“We employ industry-leading technologies that provide self-help services to our members, allowing them the freedom to make bookings and manage their account online. This ensures that the member doesn’t need to wait in a call queues to speak to a consultant. Through strategic alliances, we’ve been able to give our customers a wider variety of inventory to choose from and at a

BEEKMAN GROUP

Beekman Managed Portfolio’s High-End Property Development Choices

better cost point. Our business model also allows our customers to structure their holidays around the time that suites them.”

If there was any doubt at all as to how the Group has risen to such heights within the leisure sector, they can now, officially, be cast aside! With a heritage for providing exemplar service and experiences behind them, what lies ahead for The Beekman Group? 2016 is just around the corner, so we wanted to find out what plans were in place for the New Year,

“We have three main initiatives coming up. At our Head Office, we’ve been involved in various internal improvements to the facilities and also plan on expanding the current building to include more underground parking as well as conference facilities. Also, we’re in the process of rolling out our Vacation Compass software to the Australian arm of The Holiday Club™.

And finally, we’re in the process of improving all members’ holiday experiences – from the moment they start searching for the destination up until the moment they arrive home after their holiday. What this means is that all members will be assured of the same standard of service in amenities, facilities and guest experience whenever they stay at any of our resort developments.”

Promising to further improve customer and staff experiences alike, these new initiatives are firmly geared towards the people that matter most and it’s refreshing to see such changes being put into place, regardless of financial expenditure. Determined to be even more member-centric and supportive of their staff, The Beekman Group has committed a lot of time and investment to 2016 already,

“Our entire IT development team, most of the upper management and all key staff are all dedicated – it’s a massive drive and we believe it to be a game changer, so the investment in time and money has been large. On the resort side, our major maintenance and refurbishment plan for 2016 alone comes to R53.8 million.”

Having spoked with John and gained a good understanding of the values underpinning the company, we know that will not be an unwilling investment and that if it will bring about improved customer and staff experiences, it will have paid for itself in no time.

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