| During my time in the vacation club space, I’ve heard plenty of different descriptors clubs use to describe their process of formalizing their relationship with new members/owners: the closing, the button-up, the signing ceremony, the VLO, and so forth. However your club refers to this process, there may be more parties present at the closing than meets the eye.
As I talk with more and more clubs about their closing practices, I’ve found that they’re either very regimented or have a desire to be more regimented and are making headway towards becoming so. Wherever your club sits on this scale, and as you refine your closing practices, I’d like to offer a refresher on the parties you might think about as you develop your guidelines.
The New Owner / Member – Starting with the obvious, the signing ceremony is where the visitor becomes a new member/owner. How are you thinking about personalizing the closing experience for them? What steps are you taking to get them what they need to have both a successful signing and enjoyable membership? What are you doing to make sure they remain excited about their decision to join your club?
The Verification Loan Officer / Quality Assurance Associate / Title Agent – Another obvious party in the room—how are you enabling them to conduct a successful closing? Are their expectations clear? Do they have the technology and support they need to effectively perform the closing? After thinking about how you can support them, think about how they represent your club. Have they created a welcoming environment for the new owner? Are they courteous? Are they adhering to your standards for the closing process?
Your Brand / Company – With much of your strategy and budget allotted to getting new visitors to this moment, stakeholders across the company are relying on your closing team to deliver a new member who doesn’t rescind. How are you giving these stakeholders a say in your closing process? Are you collaborating across your organization to make sure the right messaging is being delivered? Have you worked with your peers in sales, marketing, legal, compliance, member relations, finance (and elsewhere) to make sure their messaging is weaved into the closing?
Policy Makers – Of course, there are standards you must adhere to meet mandated thresholds for consumer protection and compliance. Just like policy makers rely on your club to adhere to their standards, they’re also relying on you to adhere to these standards so they don’t need constant revisiting. How are you ensuring your VLOs/QAs/Title Agents are meeting regulatory standards?
The General Public – If there’s one thing we’ve learned with the advent of the open web it’s that anything you do can be shared on the open web. The rise of social media, forums, message boards, and the like have given consumers a megaphone to the world. It’s important your closing personnel is cognizant of this reality. A quick Google or Twitter search of your club name will likely yield some insights into just how enjoyable your closing experience really is.
The GOOYTs – The Get Out of Your Timeshare Attorneys—they seem to have made an aggressive push as of late. As part of their work, they’re likely doing everything they can to gather a detailed picture of your sales and closing process, so they can attract and steal your customers. Are you conducting ongoing research into the tactics they’re using and ensuring your closing process is proactively addressing those?
Your Peers in the Space – The reputations of fractional/timeshare/vacation clubs tend to blur together in the eyes of the consumer, and they quickly make generalizations based on their experience with only one club. Is your closing considerate of the industry you represent? Are you doing your best maintain the integrity of the space? Are you collaborating with peers to share best practices and drive compliance standards that bode well for all?
As we’ve discussed above, there’s a lot of diligence that goes into preparing your team for successful, compliant, memorable closings. These closings go far beyond just the parties who are physically present in the closing office. As you think about your closing process, it’s important to keep all stakeholders in mind to protect your customer and your club and safeguard the viability of the wider vacation club ecosystem. By taking a proactive approach to addressing the aforementioned parties, it will help to further promote a thriving industry and deliver on our collective promise of providing memorable vacation experiences for all. |
