In light of this, the brand’s customer service department has been temporarily outsourced to Schalk Bezuidenhout, local actor and comedian, who has tackled the new job description head on:

“Our customer service team was struggling to answer some of the baffling questions we were getting on social media. After an emergency brainstorming session late one night, someone suggested that Schalk would be the perfect man for the job, and I agreed. I immediately forgot about the decision, until a few days later, when my marketing team had already employed him and made the videos. It was too late to backtrack, so I guess he’s our customer service guy now.” – Jenny Coulson, Marketing Manager South Africa

“When I heard our team in South Africa wanted to hire Schalk Bezuidenhout to answer our customer queries, I said sure, go for it. Because I thought they were joking. Turns out, they were not joking.” – Mike Rich, Global Marketing Director

The video which was released yesterday (13 February) features Schalk telling the ENTERTAINER’s customers exactly what he thinks of them. Bold move or huge mistake? Do discuss.

Before we go on though, just to give you some context, The ENTERTAINER was founded way back in 2001 in Dubai by Donna Benton. It is the leading provider of incentive offers from well-known dining, leisure, entertainment, beauty and hotel brands across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. Interestingly, the company successfully transitioned from a print publication to a data-driven tech company with the launch of the award-winning ENTERTAINER app in 2013.

Packaged together as destination-specific products, the company has enjoyed phenomenal growth by virtue of a strong partner network, a burgeoning corporate loyalty business, and a broad base of delighted customers. Today, the ENTERTAINER offers 70 consumer products and 6 tailored B2B solutions across 19 countries with over 8,600 merchant partners globally.

And now officially in its 18^th year, the award-winning app is bigger and better than ever. Mike Rich, Marketing Director at the ENTERTAINER, mentioned that this year’s launch is “the kind people should be excited about. More merchants, more offers, more products, more savings. We’re very proud to be one of the largest money-saving apps globally, with a community of over 3 million users, that saved over $140 million in 2019 alone.”

ENTERTAINER 2020 products are now available. Early-bird purchasers can get the entire SA Bundle for the exclusive discounted price of R595 (retail price R995), for a limited time only. The SA Bundle 2020 includes the ENTERTAINER’s three core products: Cape Town, Johannesburg & Pretoria, and Durban. The Bundle also includes complimentary access to Cheers (2-for-1 offers on drinks), Beauty & Fitness (savings on spa treatments and gym classes) and More Africa (savings on accommodation and experiences throughout the continent).

In total, the SA Bundle provides access to over 3,700 buy one get one free and discount offers at the best restaurants, attractions, golf courses, spas, salons, bars, nightclubs and fitness studios across South Africa.

Members also enjoy exclusive access to ENTERTAINER Getaways, which includes discounts of up to 60% and seamless booking through the app at over 550,000 hotels worldwide.

The 2020 products are available to purchase on the website or directly through the app at a special early bird price (for a limited time). Very clever concept behind it and definitely one for those always on the lookout for the best deals, the ENTERTAINER is available to download and try for free on iOS or Android App stores. It’s a no brainer why one should have it, we already have it on our devices, what are you waiting for?