Recently there has been an increase in the sharp practice of Mobile Disco's using various accreditations as a means to market themselves and their business.

Often this is an act of laziness on the part of the Disco Business itself. Its a sad fact that a lot of mobile disco operators are simply unable / unwilling to write a half decent write up of their own business services or promote themselves on their own websites, or be detailed in their replies to client enquiries and instead prefer to pay a small sum of money in order to join an entity whose link or banner may infer some kind of professional recommendation or that a business level vetting / quality process has in some way being carried out and negate the need to work on the self promotion. In fact some Mobile Disco operators have declared that they don't even consider themselves to be businesses, and to them its more of a hobby

Sadly these 'approved by' and 'Recommended by' statements may be correct in that the business is a member of that particular entity however on some occasions these statements of fact may be used on websites and in brochures (along with the above mentioned 'recommended by' prefixes) and therefore used in a manner that confuses, misleads or otherwise is intended to convey that some kind of personal recommendation is given by issuing entity or that the mobile disco has in some way been personally vetted by the association or entity who is 'recommending' them.

More often than not, the entity who is offering these 'Recommended by' or 'Accredited by' links and banners and who by their silence are actively condoning these practices have not even met the person running the business, let alone have taken the time to fully examine their business practices, and generally assessed their overall merits based on their quality of work and reliability across a whole varied genre of bookings and audiences.

CLIENTS BEWARE!

If you are a client reading this, then I strongly suggest that if you come across a Mobile Disco business who is using these accreditations in a manner which perhaps confused you into thinking that membership to them was the result of passing a course or being some personal guarantee of their reliability, to contact the entity that they are a member of and ask them exactly what safeguards they have in place should the business you book prove to be unreliable or operate unsatisfactory and can they back up this website recommendation with a full written assurance of the facts. You should also ask them to provide details of their underwriting insurers and complaints procedure should you need to claim for compensation or lodge a complaint due to the fact you may have booked that particular entertainer partly or solely on the strength of their affiliation / recommendation statements and ultimately have been disappointed with some aspect of the provided service.

The plain and simple fact of the matter is that often these 'recommended by' links mean absolutely nothing and in a lot of cases there is no logistical possibility that an association / entity can check hundreds of mobile disco businesses, which may be dotted about hundreds of miles from their own base, and most simply don't bother because they don't have the resources to do this once, let alone on an ongoing basis. How exactly can an association recommend a business which they have never seen, and give personal recommendations on a DJ that they have never personally met? - in short they can't. So why do they do nothing to stop this practice?

All that is required to join most of these entities is a small membership fee! and perhaps the provision of insurance or electrical safety certificates.

Whilst the DJ who is promoting that he / she has been Recommended by.... or Approved by..... a certain Disco Association or Disco Entity in the real world, this will probably NOT MEAN.....

ACTUAL ASSESSMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE OF THE BUSINESS

ONGOING QUALITY ASSESSMENTS ARE CARRIED OUT

NO ACTUAL GUARANTEE THAT THIS PARTICULAR DJ IS ANY BETTER AT PROVIDING ENTERTAINMENT THAN THE NEXT

THAT THE DJ IS ANY GOOD!!

As a client, looking for a Mobile Disco, the only way that you can satisfy yourself of the level of professionalism shown by any business, is to either obtain a reference from a previous client, or ask detailed questions and assess the quality and dedication of the reply. Unfortunately, entities which accept a fee in return for using their name can not really be relied upon to be unbiased and neither have they probably ever engaged the service of the business themselves, so are hardly in a position to be doing any recommending.

Our advice to you, is avoid booking any mobile disco who is using these affiliations in a manner which infers some kind of personal level recommendation, and instead book a DJ who is happy to spend time answering your questions in depth, responding to your enquiry in a timely and courteous manner and who puts in the required effort into selling their services to you on the basis of how good their are, and their strengths as an entertainer, rather than who they have just sent a cheque too.

If you are a DJ who is thinking of using these practices to promote yourself then we advise that you spend more time perhaps designing your website and literature around your own personality as a DJ and market the services that you provide, rather than hiding behind commercially paid for memberships which, you know yourself, have simply been bought rather than earned!.

There is of course nothing wrong with stating that you a member of an association or being proud to be part of a group or community and stating the fact that you are a member on your website, but inserting words or other text which perhaps infer to a potential client, that you are actually being recommended or accredited by the association / entity, is just plain misleading, and its only a matter of time before you, or the 'recommending' entity are actually asked to prove it