A customer service orientated golf shop staff is important to any operation. With the launch of the new Fore! Marketing product, many courses are implementing Birthday Clubs and installing the new Touch Screen Kiosk; a key component to Fore! Marketing that automates the sign up process in the golf shop. But even with the advantages of this technology, Fore! Reservations was interested in learning if the kiosk could yield even higher results with the assistance of a committed golf shop staff. Could one motivated staff member single handedly grow the Birthday Club by encouraging customers to use the kiosk? Fore! Reservations conducted a month-long experiment to find out, and the results were astonishing!

Stephen Jurgella, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Golf Enterprise Management program, interned this season at Spring Meadows Golf Club - an 18-hole public facility located in Gray, ME and a Fore! Reservations User since 2003. In addition to providing operational assistance at the course, Fore! Reservations challenged Stephen to see how many customers he could get to enter their e-mail and birth date into the kiosk in a one month period. The challenge began on July 30th and concluded August 31st.

"My goal was to get 250 customer entries in a month. Every day I tried to promote the kiosk to 90% of our customers," Stephen says. "The kiosk is so easy! Literally two steps - e-mail and birth date and you're done - anyone can do it!"

Stephen surpassed his goal, getting 413 customers to enter their information in the kiosk with a large percentage completing the registration process and joining the Birthday Club. To date, Spring Meadows Golf Club has over 300 Birthday Club members - nearly all having joined through the kiosk. In addition, since installing the kiosk in the golf shop the course's customer database has grown from around 1500 to over 1800 in just one month!

"Stephen did a fantastic job promoting our new Birthday Club and getting customers to join through the kiosk," says General Manager Dave Pollard. "Since Stephen started the Fore! Reservations challenge, he helped our entire staff see the importance of not only checking in golfers but getting their information and telling them about our great offers."

So how has Stephen had such great success and how can you have the same success at your facility? The keys to his success included being persistent, friendly, informative, and assertive. "Greeting golfers with a high level of customer service and comfort is helpful. If you show the value of spending a minute of their time to sign up you'll get a great response," Stephen says. "I was very direct in my approach. Instead of asking 'would you like a free round of golf on your birthday?' I tell them 'right over here is where you can sign up to get a free round of golf on your birthday.'"

Having the kiosk in the Spring Meadows golf shop made the promotion of the Birthday Club very easy. Dave found that customers responded well to the touch screen technology and was even surprised by the number of senior players that have e-mail addresses and were interested in signing up. Additional benefits of the kiosk include its convenient size, portability, and that it only requires power and Internet to operate so it can be positioned in any high traffic area. "The size of the kiosk is just right for the golf shop counter," Dave says. "We set ours within two feet of the main check-in computer so it's easily accessible to golfers while they wait in line or as they pass through the shop. Location is key."

With the kiosk located on the counter, Stephen was able to ask customers to join the Birthday Club while checking them in at the same time. "Staff members might hesitate to ask golfers for their information or tell them about special offers when they're in a hurry to get to the first tee. The kiosk makes that task much easier," Stephen notes. "Once customers knew about the birthday offer and how simple the sign up process was, most registered on the spot! Plus it made the check-in process faster for us since we didn't have to ask for e-mail addresses. With the kiosk, e-mail collection happens instantly."

According to Dave the Birthday Club is an appealing incentive for customers to give their e-mail address which Spring Meadows utilizes for multiple marketing purposes. "The best thing about the kiosk is that the customers themselves enter in their e-mail so you know you're getting quality addresses eliminating bad e-mail bounce backs. Plus, the automated entry finally solves the annoying problem of trying to decipher difficult to read customer information cards and manually entering them into the database," Dave says.

Not only should every facility have a Touch Screen Kiosk in the golf shop, every facility should train your golf shop staff to promote the Birthday Club and kiosk, position the kiosk at the golf shop counter, and consider offering team incentives to reach monthly goals.

"Starting a Birthday Club through Fore! Marketing and installing the kiosk in our golf shop was a great decision. It has elevated us to the next level in terms of marketing. We were once behind but thanks to the products from Fore! Reservations and our experience with Stephen, we are well on our way. We're striving to keep this momentum going and we won't turn back," Dave states. "If you don't take advantage of the great new automated marketing products from Fore! Reservations, you're really missing out and not getting the whole bang for your buck," concludes Dave.

Click here for more information about the Touch Screen Kiosk. To purchase a Touch Screen Kiosk contact the Sales Team at 630-789-9705 or e-mail sales@teeitup.com. For our Canadian courses, contact Score Advertising at 204-992-2222. For suggestions on how to implement a staff incentive program at your facility contact the Marketing Team at 630-789-9705.

A future issue of Fore!mula for Success will feature courses that have used the Fore! Marketing product over the past year. If you'd like to share your experience using this new product and be featured in Fore!mula for Success please call us at 630-789-9705 or contact us via e-mail at news@teeitup.com.