"A Snapshot" Look at Our Industry - Customer Retention and Strategic E-mail Marketing - March 2011
Customer Retention and Strategic E-mail Marketing
So far, we have talked about pricing and the importance of collecting customer information. This month we will discuss the number one way to help stem the tide of discounting; customer retention! As we evaluated the 2010 results for our client courses, the negative impact of massive discounting can be found in virtually every market.While we can’t wave a magic wand and make discounting disappear, better use of your Fore! Reservations data can help add value to the overall experience of playing your golf course. Using customer segmentation can improve your e-mail marketing communication and reduce strategic reliance on “price emphasis” alone. Here are some simple-to-use e-mail marketing features in Fore! Reservations that allow for easy customer segmentation and are designed to help improve customer retention:
1. Defector E-mail Messages – An important part of your e-mail marketing strategy should be to target those customers that haven’t returned to your course in a certain time period. Identifying customers we like to call “defectors” and strategically marketing to them by saying “We Miss You” can greatly increase the chance that they will return. We generally see defector retention increase by over 50% when operators regularly contact their defectors.
The Defector Campaign is an automated e-mail message available in the Fore! Marketing product that enables you to continuously communicate with your defectors throughout the season. By reaching out to customers that you haven’t seen in awhile, you’re reducing the chance that an entire season could go by without a single visit. Fore! Marketing identifies when a customer hasn’t been back to your facility for a certain number of days and automatically sends an offer of your choosing to entice the golfer’s return.
We recommend selecting a few defector date parameters (i.e. 30 and 60 days), but at a minimum setting up a defector e-mail for 365 days, so that in the event a customer didn’t play your course this season, you can market to that golfer to return next year. The offer to entice your defectors to return can be simple:
• Free Sleeve of Golf Balls – This may cost you $4.00, but the perceived value to the golfer is $8.00. You get credit for an additional $4.00 discount (in the consumer’s mind) that didn’t cost you anything.
• 50% Off Clothing in the Shop – If you are “keystoning” your merchandise, this also doesn’t cost anything.
• Beer for 1 Cent per Stroke on your Scorecard – Offering this will likely cost you less than what the customer pays. Plus, many who come in for a discounted beverage will purchase another at full price.
2. Thank You E-mail Messages – Saying “Thank You” to your customers is another easy way to indicate that you value their business and appreciate their loyalty to your course. A thank you e-mail is also available in your Fore! Marketing product and we highly recommend incorporating it into your e-mail marketing strategy. By automating this e-mail, you can make certain that you never miss a “Thank You” opportunity! Thank you e-mails can include a comeback offer, can be utilized to ask golfers to complete an online customer survey about their experience, or to simply steer them back to your website to make a future reservation.
3. Monthly Newsletter – Communicating to your entire customer base on a monthly basis is a great way to maintain or increase customer retention at your course. Newsletters help build a sense of community and are also great informational tools. I know newsletters can take some time, but they can be simple and still have a substantial impact. You can also minimize the time newsletters take by utilizing the Fore! Marketing product to create your newsletters ahead of time and set them to be sent out on the first of each month.
Here are some pointers on what makes a great newsletter:
• Promote Special Events – You can increase signups with timely communication.
• Recognize Tournament and/or League Winners – Everyone likes to see their name in print.
• Announce Monthly Food & Beverage Specials – Most beer and many food distributors will bend over backwards to help you run a promotion.
• Promote Tee Time Availability – Help fill your tee sheet by promoting offers such as Find-A-Game specials (Find-A-Game is available with the new Fore! Internet). Our national survey data shows that the third biggest barrier to playing more golf is finding people to play with!
• Drive Customers to Your Website – Always have an active link to your website in every e-mail you send so customers can readily book tee times online or learn more about your newsletter topics. We’ve seen too many operators forget this e-mailing fundamental. Your website should constantly be evolving with up-to-date information that coordinates with your e-mail marketing efforts.
It may surprise you that the average golf course retains only 35% of its customers from year to year, but the retention number grows to over 60% if run over a two year period. With strategic e-mail marketing, you can get these customers to return by keeping your course on their annual rotation.
In addition to effectively marketing to your customer base, another key component of customer retention is recognition of your best customers; letting them know that you know who they are and value their business. We have mentioned the Top 100 Customer query before (View | Reports | Spreadsheets | CustSpnd.xls), but you really do need to run that monthly and send a special “thank you” e-mail to those specific customers. In addition to recognizing these valuable customers every month, you can enhance that message by letting them know they have automatically been entered into a drawing for an end of the year prize. Since these customers will most likely produce 60% or more of your annual revenue, these prizes can and should be significant. We have seen prizes ranging from a new driver to a trip to a major golf event as very effective promotions.
You will notice that we have not mentioned “e-mail discount blasts” that only contain price offers. Sending these out only serves to diminish the value of your golf course product, and eventually you will turn all of your customers into discount shoppers. As most of you are learning the hard way, the impact of unilateral (broadcast to all your customers) discounting can have a negative impact on your bottom line. We encourage you to move away from broadcast discount e-mail blasts. This practice can be replaced by some or all of the steps outlined above; most importantly the emphasis on players who have not returned and recognition of your best customers.
We probably sound like a broken record, but with the golfer base shrinking and all of the other competitive pressures you face, your best chance for success is in retaining the customers you have and turning your “new” customers into returning golfers.
Next time we’ll talk about “lowest price guarantee” and how best to use this method to achieve the highest revenue possible.
Stuart Lindsay
"Lindsay, a lifelong Milwaukeean, has made a career of a seemingly
thankless task: Helping businesses and individuals understand the
inner workings of the golf industry. He began delving into golf course
economics while with Deere & Co., and continued after founding
Edgehill Golf Advisors in 1989. The work combines his naturally
analytical mind with his passion for golf." - Golfweek, April 2008
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Edgehill Golf Advisors
10134 N. Port Washington Road
Mequon, WI 53092
Telephone: 262.241.7088
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