"A Snapshot" Look at Our Industry - Staff Training - May 2011
Staff Training - How to Add Value with No Additional Cost
As consumers, we’ve all experienced excellent customer service and poor customer service. The result of those experiences often influence our buying decisions, making customer service critical for any business to succeed. Customer service is especially important for golf operations because virtually every customer is dealt with in person. The trick is figuring out how to offer the best customer service possible without the added cost.I started tracking the use of electronic tee sheets in golf over 20 years ago when the first Interactive Voice Response telephone systems were installed in Miami, San Diego and Calgary. Since that time, I have been exposed to virtually every tee sheet and point of sale system used in the golf industry. Early adoption of electronic tee sheets was very slow, mainly because golf operation staffs expressed concerns that they were giving up control of their tee sheet. In many cases this was a “straw man” defense covering up their fear of technology and their own lack of technical expertise.
At one course where I served as a remote control general manager, I required the director of golf to install an electronic tee sheet over his objections. I did make a deal that if the staff didn’t like it, or it didn’t make their jobs easier, I would remove it after giving it a try from April through July. When July rolled around, I stayed true to my word and asked if they wanted to pull the electronic tee sheet; the staff sheepishly admitted that they liked the Fore! Reservations system because it made the reservation and check-in process easier and faster. After the staff admitted their preference for technology over a paper tee sheet, they soon also learned it was a trap; I asked them what they were doing with their extra time? From a management standpoint, I expected better in-person customer service to result from the efficiencies the system provided. I also wanted to make certain we were utilizing everything the system had to offer. Here’s where I quickly learned two major lessons:
1. Counter staff typically only use a fraction of the features available in electronic tee sheet and point of sale systems.
2. Counter staff need to be trained how to properly use software features, which requires that management know how to utilize them as well.
So, just how important is customer service? Here are a few things I have learned over the years:
• Customers love to be recognized by name, especially if they are a repeat customer.
• New customers want to feel welcomed.
• Course condition should be considered an integral part of customer service.
• Golfers are more than a little schizophrenic when it comes to the definition and importance of customer service.
The last point above makes the goal of providing good customer service a real challenge, but I can tell you that staff training is a primary component of delivering “value” to your customers. Customer surveys are one of the services we offer to golf courses. Our surveys poll a combination of a course’s existing customers (Fore! Reservations identifies your unique visitors) and known area golfers that do not appear in a golf course’s customer database. Our survey results provide aggregate data, and are very interesting and revealing.
When golfers are asked to select the reasons for picking a particular golf course to play in order of importance, we get the following results (lowest value = highest importance).
Reasons for choosing a course to play:
Condition: 1.6
Price: 1.7
Pace of Play: 1.8
Layout: 1.9
Availability of Special Prices: 2.0
Availability of Tee Times: 2.0
Notice that Customer Service doesn’t even make the top six (and it is on the list of choices). It is also curious that Proximity doesn’t make the top six either, and yet everything we are told by various industry sources (including us) is that golfers play the vast majority of their golf within 30 minutes of their home. Our survey results do show however that Proximity is the primary reason for a golfer’s reason to play a course most often. This again indicates that golfers often send us a “mixed” message.
We also ask golfers why they return to their favorite course and we learn why golfers are more than a little schizophrenic. Again, the lowest value = the highest importance.
Key satisfaction areas of client courses:
Overall Enjoyment: 2.1
Condition: 2.2
Customer Service: 2.2
Price: 2.6
Pace of Play: 2.6
Out of nowhere, Overall Enjoyment ranks number one, with Condition and Customer Service tied for a close second. Price and Pace of Play tie for a relatively distant third. We have found that “overall enjoyment” is really a euphemism for “perceived value.” What does this mean to you as a golf course operator?
• First and foremost, golfers want to enjoy their experience.
• Overall Enjoyment is a combination of multiple factors.
• Price is a relatively secondary consideration and really only serves as a benchmark to help answer the questions of “Did I have a good time and did I get my money’s worth?”
• Course Condition and Customer Service are the most heavily weighed components of Overall Enjoyment. This is also why we believe golfers consider Course Condition as part of customer service.
So what does all this have to do with staff training? First of all, every golf course has someone behind the counter to answer phone calls, make tee times and check-in golfers. If you stop and really think about it, the counter staff generally handles the vast majority of customer contact for the golf course. Unfortunately, the golf business has decided that counter staff should be among the least trained and lesser valued staff members. What is also unfortunate is that these employees are being trained by managers that usually started in those same positions.
One of the key aspects of counter staff training is customer data collection. We have already emphasized its importance in a previous article, but you need to answer this question – why does one course collect more than 75% of their golfers’ e-mail addresses and another one less than 20%? Here’s another question for you – why does one course have 95% valid phone numbers and one course have up to 40% “default” phone numbers (e.g. 000-000-0000)? Let’s look at two reservation scenarios to see how counter staff customer service and data collection can improve.
When a golfer already in your database makes a tee time, what happens? In Fore! Reservations, customers are quickly identified by phone number or last name so your staff can see when a match is made and can ask the golfer are you Joe Smith on Chestnut Street or is your phone number 262-908-5570? You can also ‘Flag’ customers in Fore! Reservations so your staff can readily identify if a golfer checking-in is playing your course for the first time. Based on whether a golfer is existing or new, this should immediately trigger a response from your staff to say “It’s nice to see you again Mr. Smith” or “Thanks for choosing to play XYZ golf course Mr. Jones.” If this isn’t happening, and you don’t think these are staff training issues, you may need a new mirror.
When a golfer that is not in your database makes a tee time, what happens? I would estimate that when your staff doesn’t find a match, most of the time minimum information is collected (e.g. a phone number). Rather than accept that your staff only collect a phone number, you should instead encourage (or better yet require) that as much information be collected as possible. To help with this, Fore! Reservations enables you to determine which customer data fields are required when taking a reservation through the ‘Entry Order’ table. When checking-in a new customer, your staff can also see which fields are missing, and therefore know exactly what to ask for.
With every customer visit, the opportunity exists to make that golfer a repeat customer when you have their contact information. Train your staff on the importance of data collection and to engage customers by promoting your course offerings. Here are some examples of how to do so:
• “Welcome Mr. Jones. May I have your e-mail address so we can send you an e-mail confirmation for future tee time reservations?”
• “Touch the kiosk to enter your e-mail Mr. Jones so you can receive a special offer!”
• “Mr. Jones, here is a coupon to come back and see us again. All you have to do is bring back the coupon complete with your information to get this great deal!”
• “Mr. Jones, if I can collect your e-mail we can send you a survey about your experience following your round.”
• “Don’t forget Mr. Jones, you can make a customer profile online for easy re-booking at our website and receive the best rate guaranteed.”
If the thought of “I could never get my staff to comply” is running through your head, I do have some suggestions on how to combat these hurdles to help ensure your counter staff provides great customer service:
• Offer a staff incentive program for data collection.
• Offer a staff incentive program for program enrollments like your awards program.
• Make sure the staff is properly trained on Fore! Reservations and utilizes the available features designed to help make their job easier and allow for better in-person service.
• Make customer service a standard across all areas of your operation.
On another concluding note, courses with lackadaisical counter service often also show evidence of lackadaisical course maintenance. We will dedicate a future article to course condition, which is an important component of customer service as illustrated in our survey results referenced earlier.
In the end, I hope this article points out the reasons that customer service is essential in getting your existing customers to come back and your new customers to feel like they got “value” when they came to your course for the first time. Ultimately, every golf course has personnel in place to perform most of the same essential functions; it’s up to management to train them how to make the best use of their tools available, and to determine what you expect them to accomplish. Successful courses are not necessarily paying their counter staff more money, they are just training them better on how to get the job done right.
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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