Mythbuster - Email Capture Tools - February 2012
Myth: "We don't have the time or the tools to capture emails. It is too difficult to get each player's name on the tee sheet."
Mythbuster: Nicole Anderson, Golf Event Coordinator, Oak Marsh Golf Club, Oakdale, MN
When it comes to collecting customer data, I believe it’s not a matter of time, rather a matter of feeling as though you are bothering a customer or afraid to hear the word no. However, what you need to remember is that these people in front of us aren’t cold calls. You know that they are interested in your product or golf course as they are standing in your golf shop after all.Here are some great ways to capture those emails and player names in a quick and simple manner.
1. Loyalty Program – If the customer knows that they are going to receive something special that only a specific group of people will receive, they will give you their email address. Plus, if you scan a customer loyalty card or sticker with a barcode in Fore! Reservations, the software automatically pulls that customer’s name into the shopping cart, which in turns places that customer’s name on the tee sheet as well. This affordable solution solves both components to this myth.
Running a customer loyalty program not only makes collecting players names and their emails easier, it also helps you identify your best customers. How do you really know who your best customers are without having those hard facts? You would be surprised at the handful of customers you didn’t think would be in your top 50 or 100. One good report to use is the Customer Spending report, found by clicking on View | Reports | Spreadsheets, and select custspnd.xls. Then right click on box A7 and pick refresh. From there you can sort the spreadsheet to fit your needs.
With the addition of a Loyalty Program, we have gained 4,000 emails of customers that frequent our facility.
2. Touch Screen Kiosk – Although this requires an investment, the kiosk is easy to use, very fast and an effective way to collect customer emails. Customers just enter their email address into the software and it sends them an email with your offer once they have finished entering their customer information online. Once they’ve finished filling out the information at home, it goes directly into your Fore! Reservations customer database. No longer are you manually entering emails via a handwritten form where often times you can’t read the handwriting.
We also take the kiosk to golf shows or other places in town, and run a promotion that if someone enters their email address they are entered into a drawing to win a prize (usually a gift card for golf). Again, people who are interested in golf and/or your product will sign up.
We’ve collected over 200 emails with the Touch Screen Kiosk in just one year.
| Oak Marsh Touch Screen Kiosk In Action! |
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| Key Statistic |
| Over 4,200 quality customer emails collected Tools Utilized: Loyalty Program, Touch Screen Kiosk, Awards Incentive |
3. Awards Incentive – When placing the customer’s name in the Fore! Reservations Point of Sale field, it is easy to check their customer information quickly. We require our staff to enter a name and phone number for each person who purchases an item from us whether it is for a round of golf, a range token or a merchandise item. This allows the customer to start garnering awards points even if they don’t want to sign up for our Loyalty Program right at that time by giving us an email address. Eventually they have enough points built up and we say “Are you sure you don’t want to give us an email address today as you could receive your range token for FREE?”
Further more, by collecting customer information we have been able to contact individuals consistently who have caused damage to our golf carts and have gotten them to come in and pay for the damages. Right there is a worthwhile reason to get that contact information.
All in all data collection is about developing an incentive and establishing a routine with scripts for your staff to promote your offers. If they know what to say and how to handle receiving a no, you will greatly grow your email database and get more names on your tee sheet. The tools are available to you and it really doesn’t take that much time to put an effective plan in place!
