Does your club need an Ambassador?

When would you say a customer is most excited after a purchase:  The day of or a month later?

If your answered, the day of, you are correct!

If new members are most excited the first few days after joining a golf club, why don’t more clubs capitalize on this brief, yet fertile opportunity?

What formalized program does your organization follow for integrating new people into your club?

Do you even have one?  And if not, why?

“Well yes, our Pro/GM usually blows the dust off our new member welcome packet when they join, isn’t that enough”?

Sure…it is plenty if it’s 1955 and your club is still the only place to get a drink or decent steak.  Sadly though, it’s 2011.

Have you ever considered starting a formalized Ambassador program at your club?

Here’s how one could work:

1. Find ten to twenty very active club members that live and breathe your club and ask them if they would like to be Ambassadors for the club (most would love to do this).  An Ambassadors job is to integrate new people into the club, make them feel welcome, give them a positive (members) perspective, and to expose them to all facets of your club.  They are the name and face for your club and more often then not, they are better than ten email blasts you probably don’t send anyway.  Why not utilize them?

2. When a new members joins, the GM/Pro/Membership directors mission is to make the new person feel at home.  He/she will accomplish this by arranging lunch and a round of golf with the new member within the first 72 hours of joining.  Based off of this meeting, the new member will be introduced to the various programs (you do have something besides a weekly dog fight, right?) you offer, possible new members to play with, and the expectations of the club (yes, I said expectations) with regard to their conduct.  Hand-written thank you notes should also be a sent by at least two members of the staff during this time.

“Why 72 hours”?

Why not?  The first few days are the most excited your new member will probably be so take advantage of it!

“Well our GM/Pro/Membership director is very busy and we don’t want them thinking their job is to play golf all of the time.  We would rather see him/her inspecting the number of ounces of ketchup we burn through in a month.  Trimming the budget is key in our operation….”.

If your club is still surviving by having your GM/Pro/Membership director wait in the office on the off-chance someone walks in, then by all means, the Ambassador program is probably not for you.

3. Have one of your ambassadors (based on ‘fit’ from your initial meeting) call the new member to set up a round with his/her normal group within the first two weeks.  This will let the new member quickly feel like a part of the club and will stoke his/her excitement.  Who knows you might even get a referral by doing this?

4. On the thirtieth day, have your club’s President and/or GM meet with the new member over lunch (see the theme?) again.  In this meeting, you will want to ask the new member what they like and dislike so far about the club?  How you could improve?  And if they know anyone else that would like to join, etc.

“These ideas seem a little, um, aggressive.  We want to project the image of prestige and grandeur.  We want members to feel lucky we took them instead of the other way around”.

Again, in 1955 this model probably worked great but if you haven’t noticed there are countless restaurants, bars, and new golf courses that didn’t exist back then.  Things change.

5. Follow up immediately on any new potential members your brand member suggests by adapting some of suggestions in steps 2-4.  Get your new member involved and I bet your closing ratio will double with potential members and retention will go through the roof.

Sales and Marketing is EVERY staff members job.  It is a fact, the clubs most resistant to out-of-the-box thinking are often the ones with the least referrals and most attrition.