Have you ever held a "Major" at your club?

When was the last time you introduced a new (and fun) event for your avid members?

Have you ever considered holding a major at your club (with a twist)?

To kick off Master’s weekend and make a little cash for the club, here’s the game:

1. Announce you are going to “host a major” at your club via your member’s email addresses or Facebook page.

2. Sell teams for say...$25 per person and allow your members to create as many teams as they are willing to pay for.  Pay out the top three places with 60% of the pot going to the first place team, 25% going to the 2nd place team, and 15% going to 3rd.  The prize money won will be used in Pro Shop credit.

3. Have your member pick (1) player out of “group A” which will comprise the top 1-15 in the world rankings, (1) player out of “group B” which will include the top 16-30 players, and (2) players out of “group C” which will include any player 31st or higher in the world.  

4. Have members turn their team(s) in before 9 p.m. on Friday night (after the cut has been established).

5. Saturday and Sunday your member will play with his/her team and will include his/her current USGA handicap.  The member team with the combined lowest score wins!

6. Start the tee times early on Saturday and Sunday so that the your members can watch the telecast with their fellow members.  Drink specials?  Lunch/Dinner specials?  A club “green” jacket and picture?  That is up to you, the important thing is to have fun and increase your sales.

7. Repeat for the U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship.

When are they going to turn in their stamp book?

When I was boy, I fondly remember going to the local grocery store in my hometown of Greeneville, TN.  Of course, this was before the days of the Super Wal-marts with a nine row toy section, grocery store, tire store, and office center all in one.  The unique thing about our local grocery chain (Green Giant) was the prize section located right next to the shopping carts.  It had BBQ grills, badminton sets, glass sets, baseball gloves, dishes...and a little bit of everything in between.  If they didn’t have it on display, they probably had it in their catalog which was chocked full of 100’s of items.  Next to the catalog display was a stack of “stamp” books.  Each time you bought groceries at the store, they issued you stamps based on the dollar amount that was spent.  Once your stamp book was full, you turned it in for the prizes on display or in their catalog.  I thought the idea was genius, well, is genius still today, and don’t understand why stores don’t do something similar?  I don’t know about you, but “Value” cards really don’t do anything but fill my key ring, but I digress...

What does this have to do with the golf business?  Quite a bit actually.  

Why?  Because your members carry around (their own) stamp books on your club.  Their “stamp” book is a little different than the old Green Giant one’s I spoke about earlier, because they issue their own stamps based on how they feel about the way they are treated by your staff.  Green = good, Red = bad.

If your twenty-year old running the Pro shop is busy watching TV or texting when one of your members walks in and they act inconvenienced, Red stamp.  If they are treated with a warm friendly hello, a firm handshake, and a “how’s your game Mr. Smith”, Green stamp.

If your member has to ask for ketchup each time they order fries, Red stamp.  If your wait staff says, “so good to see you Mrs. Smith, are you playing well”, and hardly lets their glass get below half-full, Green stamp.

If your staff rolls out the red carpet for a guest, which who knows, might be an important customer, you might get 2-3 Green stamps.  Treat that same guest like a nuisance, and they might issue you 5 Red stamps.  Like I said, the issuance of stamps is based on each individual’s standard of excellence and expectation’s.  

“It sounds to me like we are in a constant no-win situation if people are that fickle”.

I believe the contrary is true.  I believe if your staff is dedicated to a Member First experience, which reminds me of places like the Honor’s course in Ooltewah, TN or TPC of Myrtle Beach, SC, you will set yourself for a growing and happy membership base.

When you give your members a great experience, they fill their “books” with Green stamps, and tell others.

When you fail to meet their expectations by hiring the constantly complaining, clock watching, and/or flat-lined employee’s who act as if their job is to simply show up, your members will issue you Red stamps...and tell others.  The only thing is, they may not tell you?

“That hardly seems fair”  I mean, we do everything we can but we aren’t the Hilton or Disney.  Sometimes bad employee’s slip through the cracks.  Not everyone has a great day, every day either”.

No, everyone can't always be in a chipper mood naturally, but one of my mentor’s said it best, “in almost every area of life you struggle with, “fake it until you make it.  Act as if...and you will become it”.  

Greeting someone with a friendly hello and a “nice to see you today” doesn’t take a Disney training program.  Nor does a quick follow-up after a complaint handled with care and respect.  

If your membership drive rarely yields new member referrals, I wonder if it has anything to do with the number of Red stamps your members are carrying?  

Or worse, how many of your members are one Red stamp away from leaving?

Old guard or New school, which one are you?

In my hometown of Knoxville, TN, there are two major gyms:  Old guard and New school.  

Old guard had all of the business for years.  They had old equipment that wasn’t a very big priority to fix.  Their membership prices increased steadily over the years and they had zero customer service.  

Had they become complacent?  You bet!

When New school came to town, they brought in new equipment, a more lively atmosphere, better pricing...and quickly, they took a huge chunk of market share from Old guard because Old guard thought that running the same playbook for the last twenty years would work for the next twenty years.  Ooops!

Despite the proliferation of Wal-marts, Super home improvement stores, and online tee times for basically cart fee, I believe there is still a market for personalized service.  Look no further than Old guard and New school, and you will see a giant transformation in the health club business with (now) huge monthly calendars jammed with events/classes and more personalized service, i.e. personal training.

Why, when people are so pressed for time and squeezed financially, do they double and sometimes triple PER MONTH what they spend on a health club membership to have someone count reps and lead them through a work out?
  

Drive down the interstate and main thoroughfares of town and you’ll notice that nearly every other billboard Old guard and New school advertises on contains a message about personal training.  

In fact, immediately after they say, “press hard, the third copy is yours”, they do a pitch on their personal training services...to the point that you can’t refuse because the value is so high (the first session is usually free).

Of course, that would never work in the golf business...

Golfers just want to log onto golfnow.com, play for $25, skip your $6 lunch special (you do have a daily lunch special right?), and pass on the happy hour short game clinic’s you hold on tuesday and thursday evenings for $20.  Private/group lessons?  Nah, that would never work.

Are you serious?

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t want to shave five strokes off their score by learning a 
decent bump and run or blast from a greenside bunker.

I don’t know anyone, that if they could eliminate their slice wouldn’t play more or bring a few guests on a more regular basis.

Doesn’t it make sense that happy customers/members are more likely to spend more money with you in every other area of the club?  

Aren’t you more qualified, since you gave Mr. Smith a few lessons, to tell him which set of irons would best match his swing over that twenty-two year old at the local golf shop?  I think so!

“We offer lessons, the thing is, very few people want to take them”.

No, they want to take them, they just won’t because they don’t believe your Pro is worth what he/she is asking for a lesson or frankly, they are rarely asked.  Not a good combination!

...but what if the offer were so enticing they couldn’t afford not to take them?  

1. What if you offered a guaranteed 25% reduction in their handicap in trade for a six lesson commitment with value priced “tune-up’s” (10-15 minute quick checks) for when things were just a touch off? 

2. Are you good enough to promise “one to two less clubs into every hole” for a lesson package?

3. Have you ever considered doing a once per month “lunch and learn” series for your members/guests in your grill room on the flat screen and/or dry erase board?  

4. Do you have a student that has improved dramatically because of your lessons?  Why not feature them in your club’s monthly newsletter, facebook page, or (outdated) club website each month?

5. What if you offered a free lesson to anyone that referred a new student?  

“Look, I don’t think you get it, we have 250 members right now, and out of that number probably 25-30 have EVER TAKEN A LESSON with our Pro”.

Actually, I do understand your dilemma.  Your club thinks that comma PGA means people are automatically supposed to sign up for lessons without being asked, without sufficient proof of success, or offered anything of value...and/or your Pro is doing ten other things besides teaching your members which you (falsely) think saves your club money, but actually ends up costing you more than you can fathom.

People won’t leave because you are servicing them too much or offering too many services with an offer they can’t refuse.  No...they leave you when you become Old.

To remain private or become semi-private, that is the question

The economy still stinks.  You have let go of many of your key employee’s and the only difference in you and the upscale cattle farm down the street is essentially your club’s pace of play for roughly $25-50 more per round.  Tough sell?  You bet.

Have you considered going temporarily or permanently semi-private (behind closed doors)?  Well, don’t...yet.

Why you ask? 

1. It's very tough once you start down that path.

2. You instantly risk running off 25-30% of your members who view the move as desperate.

3. You stop the flow of potential new people from becoming members (now) because they can get access to your course just like if they were members without paying monthly dues.

4. If private clubs are built on a certain image, this move ruin’s it.

5. You aren’t fixing the core problem...your poor value proposition.

“But you don’t understand, this economy has weakened us to our lowest point in fifty years.  We were thinking of opening the course up to everyone just for the month of September.  We could use the jolt in cash and it would be a great way to show off the club to potential new members”.

I know it sounds good when you put it on a white board, but in practice, it never fixes the main issue which is the value you offer in trade for the dollars you charge. 

Unless you are going to start discounting your membership, temporarily allowing the public in will only slow the bleeding.  The reality is, most clubs would do very well to pick up less than 2% of the people that come as “guest’s for the month”. 

I have heard every excuse in the book for this NOT working:

“Guests give us the wrong contact information...”.

“They act bothered when we try and sign them up after playing...”.

“We don’t have an effective way to track who is playing and who isn’t...”.

I’ll add a few (more) reasons why this won’t work:

1. You have probably fired too many staff members - when traditionally public course players visit a private club, their expectations are high.  They expect to be treated differently.  They expect a more attentive staff.  They imagine a more member-centered and friendly atmosphere.  They all have a picture, right or wrong, of what being a member is supposed to look like.  When you don’t have the staff to pull it off, you make your club look worse because now their expectations are lowered and people don’t join places they aren’t excited about.

2. Your members haven’t bought into the move - it’s a sad fact that many members want a club where everyone pays, but no one plays (at least when they are there).  When suddenly tons of new people show up and ruin their golf utopia, they don’t like it.  Worse if these newbies don’t know where they are going, what they are doing, understand proper etiquette, or worst of all, play like turtles. 

3. 95% of the people playing aren’t financially a fit - if most of the people playing under the guise of “guest’s for a day” aren’t really qualified financially to be a member (and you know this going in), why not just bring in a few more tournaments spread throughout the year instead?

What should you do?

Put your members in charge of bringing in new people.

“We have done that for years...it doesn’t work”.

You are right, simply announcing a membership drive NEVER works, but I have a feeling this approach might:

Be honest with your membership.  If your membership roles are down significantly, insist on having a town hall meeting with EVERYONE at the club, staff and members alike.  Tell them where you are and where you need to be, and let them see what life will be like in 6-12 months if things continue as they are today.  Nobody wants increased dues, less service, or worse, to close the course. Being real with your members is a good first step to getting buy-in.

Offer reduced fee guest passes to each member.  Give each member eight passes (if you are really gutsy, tell the members they have to buy them).  Inform them that the goal isn’t cheap golf for their neighbor Larry, but a plan to hopefully grow new members with their help.  Tell them specifically that these passes will be tracked.  The people they bring in WILL be contacted by someone on the membership staff or committee, and that this is an overt gesture to bring in new members.  Period!

Have your staff ready.  If there ever was a time to have your staff read, “How to win friends and influence people”, “Hug your customers”, and “Customer satisfaction is worthless, Customer loyalty is priceless”...it is now.  Your staff should make your guests and members feel like they are getting the red carpet treatment.  Anticipation, execution, and WOW is the goal.

•    If members/prospective members have a few minutes to kill before teeing off, offer to change their spikes.

•    Do their clubs look dirty?  Grab a towel and tell them, “I’ll have these clean before you finish on the practice green”.

•   Especially hot?  Offer them a little sunblock.

•   Do you keep ice at the pro shop?  Offer to ice their cooler down before teeing off.

•   Tell them about your lunch/dinner/happy hour special after the round and say, “...and I would be glad to polish your shoes while you dine with us”.

•   Does your club re-grip clubs?  How about offering the customer a 24-hour turn around on new grips purchased from the club?

•   Do you have a clinic they might be interested in?  Why not ask?

4.  Reward, reward, reward.  If the reward is valuable enough, current members will work hard to help you sign up new people.  Would members be excited to have their cart fee’s waived for a year?  How about a lesson per month for a year?  How about a set of custom fit irons?  Be creative.

The difference in success or failure in many businesses comes down to inches, not feet.