Tag: customer

Know Your NPS to Build Brand Loyalty & Member Referrals

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In our work with clients across the globe, our research reveals that member referrals are the most important means of generating a steady stream of new prospects, which is probably not surprising.  After all, the cost is nominal and you can be assured that members are going to invite prospects with a shared passion for the lifestyle provided by your club.

The most effective method to gain member referrals is to ask for them. But before you do, it is critical to understand your NPS – or Net Promoter Score – to determine the response you will receive.

NPS is an extremely valuable market research metric that is widely used across industries and can be leveraged to measure customer perceptions of a brand and estimate future growth, as evidenced by the potential for repurchase or referral to other consumers.

NPS Is Not the Same as Member Satisfaction

Member NPS is not the same as your members’ overall satisfaction with their club experience.  NPS asks about the likelihood of recommending or referring the club to others while overall satisfaction asks about contentment with their experience.

In short, NPS is future-looking and overall satisfaction is backward-facing.

NPS Is Simple to Implement

NPS, originally a proprietary instrument used by Bain & Company, is now used by two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 companies as a basic measurement of customer sentiment.

The popularity and broad use of NPS is often attributed to its simplicity and transparency of use.  It is a survey question which asks, “How likely are you to recommend [brand, product, service, company, or organization] to a friend or associate?” The question is designed to provide responses which are easy to interpret and track over time in trend analysis.

NPS generates valuable customer insights and is typically used and interpreted as an indicator of customer loyalty.  This information is invaluable for business and community leaders who are responsible for measuring and managing revenue retention, customer retention, new business growth, or overall consumer satisfaction.

Despite the ubiquity of NPS among leading companies in major industries, the adoption and consistent application of this metric within the club industry remains limited.

A recent GGA Partners research survey of more than 500 club leaders (A Club Leader’s Perspective: Emerging Trends & Challenges) found that just 14% of clubs track member NPS in their surveys.  Among clubs that employ this metric, the average NPS is +64.  Additional feedback from the survey found that one-third of clubs reported an increase in their NPS during the pandemic, a positive statistic for future member growth.

Calculating Your NPS

The NPS question is asked on a scale ranging from 0 to 10, with 0 representing “Not at all likely” and 10 representing “Extremely likely”.  Based on the number selected, respondents are subdivided into one of three categories: those with ratings of 9 or 10 are classified as “Promoters”, those with ratings of 7 or 8 are marked as “Passives”, and those with ratings of 6 or less are categorized as “Detractors”.

The actual “score” is calculated by subtracting the portion of detractors from the portion of promoters without factoring in the portion of passives.  True NPS is always shown as an integer and not a percentage and, with the net score falling within a scale ranging from -100 to +100, it is possible to have a negative NPS.

Keys To Developing & Tracking Your NPS

1. Keep the NPS question consistent – Avoid altering the question (“How likely are you to recommend [your club] to a friend or associate?”) or the answer range (from 0 = “Not at all likely” to 10 = “Extremely likely”) as it will impact the validity and reliability of the data.

2. Ask for NPS alongside a handful of supporting questions – NPS is most valuable when supported by other overarching questions which generate datapoints on overall satisfaction, perceived value-for-money, and demographic questions (to stratify responses and dive deep into feedback by membership subsets).

3. Keep it brief – A survey with these three questions (NPS, overall satisfaction, value-for-money) and four or five demographic questions should take about 3-4 minutes for respondents to complete. Shorter is better for these types of surveys.

4. Measure NPS routinely – At a minimum, your NPS metrics should be tracked and updated annually to identify changes in the sentiments of your members. Whether they are rising or falling, understanding the factors impacting changes in your trend line will provide valuable insight into areas where the club is excelling as well as areas that need improvement.

If your club aims to be truly attentive to overall satisfaction, member loyalty, member and customer retention, or using member referrals to support membership growth, leaders of the club should be monitoring NPS as a matter of routine.  If this acronym isn’t surfacing in boardroom discussions, it should be.

While no one can predict the future, a clear understanding of your NPS will provide a data-driven indication of members’ loyalty to your club’s brand and the success you will have when asking your members for referrals.

Practice Areas and the Pandemic

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If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind. This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Searching for a silver lining to a pandemic is mostly a fool’s errand. But many golf courses fortunate enough to stay open during the last five months have found something for which to be thankful: Thousands of golfers and would-be golfers are discovering (and rediscovering) a love for the game.

In many places, their affection is being stoked by short-game practice areas that are introducing new players to golf and giving more experienced players a place to hone their games, all the while boosting incremental revenues.

Bradley Klein, a veteran golf travel, history and architecture journalist and Golf Course Industry columnist, observes that the role of short-game practice areas is evolving. “Time constraints were the initial impetus, but that’s changed of late.” He says the trend is toward “more fun, family-friendly” areas that also provide practice opportunities for serious golfers. “They also constitute efficient use of land.”

What’s more, in this era of social distancing, short game areas are a safe space for youngsters to learn the game while socializing and exercising, according to Jan Bel Jan, president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. She believes the trend will continue to gain momentum. “Short game improvement areas provide benefits to seasoned golfers, promote a welcoming introduction to golf for adult beginners and help courses remain competitive with other area facilities,” she says.

Pinehurst Resort injected new credibility for areas dedicated to the short game and demonstrated its revenue potential when it opened The Cradle — nine holes, all par threes, measuring 789 yards and covering 10 acres — in September 2017. In the last three years, The Cradle has hosted more than 100,000 rounds while becoming one of Pinehurst’s most popular courses.

If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind.

Know your customer.

New practice, training and game-improvement facilities require planning, which starts with understanding the type of player you want to attract. What skill levels will you prioritize? What will be the hours of operation? How will you price access? Member surveys and information exchange sessions with golfers will help you better understand your target audience’s needs and expectations.

Don’t get sloppy.

“Serious design, with interesting greens contours and variety of tee shots” are keys to effective planning, Klein says. “It has to be run like a real golf course and not like a sloppy afterthought.”

Make it fun.

Jim Wyffels, director of operations at Spirit Hollow Golf Club in Burlington, Iowa, is an innovative thinker when it comes to making golf fun. Spirit Hollow’s Shankopotamus Golf Academy, which features TopTracer technologies, was designed with two goals in mind, Wyffels says. “The first was to create an additional amenity for our stay-and-play guests in the evening and during inclement weather. The second was to create a new revenue stream in the evening and during winter months that would target our local market. Our plan was to create a fun, game-like family atmosphere where all age groups and skill levels, including non-golfers, could be entertained.”

Keep your superintendent in the loop.

How will the golf course superintendent maintain the short-game area? Engage the superintendent to ensure design characteristics that can be efficiently and cost-effectively maintained. Concerns such as adequate turning radii, slopes that can be consistently cut and safely navigated by staff, and shapes that match existing terrain on the adjacent golf course are planning priorities. Bel Jan advises planners to be mindful of optimizing drainage, building putting surfaces to established standards and minimizing shade impacts to enable turf recovery.

COVID-19 really has no upside; it has wreaked havoc in unprecedented ways. But if a crisis of its proportions has encouraged more people to take to the course, and prompted golf managers and leaders to think more innovatively about amenities like short courses and practice areas, then it has left something of value in its wake.

Becoming a Destination

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For 80%* of members and visitors, the golf course is the aspect of a club they hold most dear. It is pivotal to the club’s reputation.

However, when we imagine a ‘golf destination’, don’t we think of something more than just a club with a great golf course?

The word destination intimates something that goes beyond the golf course. It could be a desirable location, a known identity, a famed history, a longstanding tradition, exceptional service or just an overarching experience of quality.

If a club wishes to elevate its status, to be recognized as a destination, then there are three key areas that club leaders need to develop:

1. Developing the Customer Experience

The customer experience itself is typically comprised of three parts: the complete customer journey, a customer’s interaction with brand touchpoints, and the environments a customer experiences – including digital.

By developing an intimate understanding of each of these areas, and thoughtfully mapping them to the satisfaction of members and guests, you can make significant strides in the customer experience at your club.

A ‘complete customer journey’ is different for each and every individual, but starts before you think it might. Earlier this year I spoke of the advent and importance of online reviews – which are just one way customers research your club. Add in social media, web presence and press coverage and you’ll quickly realize that, actually, the customer journey and experience can often start well before they enter the front gates.

To learn about this in greater detail, member and customer surveys provide an excellent opportunity to seek intelligence and data. Reviewing these insights in the context of your club’s mission statement will then reveal improvements you can make.

Next, how do customers experience, navigate and interact with your club once they are through the gates? What is the first thing they see when entering? Who is the first person they will meet? What improvements can you make to improve or enhance that welcome or first interaction?

Remember: Customer’s expectations are often informed by their experiences elsewhere and can be unfair, misaligned, or even unreasonable in the context of your club. Expectations relating to food and beverage provision can be informed by the Michelin Star restaurant in a major metropolitan area, or expectations of service may be informed by their recent stay at a five-star hotel.

For this reason, any changes that you make should be in the context of fulfilling – or reviewing – your club’s mission statement: this brings an authenticity, integrity and brand-oriented focus to the experience improvements you make.

2. Developing Surrounding Facilities

Destination clubs typically focus new development or capital enhancement efforts in one of two areas: facilities that complement their core service offering OR facilities which offer them a competitive advantage over their local market and immediate competitors.

The trend in recent years has been to focus capital improvements on facilities appealing to families, children and, more generally, health and wellbeing. Clubs putting in place such additional amenities look to do so with the support of a long-term strategic plan, underpinned by strategic intelligence. In other words, they are taking the necessary steps to secure the long-term sustainability of their club.

Clubs looking to capitalize on trends and gain a competitive advantage have often done so with smaller, yet impactful additions. Take casual dining for example, where we have come across café/lounge-style areas conducive to working and individual club utilization, or straightforward, family-friendly dining experiences like fire pits, pizza ovens, ice cream bars and food trucks.

Developing facilities and expanding the amenity package can help to position the club as ‘the only place with _______’, and support the need and ambition to offer a genuine competitive point of difference in a challenging marketplace.

3. Appealing to a Wider Audience

Aside from offering an exceptional customer experience, true destination clubs cast a wide net by appealing to a broad spectrum of audiences. Membership privileges often include such things as extended family access; customized, unique, and well-attended social events; reciprocal and travel programs with other destinations; as well as tournaments, competitions, and special events that support the continued expansion of the club’s brand footprint and reach.

The key to enhancing the club’s appeal to a wider audience is not simply an exercise in volume or offering a litany of activities, but it is rather to position the club as a network extender. The club should be perceived as a way to enjoy shared, common experiences – known to be highly connected to achieving a sense of happiness and fulfillment. The club isn’t just for the ‘primary member’ anymore, it should be for everyone relevant to that members’ life.

This is not to say full privileges for all. The suggestion is that drawing connections between the club and customers’ social lives increases relevance, which is essential in support of member and customer retention and overall club satisfaction.

In the eyes of members and customers, for a club to be truly recognized as a destination, it must become a conduit for their lifestyle. The club is a platform to more effectively enable them to live the life they want to lead.

To facilitate that, embrace an unerring commitment to cultivating a superior customer experience, developing surrounding facilities, and appealing to a wider audience. By delivering on these key criteria a club can embark on the journey to changing customer’s perceptions and be known for being much more than just a place to play golf.

*Syngenta, Growing Golf in the UK, 2014

This article was authored by GGA Manager and Member Satisfaction expert Bennett DeLozier.

Prioritize Customer Service to Maximize Revenue

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Detailed research shows that 93% of customers admit to online reviews impacting on their purchasing decisions*.

For golf clubs, this means they need to find new ways to ensure exceptional service is embedded at every turn of the customer experience. Because wherever there are flaws, the chances are, someone somewhere will know about them, as GGA Director Asia Pacific, Paul Hinton, explains…

If there is a reality club managers need to come to terms with, it is that internal experience impacts external perception, more than ever.

But rather than becoming fearful this will somehow expose areas of weakness, it should be viewed as an opportunity to take a strategic view of service quality. This will help to focus and optimize all aspects (and generate additional revenue), while providing a platform to broaden out to new areas, such as Functions and Events where I have personally witnessed the transformational impact this can have.

Putting needs of the customer first

Clubs are well-known as places where members can socialize, relax and avoid the commercial pressures of the outside world. So, while you may speak to your teams about upselling, cross-selling or add-on sales, to the customer this should only ever be seen as ‘service’.

Whether staff are trained to offer a schooner of beer rather than a middy, a cake or dessert with a coffee, or to pick up on deteriorating grips on members’ golf clubs when they are being cleaned this is all part of putting the customer first.

Providing the service offering is delivered with integrity, the member will feel valued and looked after. Not only will the club benefit from increased revenues in the short-term, but can expect favorable online reviews and an enhanced perception of how the club is run and how customers value it.

Serving as one

A club may account for multiple businesses, from the self-employed PGA Professional to franchise caterers or even events teams, but this is of no significance to the customer. Online reviews will attach themselves to your venue, your brand, whether it is golf, a particular event, a lesson or otherwise. Therefore, the need for a consistency in service quality across all aspects of the venue is critical to its wider success.

At a fundamental level, regular meetings between all business owners should take place, though club executives and/or presidents should take the strategic lead in ensuring an exceptional and consistent customer experience is delivered across all aspects of the business.

Exploring new opportunities

Members needs and expectations are changing; the likes of traditional three-course meals and formal dining is on the decline. As dining trends change, and with a greater desire for socialization emerging, developing a calendar of events for members that offers a range of experiences to different demographic and interest groups represents a sound strategic direction.

A creative and innovative events team is a great starting point to shape this direction. By taking traditional events and transforming them into more contemporary and family-friendly occasions, clubs can better accommodate the needs of its members, create the opportunity to deliver more exceptional service and, crucially, differentiate itself from its competitors.

When it comes to activating an events strategy, share the enthusiasm by planning with the operational committees to engage their help in promoting the event.

Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of word-of-mouth, supported by a communications plan. The event experience starts with the promotion of the event and the booking, so if that is online, ensure the website and booking platforms are functioning correctly and that club staff are briefed on the event. Suggest to members, to extend the invitation to fellow members and or guests during the booking process too.

Service at the event is a critical success factor, from the moment members and visitors arrive at the venue to the moment they depart. This is where trained staff can play an influential role in exceeding expectations by being professional, courteous, respectful and engaging.

Ideally a ‘wow factor’ needs to be created, from room theming to entertainment, ensuring attention-to-detail is at such a level, it provides a positive talking point for members and visitors to take away with them.

Although this may sound like a significant undertaking, I have seen clubs increase food and beverage revenue from $2.5M to $5M in three years, driven by successful club events, improved service and products, innovation and improved marketing and communications.

*Research from Podium ‘2017 State of Online Reviews’ available to view here.

Paul Hinton is a Director of GGA’s Asia Pacific Office, located in Sydney, Australia.

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