Tag: Service

Opportunities to Reinvent Club Service Standards

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The club industry is facing one of the most challenging labour markets in years. In addition to labour issues, most clubs have had to adjust their service levels to protect the health of their employees, members, and guests, as well as adhere to constantly changing public health guidelines within their regions. Added to this is the reduction in revenue associated with a decline in event business. The net result presents a challenging environment for clubs, but with challenge also comes opportunity. Clubs are provided with the opportunity to refine their service standards to meet the expectations of todays’ world and avoid allocating resources based on standards that are no longer relevant.

Changing Service Expectations

Over the last two years, service expectations have shifted. Some clubs have taken advantage of this transitionary period to redefine their future service models , with the goal of increasing operational efficiency while delivering a level of service expected by their members and guests. Utilizing member/guest focus groups and listening sessions, as well as well-constructed surveys, clubs have learned that service expectations have changed over the past two years. Some services that were once considered standard are no longer priorities for members. Valet parking, staffing a bag drop and driving range attendants are just a few examples of services that some clubs are moving away from. These clubs have also learned that the use of technology is far more accepted than it was two years ago and represents an opportunity to reduce labour costs. Moving all tee time booking online or to the club app rather than having a staff member answer phone calls is a common example.

Defining Service Standards

“Service Standards are clearly defined descriptions of the service experience that customers can expect to receive consistently with every interaction they have with your club”

On the surface, the above description is straight forward, but when it is applied to defining these standards, it can become a bit challenging. In particular, the four words, “…consistently with every interaction…” is what sets well-defined service standards apart from aspirational service delivery. For something to become a standard, it must be something that your team has the talent, training, and resources necessary to achieve the standard every time. If one of those factors is missing, it cannot be a standard. For example, it might be a service goal to answer the phone within two rings with a live individual. If you do not have the resources to achieve this every time, even during busy periods, it cannot be viewed as a service standard.

Written from the Customers Perspective

Our organization has assisted both small teams and large organizations in the hospitality industry to develop service standards. One common theme that we encounter with service organizations is a lack of clarity between operating standards and service standards. To put it simply, service standards is the service that a customer can expect to receive every time they have an encounter with your business. Operating standards are the internal processes that are in place to ensure that your organization achieves the service standards. For example, a service standard in a restaurant might be that all customers will be greeted at the host desk immediately upon entering the restaurant. The operating standard that would support this might be that during restaurant hours, the host desk will always be staffed. The difference is minor but important.

Train and Support

Once you have clearly defined your service standards across every touch point with customers, the challenge becomes ensuring that your team is consistently delivering. This requires that all employees clearly understand what is expected of them and that they have the necessary training and resources. Employees also require ongoing support and coaching from their supervisors.

Measure, Coach and Reward

The final step in a successful service standards program is measuring success. A consistent measurement process involves the creation of a scorecard and utilizing mystery shoppers who can objectively measure your team’s delivery of service standards. The scorecards help to identify areas where standards are not being met, and help management understand where additional training and resources might be needed. Scorecards also provide a benchmark score that provides a snapshot of how you are doing overall and a measurement that can be considered in your senior team’s annual goals and objectives.

Clearly defined and measured service standards have become a standard in the hospitality and club industry. If your club does not yet have a service standards program in place, we encourage you to develop one. If you already have a service standards program in place, it may be time to review it and determine if it is right for today’s service environment and evolving customer expectations.

Contact a GGA Partners professional today for more information.

GGA Partners and USGA to Collaborate on Golf Course Superintendent Executive Search and Placement Services

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New offering combines organizations’ expertise to improve golf facilities’ ability to deliver better playing conditions and enhanced golfer experience

BLUFFTON, S.C., and LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. (April 14, 2021) – The United States Golf Association (USGA) will join with GGA Partners (GGA), an international consulting firm, to launch a new service to place top-notch golf course superintendent candidates at facilities across North America.

As part of its suite of advisory services, GGA has long provided executive search services for facility clients. The collaboration will expand the company’s offerings, with the USGA Green Section’s agronomic and maintenance expertise serving as key factors in targeting the unique needs of each golf course and identifying superintendents with matching skills who can help facilities elevate playing conditions, improve course presentation and foster sustainable practices.

“For any golf facility, the ability to hire the right talent is crucial for long-term success, and we believe in creating and maintaining partnerships with facilities,” said Patrick DeLozier, GGA’s managing director of executive search. “The stakes are higher than ever for facilities looking to hire superintendents, and they are looking for candidates with a wide variety of skills.”

Added Craig Johnston, a GGA partner: “The ability to complement our services in strategy, facility governance, finance and operations with the USGA’s agronomic strength will ensure that we can continue to support our clients with the gold standard in best practices, education, innovative products and research.”

The collaboration will allow the USGA to expand its reach and enhance its ability to inform best management practices for golf course maintenance, including resource prioritization. As part of its mission to champion and advance the game, the USGA is helping to ensure a sustainable game in which course managers are empowered to create a positive experience for their golfers.

“GGA’s values and business areas are strategically aligned with our mission,” said Matt Pringle, managing director of the USGA Green Section. “With this new joint service, we can find the best match between the needs of the golf course and the skill set of their next superintendent, while providing ongoing support to deliver outstanding playing conditions and improved golfer satisfaction.”

The joint service will utilize the USGA’s nationwide network of agronomists, whose extensive knowledge of the facilities and superintendents in their regions will be pivotal to the program’s success. They will work closely with DeLozier, who heads up the firm’s executive search practice.

To learn more, contact Patrick DeLozier at patrick.delozier@ggapartners.com or Elliott Dowling at edowling@usga.org.

 

About the USGA

The USGA is a nonprofit organization that celebrates, serves and advances the game of golf. Founded in 1894, we conduct many of golf’s premier professional and amateur championships, including the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. With The R&A, we govern the sport via global set of playing, equipment, handicapping and amateur status rules. The USGA campus in Liberty Corner, New Jersey, is home to the Associations, Research and Test center, where science and innovation are fueling a healthy and sustainable game for the future. The campus is also home to the USGA Golf Museum, where we honor the game by curating the world’s most comprehensive archive of golf artifacts. To learn more, visit usga.org.

 

About GGA Partners

GGA Partners™ is an international consulting firm and trusted advisor to many of the world’s most successful golf courses, private clubs, resorts, and residential communities. We are dedicated to helping owners, asset managers, club and community leaders, investors and real estate developers tackle challenges, achieve objectives, and maximize asset performance.

Established in 1992 as the KPMG Golf Industry Practice, our global team of experienced professionals leverage in-depth business intelligence and proprietary global data to deliver impactful strategic solutions and lasting success. GGA Partners has offices in Toronto, Ontario, Phoenix, Arizona, Bluffton, South Carolina, and Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please visit ggapartners.com.

Defined by Passion

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This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Golf is a service business that attracts people who have a passion for the game and its values. Identical twins Daryl and Derek Crawford were born and bred for the job.

© times publications

“Our father was a skycap at TWA in Phoenix and taught us the importance of service to others,” Daryl says. “He passed that along to us.”

He also told his sons they would be defined by their actions, not the color of their skin. A father’s guidance has proved invaluable over the course of his sons’ lifetimes and three decades in the golf business. Their story is one more example of the disparate ways golf can serve as the foundation for lives that are well lived.

The Arizona Golf Association’s 2020 Updegraff Award, given to Derek, an executive with Phoenix-based Gibson Golf Management; and Daryl, the general manager at Papago Golf Course in Phoenix, is only the most recent example. The award, named for Dr. Ed Updegraff of Tucson, a longtime supporter of amateur golf in Arizona, is earned by those whose actions exemplify the spirit of the game.

Golf was an early influence in the twins’ lives. Growing up, they were like most little guys, playing whatever sport was in season. They were introduced to golf at a municipal course in Phoenix and soon became fixtures. “We liked being at the golf course and were always looking for reasons to be there,” Derek remembers.

They began to compete as teenagers, and that’s when they met Bill Dickey, a former winner of the Updegraff Award, and other members of the Desert Mashies, a Phoenix-based group of minority golfers who help young golfers connect with the game. “Bill and Alice Dickey embraced us as family and always helped us when we needed it,” Daryl says.

They played on the first golf team at St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Phoenix and walked on at Arizona State. Good players and enthusiastic competitors, they were attracted to the game’s attributes and values. Accountability, striving toward a goal and staring down adversity or disappointment were part of their DNA.

They worked at courses in the Phoenix area, first in bag rooms, where they refined their service skills, and later in management positions with increasing responsibility. Soon they were being recognized as role models, especially for other young people of color.

In the 1990s, they both left the club life to work as PING tour reps on the men’s and women’s European tours. They became trusted friends and suppliers to the some of the world’s best golfers.

For Daryl and Derek, it all seemed a natural progression.

“We did as our parents taught us, to listen to and learn from good advice,” Derek says. “And we never lost the joy of playing the game.”

“They were brought up in the game and continue to grow as business leaders and all-around golf ambassadors,” said Phil Green, COO and Principal of OB Sports Golf Management, which manages the Papago course where Daryl is the general manager. “Their love for golf, years of experience and strong work ethic have served them well over the years, and they haven’t forgotten to give back along the way. Their story is a great example of the way golf can become the foundation of success.”

As African-Americans, Daryl and Derek stand out in most golfing circles, where black and brown faces are significantly underrepresented. But it’s their actions, not their race – as their father predicted – that have defined them.

“We never felt anyone was trying to stop us or hold us back,” Derek says, as if anyone could.

“We have been blessed,” Daryl adds.

As have we all through their actions and their friendship.

 

Dangers of Depersonalizing the Member Experience

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As new innovations continue to help streamline club operations, GGA Partner Henry DeLozier cautions against replacing staff with technology and removing what can be priceless interactions for members and guests alike.

Most clubs today are facing the dual challenges of rising labor costs along with ever-greater member expectations.

In our modern digital age, the obvious solution for many has been to systematize and automate services wherever possible across their operation.

But while this may be cost efficient, clubs must beware…the result is often the depersonalization of member services.

Remember, clubs share an emotional – not transactional – relationship with members. And both research and experience have shown us that the best member services are strictly personal.

For a club, to depersonalize is to chip away at the very foundation of your business.

Here are five tactics for personalizing services at your club:

1) Reserved or Reserved for…?

Recognize reserved tables with a reserved placard that displays the name of the member for whom the table is reserved. It’s a small touch which underscores that “we have been anticipating your arrival”. These little efforts add more to the member experience than you might think.

2) Monitor Club Communications for Engagement

Most clubs blindly issue email communications to members with little-or-no tracking to understand if the message was even received – let alone opened, read, or acted upon.

Follow up your club’s emails with calls to individual members who are not opening or engaging with club communications. Ask if the messages are being received (although your analytics will have revealed this already). This is a chance to learn what topics interest your members…and which topics don’t.

3) Personalize Your Club’s Communications

As suggested above, develop a personal communications profile for each member.
As with Facebook or LinkedIn, you can enable members to populate their own profiles (though some members who are not computer natives will need help with this).

This allows you to learn what topics interest each member, in what media they prefer to received messages, what days and times they want the messages to be delivered, and from whom at the club they wish to receive important information.

In essence, stop issuing “Dear Member” communications.

4) Meet with Members

Whether one-to-one or in small (fewer than four people at a time) member groups, meet to discuss the club and its various priorities. Ask members for their feedback, learn their priorities, and ensure that they know and understand the board’s strategic priorities too. This will make them feel included, valued and empowered.

5) Facilitate Member-to-Member Introductions

Most members are truly acquainted with very few of their fellow members, but clubs are more fun when people know more people.

There are several ways you can help this along, such as hosting multiple welcoming events for new members, enlisting your board, committees, and staff to become the “connectors” between members, and creating a digital (online) member directory to help members learn more about one another.

Using the member profiles described above, you can personalize the effort by connecting people with similar backgrounds – such as universities attended, hometowns, or places of employment.

Keep in mind that private clubs are a platform for socialization. An undeniable characteristic of successful clubs is the sense that “everyone knows one another”. Help your members get to know one another and, in so doing, make your club ever more relevant to the members.

Ultimately, the key is to treat your members as the valuable resource that they are. Keeping your services personalized will help them know that they are recognized, respected, and valued, and provide the strongest possible foundation for your club going forward.

Managing Your Club Identity

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A private club’s brand is not the same as a chain of hotels or other hospitality business. It’s more personal, more emotional. And when it comes to the set of services, programs and events it offers, they should reflect this emotionally charged identity. GGA Partner, Henry DeLozier, explains how to manage a private club brand and realize what a powerful an asset it can be.

Your brand is in everything you do…and fail to do.

In the Old West days of the open range, where livestock roamed freely across the land, brands were burned into the hides of cattle to identify the ownership. For them, “branding” was a formalized approach of asset demarcation.

Unfortunately, even today, many private club leaders still think that a brand is simply an iconic mark, like that on the rump of a cow, indicating ownership. In the book Principles of Marketing, authors Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong show that a brand is defined as a “name, term, sign symbol (or a combination of these) that identifies the maker or seller of the product.” However, the concept of brand has advanced significantly from the notion that a trademark could serve as a brand.

Today, brands are stories. They are an intentional assortment of identifying characteristics of goods and services. And leading brands are carefully developed and aimed at pre-identified market segments whose wants, needs, and expectations align with the intended benefits of the product.

Many private club leaders mistakenly believe that their club is a brand similar to Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, or other businesses that promise superior hospitality services and amenities. A club’s brand – like a private club itself – is highly emotional, and the way the brand is managed must align with that.

In a private club, the brand establishes a promise of services, programs, and events which – together – constitute a promise of emotional reward. The manager will know and use your name, servers will know your preferences, other members will know you to be a person of accomplishment and social standing – thus, the club’s brand is in every interaction and memorable moment.

Following are three disciplines that every club leader should exercise in recognizing and managing their club’s brand:

1. Become knowledgeable about the power of brand.

This requires that club managers and leaders understand the market segments being served by their clubs. Careful market analysis identifies the psychographic motivations that make one club more attractive to members than another. The emotional context of private clubs requires that club leaders understand the human side of what motivated their members to join the club. Status, aspiration and recognition is far more important to club members than price. Club membership is not a transactional relationship.

2. Remain alert to proper brand management methods.

Use the club’s brand to establish and maintain a position of authority for the lifestyle promise made by the club.

Brand management is a full-time job. Seth Godin, the brand and marketing guru who has written some 18 books on related topics, says, “In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

Given that most private club markets in North America and Europe are significantly over-supplied, the successful clubs are those able to stand out from the crowd and achieve genuine market differentiation. “The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate,” Godin adds.

Three keys to managing your club’s brand are (1) leveraging your unique selling position to promote your strengths, (2) use marketing and communications to increase brand awareness, and (3) develop your brand internally so your members can attract their friends.

3. Use your brand to develop relationships.

Empower members to promote the club’s brand through the stories you tell about your club.

When it comes to private clubs, people are attracted by two key elements: brand factors (the key distinguishable traits of your brand), and buyer relationships and stories (how members came to be members, what influenced their decision and how the club now plays a significant role in their day to day lives).

Understand that your club brand is not a trademarked transaction – it is the stuff of imagination and achievement. Godin summarizes this truth observing, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.”

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry 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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