The result of adopting a plan to become as customer-centric as possible is that your facility will become more competitive, more profitable and will have a better chance of surviving these turbulent times. The result for businesses that do not operate with this philosophy at its core is that they are not going to retain the customer base they have. Consider the results of the following study done by the American Society for Quality and Productivity Center -
Why Companies lose Customers:
Customers die - 1%
Customers move away - 3%
Customers influenced by friends - 5%
Customers lured away by competition - 9%
Customers dissatisfied with product - 14%
Customers turned away by indifference on the part of the service provider - 68%
Customers that are wowed by
their experience, on the other hand, tell everyone they speak with their story for
days and any time the subject of service at a golf facility comes up for the
rest of their lives.
What makes these numbers
frightening is that you typically don’t know that your business is leaving
until it is too late. It is much more difficult to attract new customers than
to retain existing ones.
Club members can join other
clubs.
Daily fee players have many
courses to choose from.
You can buy clubs, balls,
hats and golf knits on the internet.
You can get a burger and a
beer after the round down the street.
How many hair salons do you
drive by to get your haircut?
How many dentists do you pass
to get your teeth cleaned?
How many restaurants exist between
home and where we’re going to eat tonight?
If profitability in the pro
shop is not something that motivates you, think about your resume and the next
job you interview for where there will be applicants from facilities with wow
reputations. If you are at the job you will retire from I applaud you and your
security and suggest that you use the wow factor resume point at your next
staff meeting or in one-on-ones, particularly with assistant pros who aspire to
be head pros.
In summary,
we want the golf experience at our facility to be so outstanding that
members/customers want to patronize the shop whenever possible and tell all the
golfers they know how wonderful we are. In
order to accomplish the big picture specific actions taken will should be:
Create a mission statement for
the staff that declares this intention. This is not necessarily the mission
statement of the club or facility.
Create an orientation program
for new employees that focuses on customer service, the Wow factor and sales
skills instead of the typical tour of the grounds and primer on running the
register.
Make every employee
accountable to creating the culture that will accomplish this mission.
Promote the associates that
best exemplify the culture.
When possible incentivize
associates that best exemplify the culture.
Hire only candidates who you
are convinced will enhance the culture.
Make every day’s priority to be
better at serving the customer than we were yesterday.
