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| 3 Creek Ranch |
This is a repost of a four part series I wrote a few years ago that broke down service and sales into the arrival, pre-service, shop salesmanship and follow up.
When someone mentions “exemplary service” as often as I do it is
quite common to be quizzed about what specifically that phrase means. Does it
mean simply being especially nice to customers? The obvious answer is yes, but
exemplary implies pushing the envelope, always looking to make the member/
customer’s experience special in new ways without sacrificing anything that has
proved itself well received in the past. Thinking outside the box is an
important part of the culture that provides this type of service and should be
encouraged as soon as a new staff member is brought on board. You never know
where the next great idea will come from.
With this as mantra this posting will
discuss the first of many hypothetical staff meetings where this attitude of
team thinking is fostered. We will open the discussion with a preface on a
particular area of the operation per meeting so as to keep everyone’s thought
process focused. The introduction by this meeting’s team leader may sound
something like this.
“Our customer has pulled his car to the
bag drop. An attendant greets those in the car to the facility, assists them
with their bags and explains what the next step in the process will be. This
constitutes typical service. What can we do to enhance this part of the
experience?”
The following ideas surface:
• It
would be more personal to (whenever possible) be able to greet this member or
customer(s) by name.
At this point all the different tools that
could be used to accomplish this are examined.
It is also important upon arrival to
differentiate as much as possible between members/regulars and their guests
with a particular warm welcome for the guest.
The best chance at creating a new regular
and the most prospective new member is a wowed guest.
• It
would be great if the greeter could volunteer not just to direct the customer
to the next point of call but to accompany them and introduce them to the shop
staff.
This is a nice touch and obviously
depending on the operation the next stop could be to meet the caddy, the staff
member managing the range or the locker room attendant.
• All
of what we are discussing would be more seamless if we offered to valet-park
the cars.
The attitude is once you are here we will
take care of the mundane stuff and you will only have to remember the
experience.
• If
we start to valet the cars we could offer to wash and detail them while they
play.
This is not as difficult as it sounds as it is subbed out to a contractor, takes a corner of the parking lot, is incredibly well received by most and of course has margin built in for the facility. This idea has the facility adding dollars per round before the customer has left the bag drop.
• Shouldn’t
we be inquiring as early as possible if there is a particular beverage we can
load into the six –pack cooler on the cart, we don’t have anyone play here who
isn’t interested in hydrating or dehydrating as it were?
How many times have you waited until the fifth or sixth hole before the beverage cart makes an appearance? Maybe more to the point, once regulars are aware this service exists there will be no reason to bring your own.
• Should
we inquire at arrival whether anyone could use balls, gloves, shoes or apparel
so as to plant the seed and get them to the appropriate staff member to best
help with their need?
Typically the first staff member exposed
to the newcomer is a young person who either takes the bag from the trunk or
retrieves it from the bag room and their conversation and social skills are
often revealing as to the overall service attitude at the facility. While they
should not sound scripted or rehearsed, they could be practiced, at the very
least these young people should be at this meeting.
• We
think of preparation to play as an opportunity to warm up at the range and to
have the rules and peculiarities of the course explained; most people seem
disinterested and even put off by me reading this recitation at the first tee,
particularly if I am the first staff member to introduce myself and strike up a
conversation.
This comment made by the Marshall working
the first tee is making the point that while this is probably important to pace
of play, etc. no one came here today to listen to the rules, they came for
camaraderie, golf and a good time.
• We
should explain to customers when they arrive what they need to do to depart.
Many people get done playing and are confused as to what to do next. We could
explain where they drop the carts or how to retrieve their car. It would also
be a good time to invite them to spend some time with us at the 19th.
Another seed planted and you can’t plant
too many as it is really about total dollars per round.
• Shouldn’t
we be providing a range attendant to help with the procurement of range balls
and cleaning clubs. Maybe this is the fellow who can in a very friendly way
mention some of the rules?
But this will probably cost more than we can budget - or maybe not with some vision. The point is that there are no bad ideas at this meeting and the young man who brought this up is obviously on board.
• We
are already keeping a personalized golf ball inventory in the member’s locker
and our locker room attendant is great at keeping up with the cleaning and
polishing of shoes. Let’s suggest to the membership that if they purchase what
we will call their locker outfit and turn it in with their shoes at the end of
the round we will see to it that it is cleaned, pressed and hanging in the
locker the next time they come out to play. It may or may not be what they wear
their next round but it is there if needed.
I will not take credit for this idea.
Gilbert Taylor runs the locker room at Kinloch and one of my favorite stops in
my travels is coffee with Gilbert and sharing ideas.
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| Kinloch Golf Club |
The following stops along the extra mile
will break up staff meeting topics into these areas of the operation; obviously
no two facilities would necessarily have the same:
1. Arrival and preparation.
2. Pre-service – During the round – At the
break
4. Shop Salesmanship
4. Post-play – Departure – Follow-up
None of the ideas presented at this
pretend (Arrival) meeting were earth-shaking but all were thought provoking and
would be fruitful at developing that culture that attempts to provide special
enough service to be remembered, enjoyed and talked about by the most important
part of the equation – the customer. In an effort to set your staff apart from
the competition and have members/customers marketing your facility with word of
mouth, mock meetings 2, 3 and 4 will take place over the next couple of weeks.
The real key is to develop momentum at the meeting. Implementing ideas put
forward by employees is as important as paying attention to the comments and
criticisms of customers.
