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| Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota |
Today, with increased
competition, customers are much more discerning than they have ever been and
only the retailers who understand this have been able to grow their business.
Clubs as well as public courses that don’t provide commendable service, professional
salesmanship and an incredibly friendly environment will not be attracting
members who want to entertain guests or repeat customers who recommend the
facility. Whether the customer has just paid a membership fee or waited in line
all night for a tee-time at Beth Page, the days of tolerating dirty shops or
rude clerks is history. Customers expect to be acknowledged and engaged in
conversation by a friendly, smiling, upbeat staff that has been educated to
point out value, features and benefits. They look to be professionally attended
to, for product to be attractively displayed and they look to be sold.
The days of the
self-service shop with the “hang it up and they will buy it” mentality has
deteriorated to “hang it and hope” and the hope isn’t being fulfilled. The
consumer, no matter what his station in life, knows how much harder he is
working and how much more knowledgeable he has to be to make ends meet and
expects similar effort before deciding to get out his wallet.
With this as mantra let’s
take a look at some examples of “pre-servicing” in this posting and at one of our
hypothetical staff meetings.
The introduction by this
meeting’s team leader could be something like the following:
“Anytime we know ahead
of time someone is going to play our golf course, whether they are driving
around the corner, staying at the hotel, booked into a cottage, or part of a
group or an outing they are a potential shop customer. Any potential customer
can be pre-serviced, not pre-sold, we want to talk about offering services that
can enhance their experience at our facility. Our staff needs to understand the
effort as an important part of the Wow culture. What can we suggest to our
“soon to arrive” customers?
The following contact
possibilities are discussed:
“Colonel Mustard, this
is Katie at the club. You have a group of seven and yourself booked into the
cottage in a few weeks. Could we get your guests a shirt and a hat and have
them on their bed when they arrive? We have your company logo and could put it
on the sleeve of a club logoed shirt. I’d be more than happy to take care of
this for you.”
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| Pestana Golf |
“Professor Plum, this is
the shop at XYZ. You’ve booked an outing with us for the weekend
of the Fourth of July. Can we help you with a favor for each of your players, perhaps
one of the new performance shirts would be hit with your group? We typically
can get you a better deal than you would get from other suppliers and we
can see to it that they’re individually wrapped and handed out with a smile.”
“Mrs. White, good day.
We just received a new delivery of Tail at the shop. Would you like me to put
some outfits together in your size and hold them until you come in Friday?”
“Miss Scarlet, this is
Cary at the club. I noticed you are on the tee sheet to play your first round
this season. I checked your bag in storage and our records and your clubs have
not been re -gripped in over a year. Would you like me to go ahead and take
care of that for you?”
“Mrs. Grey, we want you
to know how much we appreciate you bringing your ladies group to our course for
this year’s outing and that we will be putting a sleeve of a new ball designed
for ladies play in each cart for them to try. We were wondering if there is
anything else we can do to make them feel welcome.”
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| The Greenbrier |
“Mr. Green, this is
Jason at the club. We received the new Tech hats from Imperial your foursome
was inquiring about last week. Would you like me to get them personalized for
your friends and you can surprise them this weekend?”
“Mr. Blue, this is Jeff
at the club. I noticed you are scheduled to play this Friday and noticed that
it’s your anniversary. Would you like me to get you a bottle of that wine from
the dining room your wife likes so much? I can have it here at the shop when
you finish up your round.”
“Mr. Black, this is John
at XYZ. I thought I would email you when I noticed that you are bringing some
guests with you to Sunday’s tee time who have never played here before. We know
you drink Bud-Lite but what about your friends?” If one of these guests
drink Sam Adams Summer Lager and it’s waiting for him in a cooler on the cart
on Sunday you will have wowed the group.”
Think about all the
things in your life that are scheduled or regular in nature and now picture
yourself being offered a ride to and from work when you drop your car off for
service or you arrive early for an appointment to get your hair cut and they
offer to get you a cup of coffee knowing you take cream and two sugars.
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| Belfair Plantation |
There are a number of
head pros with whom I have worked over the years who view any type of selling
as hard-sell that could get someone upset with them. Customers who would be put
off by the examples of service provided above must have been living under a
rock the past year since the current economic climate has resulted in most businesses
realizing that retaining existing customers is at least as important as
advertising for new.
What is required is a
sense of empowerment on the part of the creative employee and a commitment on
the part of the Leader to training on the use of the phone as a business tool
and email as a way to pre-service.
