Page 38 - GBC English summer 2022

Coming out of the pandemic many operators are realizing that a) they didn’t have great documents in the first place and b) there are many other areas other than ‘safety’ that could do with improved struc- ture and process. Ones, such as marketing strategies, conflict management, communication steps, and even establishing more evolved customer/member expectations.
Employee Satisfaction
For Employee Satisfaction, the word that stands out in so many recent articles and podcasts about managing people in the post- COVID world, is ‘caring’. It’s been a very challenging two years for everybody, and for many, they have taken a pause to reflect on what’s most important to them. No longer are 60-hour work weeks and a screaming boss acceptable (was it ever?). Instead, what employees want to hear are things like “How can I help you?”, “What do you need?” and “What do you want to learn while working here?”
Customer Satisfaction
For Customer Satisfaction we call it ‘The Retention ROI Factor’. Another way to put this is to answer the question, “What value can we deliver to this customer/ member that will ensure their long-term relationship with our business?” The customer wants stuff. It might be access to the first tee, a challenging well-conditioned course, a great Ladies Day, or a relationship with their teaching professional. No matter what it is, we want to find every opportunity we can to deliver an ROI to each customer so that when it comes a time that your bookings slow down (and one day they will), that your course remains their first choice!
Fiscal Results
And lastly, for Fiscal Results, we hear that operators are focused on maximizing the ‘Revenue Per Customer’. You have heard all the clichés, “Make hay when the sun shines!”, “Strike while the iron’s hot”, “Seize the day”, etc., etc., ... you get the gist! With busy tee sheets now is the time to ensure we are maximizing our profits by delivering experiences that earns us the most net dollar per transaction. This might be achieved through tee sheet yield management, taking payments in advance, reducing or elimi- nating unlimited play memberships, or telling the bridge club that unfor- tunately the cost of a shrimp salad sandwich will finally be above $5 this season. Now is not the time to be afraid to ask for a fair price if you have the demand, (and it’s also not the time to be too greedy)!
NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, HOW DO YOU GET IT?
It’s easy to decide you want to “improve your social media marketing”, but more challenging to determine the ‘how, who and when’. Or, if our Employee Survey score says we have poor training, and our Chef believes that “every idiot should know how to make a soup stock”, then we need to make sure our Chef’s annual bonus is connected to a better score for ‘training’ in next year’s survey, (as well as some improved appropriate workplace language skills).
One way that works really well for us at Cronk Group is to develop a POWER OF TEN plan for each department head (see chart on page 36). This is a very simple yet effective program that can help any course that might not currently have anything in place.
The Power of Ten plan establishes ten SMART goals for the manager and their department. Three goals to improve the customer/member experience. Three goals to improve the employee experience. Three goals to reduce expenses or increase revenues. Finally, one goal that will help that manager develop their leadership skills.
For example, one SMART goal in the Director of Golf’s Power of Ten plan might be to improve communication between the food and beverage department and the golf shop. To achieve this, he or she commits to hosting a daily huddle session for five minutes at 10AM every day between the shift managers of both departments. This goal is specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time bound. Most important, it supports that facility’s overall promise of improving communication.
So, there you have it. A three-step guide to Planning for Success.
• Step One, create your balanced scorecard.
• Step Two, identify what needs improvement and what doesn’t.
• Step Three, develop a plan with SMART goals for every manager
that supports where you want to go!
By measuring our performance in all areas, we can then better
manage our business and we can see how changes to our operational best practices can impact results. If we don’t get the results we are hoping for, we can change our strategy and try something else. Nothing will ever be perfect, but by practicing the art of ‘kaizen’, which means striving for constant improvement, we will discover that many small efforts can create some big successes!
NOTE: Please contact us at hello@golfindustryguru.com to get your free copy of our Balanced Scorecard or a template for a Power of Ten Plan.
Golf Business Canada
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Golf Business Canada