Page 10 - GBC Spring 2019 ENG

THE TURN
There is an obvious opportunity to grow the game. The 2012 Canadian Golf Consumer Behaviour Study (created on behalf of the National Allied Golf Associations) indicated that the Infrequent and Occasional golfer segment accounts for 74% of the population of golfers. This is a huge opportunity for Canadian golf clubs. What would happen if each club marginally increased the number of rounds these Infrequent or Occasional golfers play per year?
I am not trying to convince you to stop recruiting new golfers, however it takes a lot of time and effort to convince them that golf is time well spent. It is much easier to convince an Infrequent or Occasional golfer to golf more often than it is to convince someone who doesn’t golf to participate in the sport.
So, how do we accomplish this? How do we get an Infrequent or Occasional golfer to haul his or her clubs out of the garage and play a round more frequently than they do now? What can we do to entice them to bring a new golfer into the game?
The answer is to shift your focus from improving customer service to creating and staging meaningful customer experiences. Experience creates engagement, and in every business a more engaged consumer is more likely to invest more of his or her time and money.
USE THE RIGHT CLUB
To do this, you rst have to understand the differences between customer service and customer experience, which most people assume are synonyms. In fact, experience is as unique from service, as services are from products.
Simply put, service and experience are not the same thing. Understanding this difference will be critical to your success of increasing customer engagement, encouraging existing customers to golf more frequently and attracting new golfers to your course. All of these efforts combined will lead to increased pro ts for your club.
Service focuses on saving customers time by making the experience as easy and pleasant as possible for the guest. When you think ‘service’ you think about easier parking, and making it easier to book a tee time and get on the links. You increase the availability of lessons, and you decrease the cost of merchandise in your clubhouse to make it easier to buy.
You make it easier to get a full round in by shortening the course so it takes less time to play. You make it easier by simplifying the course so that beginners have an easier time. And nally, if not inevitably, you lower the cost per round.
However, what you may not realize is that is a recipe for disaster. When you lower the price per
Golf Industry Report from National Golf Foundation
• Golf’s participation base remains stable in 2017
-- the same as a year earlier. With 74.4% of the audience playing golf on a golf course, and 25.6% playing exclusively off-course at facilities such as Topgolf, driving ranges or indoor simulators.
• The number of non-golfers who said they are now “very interested” in playing at a golf course hit
a new measured high, representing a 16% jump over 2016.
• The average golfers played 19 rounds last year.
• The average price paid for an 18-hole round at public golf facilities is $34 USD.
• Juniors (6-17) and young adults (18-34) comprise more than 37% of all on-course golfers, but make up 69% of the off-course only participant pool.
• Women account for 24% of the on-course golfer base and 41% of off-course only play.
• Newcomers to golf are increasingly diverse: 35% are female, 26% are non-Caucasian and 70% are under the age of 35.
• The number of golfers age 65-and-over increased 13% last year. This number will continue to increase as the balance of Baby Boomers cross this milestone.
http://wearegolf.org/blog/2018/05/the-national- golf-foundation-issues-2018-golf-industry-report/
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Golf Business Canada