Page 22 - GBC Spring 2019 ENG

Matt Welliver
Matt is currently the VP of Corporate Development for Chronogolf and has 18 years helping golf courses implement golf management software, reservation and distribution solutions.Contact Matt at mwelliver@chronogolf.ca or (780) 902-5058.
Loyalty is a growing concern in the golf industry. For many golf courses, retaining, engaging, and collecting data on existing customers leaves operators scratching their heads.
Today, loyalty programs are almost an expectation. They’re uni- versally accepted, and we see them everywhere in the leisure industry.
The 3 Rs
The technology behind a loyalty program is somewhat important, but the secret sauce is in the strate- gies used to back execution up and increase engagement.
A successful loyalty program is about the 3 Rs: Retention, Referrals, and Real Data. If you’re thinking about introducing a loyalty program at your course, keep the 3 Rs in mind.
1. RETAINING YOUR CUSTOMERS
Before implementing a loyalty program, you need to understand how your customers behave. The typical avid golfer plays an average of 20 rounds per year. Those 20 rounds will be spread over an average of 8 golf courses.
The best-case scenario is that your avid golfers are playing at your golf course 12 times, and 8 times at others. If your course is getting players to come back 12 times in a year, you are doing pretty well. However, for other courses that only get players coming back 2 or 3 times, what can be done?
Referrals
Retention
Real Data Loyalty Program Strategies
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To answer that question, you’ll need to examine what you are actively doing to get customers to return to your facility.
If you don’t believe that customer retention is a valuable investment, consider these stats: loyal custom- ers spend up to 66% more than others, your top 20% customers drive 80% of revenue, and 86% of
consumers are less likely to stray frombrandswithrewardsprograms.
Make It Hard To Leave
The idea is to provide meaningful rewards that make the customers want to stick around for fear of losing privileges. Think about it like this, a dollar spent by a customer who comes in 8 times is worth 8