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• Practice with your staff to recognize that “thank you” is a moment of opportunity and they need to know how to respond.
• Suggest some responses for your staff such as: “It was my pleasure to help you have a fantastic tournament, we are proud of our service levels to our customers and that our course is in fantastic shape” or, “It was my pleasure to help” and then restate something the customer said to reinforce the fact that they had a wonderful time.
• You may need to role-play this with your team to ensure they are com- fortable accepting the thank you and then know how to respond to build that relationship between the golfers and your facility.
• You can encourage a thank you by asking golfers about their game.
The PRinciPLe of ReciPRociTy
People have a natural tendency to want to repay those who have given to them. It is the principle of exchange and every culture teaches its children this simple rule of life. If I invite you to a party at my house, you are obliged to invite me to a party at your house. If I do you a favour, you owe me a favour in return. This sense of obligation is the foundation for building relation- ships. People say yes to those they owe.
In the golf business we are thanked by customers all the time. What does your staff say in response? Do they capitalize on this moment of opportunity or do they fumble it away?
Listen to your staff and you will hear them say things like, “no problem,” “you’re welcome,” or “thank you.” The key to this principle is that whoever says “thank you” is saying that they owe you and your job is to make this sense of obliga- tion a bit bigger so the customer will say “yes” to our requests.
What does “no problem” really mean? It means, its just part of my job, no big deal, I do this for every- one, you’re not special and in fact, I am surprised you’re so happy because I am not that good. “No problem” fumbles away the moment of opportunity you have to establish a larger sense of obligation to your facility.
“When your staff says ‘no problem’ it fumbles away the moment of opportunity you have to establish a larger sense of obligation to your
facility.”
$20.00 apiece, would you like to buy two tickets?” I said no, I was going away this weekend, and started to walk away. However, before I could escape he said, “If you can’t buy the tickets will you buy two of our chocolate bars, they’re only $2.00 apiece?” So, what did I do? That’s
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The PRinciPLe of concessions
A few years ago, I was at the local mall in Burlington and a young boy scout was at the entrance. He was about ten years old and in his scout uniform. As I entered the mall, he said, “excuse me sir, I am selling tickets to the Boy Scout music jamboree for this weekend and the tickets are only