Page 40 - GBC Spring 2021 English

engagement with the member and the effectiveness of their club onboarding and social integration programs. The leading clubs had robust initiatives in these areas, which resulted in higher NPS and retention as a result.
BEST PRACTICE TRANSFER
The analysis of the data identified several basic best practices to improve engagement:
• When corresponding with new members, personalize the message whenever possible.
• Ensure there is a robust onboard- ing program to orient members and ensure they know about upcoming club events; especially new member “meet and greets” to build their social network within the club.
• Recognition at the club, an “everyone knows your name” approach.
• Staff training on how to interact with new members.
The results were impressive. The courses who employed the best practices listed above saw an average increase of 15 points in their new member NPS over a 12-month period. Even more significantly, clubs that had lagged behind in terms of member
retention experienced even greater gains in NPS, achieving increases in the order of 25 points, and significantly improved their member retention as a result.
PUBLIC AND SEMI-PRIVATE FACILITIES
There are obviously significant differences in the operation of a public course, but similar metho- dologies can be deployed to generate insights into how to drive new golfer retention.
For example, incorporating appropriate questions into your golfer survey can provide the ability to segment your guests and identify feedback from those that are new to the game, lapsed golfers or your existing core golfers. Filtering results on these segments and using dashboard analysis will allow determination of the key service areas and touchpoints that are having the greatest impact on NPS for the new golfer segment of your customer base.
Semi-Private facilities are probably the most difficult of operations to manage from a customer experience perspective due to the potential conflicts between the needs of members and daily fee guests.
This makes the availability of a robust CxM platform even more
Chart highlights the Denmark survey results of when New Members are leaving their respective clubs.
important to understand the differences between member and guest feedback and balance the needs of both. Implementing ongoing surveys of both groups allows owners and operators to leverage the feedback and enable more data-driven decisions to optimize overall business performance.
IT’S TIME TO EMBRACE NEW TECHNOLOGY
Member and guest retention must be a high priority initiative in the 2021 season and beyond if we are to repeat the record participation levels of 2020 and lock in long term growth for the game.
The availability of cost effective, easy to deploy CxM platforms can transform golf’s business-as-usual approach, put- ting the customer at the center of club operations and elevating their golf experience. The pandemic has brought them in. Leveraging customer experience data will keep them coming back.
Golf Business Canada
40 Golf Business Canada