Best Management & Marketing Practices Manual, by J.J. Keegan

Manual with 236 idea packed pages       Non Members $150
                                                          Members $150

 

Introduction

Welcome!

Thank you for making an investment in ensuring your facility offers outstanding customer service.

By your purchasing this manual, you have already made a profound statement: you are committed to excellence and ensuring that your customers receive value. Congratulations! You are in the top 5% of all golf course operators across the world.

Why Publish the Best Practices?

Golf at its most basic form is entertainment and directly competes for a customer’s leisure dollar. Over the past 15 years the supply of golf courses has increased 50% but demand to play has remained constant at around 26 million rounds per year.

Golfers have a choice. With the advent of the high end daily fee over the last decade, the upgrade of many municipal courses and private clubs having gone from "waiting lists" to "resignation lists", competition has never been greater to find golfers.

Unfortunately, this trend is not likely to abate within the next five years. (See Vision 2005 and 4th Annual State of the Industry Analysis delivered January 27, 2006 Orlando, FL to a full house of golf industry leaders, writers and executives at the PGA Merchandise Show at www.golfconvergence.com).

Since only 18% of those who play their first round will ever return, the "first impressions" we make are forever lasting.

Thus, the fifty (50) customers who pay you in excess of $4,000 annually to play your facility, the twelve percent of customers that generate 60% of a course’s revenue with less than 5,000 distinct individuals visiting a course annually, each of these customers and their loyalty to your facility is a valuable commodity to your franchise.

The purpose of this photo is to show you what your peers are doing around the world to attract and retain customers. While no single idea presented herein will be radically illuminating or perhaps a great departure from your current practices, this photo essay is designed to serve as a catalyst for your staff and yourself to ask, "How can we offer our customers better value?"

From working at a facility daily, you become anesthetized to what you do well and to those items that really aren’t up to your standards but you accept they will get fixed –"some day." This essay was published to "refresh" your own perspective by looking at the practices of others, you can gain new ideas for your own facility.

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  As these the really "Top 50 Best Management Practices"

No. Any list by its very nature is inherently flawed. No matter how experienced and knowledgeable a selection panel or individual may be, no one can get the ratings right, simply because there is no "right." Thus, we openly admit that these pictures are nothing more than a collective guess, an objective average of subjective opinions.

Not only are the pictures not the "Best Management" practices, some of the photographs displayed may be deemed by some to be a "bad practice." For example, the dress standards, as displayed by a collection of photographs demonstrating what is consistent with club policy at New South Wales, in Sydney Australia, if applied to the US would leave many courses devoid of golfers. However, what is captured in the photograph is that New South Wales has taken a very sensitive subject that causes embarrassment to the guest or golfer when they are addressed personally, and have found the best forum to communicate their policy in the most diplomatic and socially gracious manner possible. For that they should be commended.

Thus, the 50 "Best" Management Practices really represent unique ideas observed over the past two years in visiting in excess of 1,000 golf courses. Courses highlighted were located in eleven (11) different countries (parenthesis highlights number of courses selected): Australia (3) Canada (4), China (5), Dominican Republic (2), England (2), Ireland (1), Japan (2), Korea (2), Scotland (2), United Arab Emirates (2) and the US (25).

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What You Will Learn and How You Will Benefit

While some of the practices displayed are prohibitive by culture, by recurring cost, by limited capital budgets or by practicality, golf as a business does not start on the 1st and end on the 18th green.

In connecting the "dots" of the individual components in the "assembly line" on offering 1 individual 1 round of golf, the manufacturing process starts long before the golfer arrives and should end long after they depart. We often think of the components of golf operations as a series of unrelated activities. Hopefully, this manual will change that mindset.

From reading the material contained herein, our personal goals in writing this essay will have been fulfilled if you as the reader glean the following:

• The cost of excellence doesn’t have to be financially expensive.
• Personal service will always create greater value than capital investment.
• Creativity is not a scarce resource
• Our heart influences our mind which controls our tongues which determines our actions.
• Your core business is the creation of "fun" – providing an entertainment experience that is relished by the customer as unique, rewarding and a good value proposition.

To assist you in this process, the manual has been organized as a workbook which includes:

• Index of the 50 Best Practices along with the estimated cost to implement
• For each photograph, an explanation is provided of why the standard noted was unique.
• Questions to stimulate your thinking along with space to "take notes" to compare with your peers your own  creative ideas for your course.
• A Survey of the Amenities Offered by the Top 100 Golf Course

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Best Practice Contents

 

 

 

50	Tee Signs
49	Signature Hole Recognition
48	Course Condition Board
47	Railroad Car As Bridge
46	Golfer Training Device
45	Pictorial Dress Code
44	Logo Hand Towels in Bathroom
43	Signage – Appropriately Worded "Bears"
42	Signage – Appropriately Worded "Fires"
41	Christmas Sale to the Public
40	The Course Mascots – Stuffed Animals
39	Caddies Designated by Ranking
38	Golf Balls Signed by PGA Pros and International Guests
37	Balls Markers from Visiting International Guests
36	Tee Markers
35	Iced Towels in Beverage Carts
34	Hole Flags Promoting USGA Events
33	Slow Play Signs
32	Christmas Catalog
31	Golf Course with a Theme
30	Walk of Aces
29	Seth Raynor Inspired Course with a Theme
28	Range Yardage Signs
27	From Bag Drop to First Tee
26	OSU – A University Theme consistently applied
25	Hot Pies and Cool Spaces
24	GPS for Tournaments with Leader Boards
23	Check In with "Hot Towels"
22	Cowboys Club: Fixed Price Green Fee
21	Well Designed Web Site
20	Trademark of Brand Name
19	Wireless Network in Clubhouse
18	A Comprehensive Customer Experience
17	History – Honoring Bobby Jones
16	Pace of Play on Range Balls
15	Anticipating Customer Needs
14	Television Monitor Broadcasting Availability of Range Stalls
13	Administrative Offices Sign
12	Customer Data Collection Tool
11	Engaging Customers: Donating Golf Balls and the Daily Newspaper

10	History and Tradition reflected in Plaques and Statues
9	Pace of Play, History and Customer Service
8	Grand Clubhouses
7	Golf Carts on Tracks – Remote Controlled
6	Smart Cards, Service and the Internet
5	A Pro Shop with Dress Clothes
4	Integrating a Country’s Culture into the Game
3	Symbol of Accord
2	Advertising on Carts at Airport
1	Course Names: Fire, Earth, Water and Wind

 

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	Price
Best Management & Marketing Practices Manual - non-members	$150.00
Best Management & Marketing Practices Manual - Members	$150.00

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