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Reach your market

Build loyalty

Drive revenue

What will catch a golfer’s attention? His or her name called to the 1st tee surely will—it means fun is about to begin. Same with a cry of “Fore!” which triggers instincts to avoid unpleasant surprises. Even loud cheers from distant greens will do it. All effective means of communication in their own way.

So, we’re talking about golfer hot buttons. Anything your course communicates to customers, via any medium, works best if it appeals to that person’s basic needs and wants. They

want enjoyment (golf at a good value), they want to avoid unwelcome events or mix-ups (slow outings, aerified greens, cart path only), and they want to feel that they’re part of a community (in-person, but also online).

More communication is something golfers expect these days, and there are more tools and channels than ever to help you do it. Are you taking full advantage of them? Communication that drives success is all about golfer touch points. Done well, it emphasizes brand positioning, consistent messaging and savvy use of analytics. Your many channels include email, your website,

social media, text messages, the telephone, in-person conversation at the counter and golf course reviews on various platforms.

Modern-day, tech-based communication should complement the way you interact with golfers in person. That’s the view of Shawn Holmes, general manager of Eagle Dunes Golf Club on Orlando’s northwest edge. Holmes considers himself “an atypical GM” because he prefers to work the counter and spend time on the first tee rather than logging lots of office time. The counter, he feels, is where you pick up the earliest signs of customer satisfaction or potential problems. “It’s also your best venue for making friends, saying thanks and welcoming back golfers who haven’t played the course in a while,” said Holmes. From that foundation, you can build effectively using digital-age communication tools.

All the golfer touch points you should consider while building your business.

Communication that drives success is all about

golfer touch points.

BEST-IN-CLASSCOMMUNICATION TOOLS AND PRACTICES

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Justin Bolton is a specialist with the GolfNow Plus service platform who works with many course managers in tune with Holmes’s mindset. “A lot of GMs want to be out there talking to golfers,” said Bolton. “They know firsthand how that form of communication—being so personal—builds relationships and loyalty.” Having bandwidth for doing just that becomes a shared goal of Bolton and his clients. “We’re keyed into helping managers see where their communication time is going and where it might be burning up too much time or only helping in a marginal way,” said Bolton. “As they work with us, and as we do what we’re trained to do, they can’t help but allocate time more profitably—including communication time.”

Think of Plus as the machinery for monetizing a golf facility’s assets, developed and continually refined, with the choice of who operates it left to the client course. Some operators are

glad to have GolfNow brand specialists in Orlando work the controls; others take hold of the Plus Toolkit and do the implementation themselves. Within the Plus Toolkit suite—which includes auto-pricing for custom rate adjustments—the course leverages a Communication Center with performance dashboards and reporting, a Brand Management tool to follow online reviews, and competition and Social Media Monitoring that flags all the “likes” and “follows” generated by the various networks—with proven techniques for converting them into bookings.

Keeping up with the many demands of a golf operation, it’s possible to take your eye off certain long-term goals and metrics, including the progress you’re trying to make in overall digital interaction with your audience. A recent study that compared GolfNow Plus partner courses with non-partners revealed a stunning difference in the rate of online activity growth: Plus partners showed a rate seven times higher.

When he can’t be there in person, Holmes enlists another GolfNow service, Answers, for incoming phone calls after hours. “We want to hear directly from

the customer when we’re open,” Holmes explained, “but then when the facility is closed we don’t want to miss anything and we want to be well represented.” That’s the function of Answers, with its trained staff working off customized scripts that fit his communications strategy. More than just a way to properly field incoming requests, it’s also a proven means for expanding the course’s database, via skilled gathering of golfer contact info by professional operators.

In 2017 there were nearly 150,000 rounds booked after hours through Answers—and a wealth of data captured in the process. The Answers option selected by Holmes reflects the overall flexibility of GolfNow’s suite of services—including a robust communications solution—for courses.

Plus partners showed a rate of online activity growth seven times

higher than non-partners

7x

Communication with your golfer shouldn’t begin at the counter. Utilize all the technology at your disposal, including web, mobile, telephone and social media to create an efficient and effective communications strategy.

We’re keyed into helping managers see where their communication time is going … to build

relationships and loyalty.”Justin Bolton

GolfNow Plus Specialist

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Of the more than 1,000 courses working with GolfNow Plus, many are family owned and operated, which makes the relationship between management and customers that much more personal. Reviews posted on the various platforms—Golf Advisor, Yelp, Facebook, Google—create a bit more gratitude when they’re positive and they carry a notable sting when they aren’t. One of the courses with which Plus Specialist Jonathan Hindes works, Stone-E-Lea in southeastern Massachusetts, fits that bill: “It isn’t widely known but it’s a course with a strong local following,” Hindes said. “Two generations run it—parents and kids—and it generates the most engagement of any course I work with. Even the large resort courses I work with don’t have the social media activity this course has.”

That means every golfer’s smile or frown, in response to a day at Stone-E-Lea, gets taken to heart. It further means that professional assistance can be especially valuable to the stand-alone course that’s locally owned and operated.

“At one of my courses,” said Hindes, “the owner says, ‘I’ve paid for my Plus service just by the way you handle my negative reviews.’ It’s become kind of a running joke between us. He’ll email the reply he would want to put out there and ask me to translate it so we’re truly addressing the problem and taking right path toward solving it.”

Back in the day, public courses brought a touch of humor to the golfer-satisfaction effort. They would nail a wooden box marked “Complaints” to a tree trunk, mounting it an unreachable 10-15 feet off the ground. John Swan, head golf professional at The Fort Golf Resort in Indianapolis, takes pride in all the kind remarks his facility receives via Golf Advisor, but he keeps a constant lookout for updates on the platform that show all ratings and comments. Swan has come to appreciate the businesslike manner in which critiques and gripes can now be handled thanks to technology.

“We enjoy the compliments, which is what we mostly get,” he said, “but it’s the way you can now manage negative feedback that I find impressive.” The Fort hosted a 50-player outing recently, and pace of play slowed behind it, producing some legitimate criticism from those who were delayed. “I took that information and forwarded it to the chairman of

the tournament,” said Swan, “because it’s something he needs to know. I also made sure the golfers who commented got an apology and some explanation, with our promise to do better next time. It all happened quickly and efficiently.”

Which is how communications experts in any field will urge businesses to handle unpleasant circumstances—no delays, no ducking, just clear and swift response and then move on.

The channels are digital, but the human touch comes through

Jonathan Hindes knows communication with customers that is organized, consistent and goal-oriented creates critical value and then builds on with additional benefits.

The layout is really good. Liked all the hilly terrain. Ate a cheeseburger, chips and drink on a weekend special for $4. That just can’t be beat. Staff was also really good and friendly. No doubt I’ll be back there.

We appreciate your 4-star rating and review. We hope you join us

for another round soon here.

I’ve been playing this course for over 20 years. I moved away five years ago and came back and played it yesterday.

Better condition than I’ve ever seen it, staff is very helpful and friendly, tee times are on time. Fairways tees and greens are in excellent condition. This course is always been a top 10 course in my opinion.Thank you so much for taking the

time and for your 5-star rating! Book another round with us soon.

A lot of potential but in need of a lot work. Over priced for the poor shape

Thank you for the review and feedback. We are working hard on course conditions and hope that you will come back to see us

again soon with all the new changes in place!

I always consider it a treat to play at this course. This time out

it was just unfortunate that we played behind some very slow groups that obviously did not know golf etiquette. That tends to happen every now and then no matter where you play. The real concern was that the greens were not in top notch shape as I always look forward to. The greens were very beat up with tons of ball marks.

Thanks for the review of our golf course. We appreciate you taking the time and we apologize for the pace of

play and conditions. We will address this immediately and we hope to see

you back again very soon!

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Strong messaging has a natural flow—with revenue opportunities built in

Communication with customers that is organized, consistent and goal-oriented creates critical value, then builds on it with additional benefits. A great example is the use by GolfNow specialists of notifications tagged onto Google Maps, which are designed to upsell the customer who’s got a tee time already reserved. “We’ve done this for a year or so and the results have been better than we even expected,” said Hindes. “A golfer on the way to a course may already know directions, but will check traffic through Google Maps, and when that happens we can promote an e-gift special or a three-round pass or a special offer in the grill room. Often the golfer will think, ‘Why not?’ It’s an impulse buy that can increase your spend-per-player noticeably.”

A percentage of your communication should, indeed, ask for a booking or an add-on purchase. Certainly, there’s a limit to this, but successful businesses continually look for the right ratio between conversational messaging and the selling opportunity. You’re either including an action call in your messaging, or you’re simply expressing the personality and uniqueness of the facility in ways that make it stand out. It was the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, who said advertising and promotion can help build brands, “but authenticity is what makes them last.” So, the more efficiently you create offers and promotions directed at the right audience (at the right time), the more you’re able to communicate in ways that

Pro tip: A golfer that searches for directions to your course in Google Maps can be served a special offer.

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are conversational, newsy, folksy, or whatever the authentic style of your brand may be.

Last year Bolton played a lead role in a major GolfNow initiative—complete overhaul of the company’s website design and hosting machinery. It had its unveiling at the 2018 PGA Merchandise Show, where a new, tiered set of offerings marked by sleek designs and robust functionality went on display before the industry. For client courses of GolfNow Plus, this quickly amped up the value they receive via the no-charge website that is included with the standard level of GolfNow Plus. John Swan took part in that process.

“Our new website for The Fort was included in GolfNow’s presentation at the Show,” Swan said. “They installed a lot of neat things in there—it’s way less static than in the past, and we can update it basically all we want.” Recently, several outing groups brought in a rock band to provide some live outdoor entertainment at the conclusion of a day. “We wanted to promote that musical event prominently on our website, and we were able to throw it on there very quickly,” said Swan. To add some oomph to the message, he worked with GolfNow on tweets and other social postings to spread word about the band.

The Fort is among the premium offerings in its area, based on the fact that it’s a gem of a golf course—a Pete Dye design that’s meticulously maintained and truly fun to play. Although when hosting high-level outside tournaments, the layout also proves a true test. Alongside that core asset, Swan and his team incorporate a service culture and a personality that skews toward informal, unpretentious Midwestern ease. Those two traits form the basis of his facility’s brand, and as each of the communication instruments in the GolfNow toolbox gets deployed, there’s a mandate to tie it all back as much as possible to this one-two branding punch. Being assigned a brand specialist who will stay on the account through the long haul is one good way to make sure that happens for The Fort.

“We’re touching the customer through all these different assets and platforms, making sure that the tone is consistent and the colors and graphics all get repeated, so The Fort becomes recognizable to somebody online right way,” said Bolton. “As we help the course expand its base and extend its reach, that consistency we’re helping build for the brand becomes more convincing and drives more bookings and ancillary revenue.”

As we help the course expand its base and extend its reach, that consistency we’re helping build

for the brand becomes more convincing and drives more

bookings and ancillary revenue.

The Fort has taken advantage of the improved functionality of their new Plus website design.

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Your website is a vital hub and social media provides the spokes

leads to a purchase or it gets adjusted. “We test and monitor,” Bolton explained. “It could be a new tag line that gets subbed in, or new graphics, possibly different copy. The fact is we know this golfer bought a new golf bag last week and we want to re-target him toward purchasing new headcovers.”

Social media drives business-to-consumer messaging these days, inspiring course operators to keep up with social’s ever-shifting patterns and ground rules. Facebook changes its policies and functionality at a pace that causes managers of small businesses to look up and see goalposts moving once again. Lately, the network has been prioritizing content from family and friends over commercial messaging. This could make it harder than before to get your audience’s attention on the platform. That being said, the company has provided what could be a remedy for this recent twist. A tool called Facebook Insights ramps up the analytics options for users. It’s the best way to understand your Facebook page’s metrics, so you can feel confident you’re putting the right content in front of the right audience.

Which means—you guessed it—the Facebook analytics tool becomes one more skill to try and master—if you can find the time to poke away at it. The moral of the story? Leveraging these many nuances works when and if social media marketing becomes second-nature to you. GolfNow brand specialist Brad Thomas has told partner courses for years that messaging via social media works well “if you know your audience and know which segments of that audience tend to favor each of the platforms.”

A website that works in the current environment has to be built around social-media traffic and the accelerative effect mobile devices bring to it. “The website is where we push a lot of traffic,” Bolton explained. “Messaging gets redirected there all the time, first to a landing page where we can capture customer data, and then we can track where they go within the site.” But this capture-and-track is not the end of the process. A customer’s movement from click-to-click and page-to-page either follows the embedded calls to action and

Pro tip: using Facebook Insights, you can learn what type of posts appeal to different audience types, allowing you to target specific golfers!

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Giving an example, Thomas explains that “an older but very active demographic like you might find in the Phoenix market will respond to signature-hole photos that remind them of enjoyable times on a particular course played in the past—they respond to warm memories, so we’ll insert calls–to-action into posts of that type,” said Thomas. “Millennial golfers are different—you won’t entice them with nostalgia. They’re on their smartphones and looking for a deal, but they’re also looking for something shareable with their own networks. A photo of a red-tailed hawk on a fence post or some other wildlife shot gets their attention and gets them sharing.”

There are countless subtleties you pick up by studying social media on a daily basis—in a workplace where your peers are also learning new techniques all of the time. For example, how to time and frame a Facebook post with something eye-catching so that your post triggers likes and comments and prompts the Facebook algorithm to “bump that post again,” in Thomas’s words, “and give the post repeated and/or wider visibility.” It’s a bit like being a seasoned fisherman who knows just how to bait his hook and where to cast.

One golfer you never want to miss is the birthday boy or girl as their day for blowing out the candles approaches. Another is the so-called “defector,” who’s played your course but hasn’t been

of posts inviting golfers to book times, with a small incentive along the lines of a $5 discount to give those reach-outs a boost.

For any small business, getting aligned with a professional services provider works best when a menu of options is available and the partnership can start at a certain level, adding new layers as positive results show up. That’s certainly the overall design of GolfNow Plus and its many offshoots, extending all the way to the PMP level. Those initials stand for Premium Marketing Program, and what it offers is comprehensive to say the least. Whether a Plus partner or not, any course that selects this top-tier option is able to reach golfers where they book their rounds, receive optimum placement at the top of search-result pages—whether on a laptop, desktop or mobile app screen—secure up-front placement in email campaigns and get included in Featured Course and Book Early marketing messages. Promoting Stay & Play packages on Golf Advisor and additional opportunities for on-air exposure on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive are among some other beneficial extras in a PMP plan.

Golf is a social game fueled by rich history, humor—both clever and cornball—plus endless opinions about what makes a good swing or a great golf course. If you’re devoted to the game, it’s easy to join in any conversation about it. If you’re devoted to successful and profitable management of your golf course, you branch out from that basic and friendly conversation into a spectrum of communication channels that drive business success when they’re skillfully planned and executed.

seen for a certain length of time. Shawn Holmes of Eagle Dunes has both those settings turned on in the email matrix he’s developed with GolfNow, pitching to an online audience that’s now up to 13,000. “When I got here six years ago we had less than 300 names,” laughed Holmes, who came from a GolfNow Plus-supported facility and brought the partnership with him. “We went to work on building it right away, and throughout that time GolfNow has sent me a report on the first of every month, so I’ve gotten to see the numbers continually grow.”

And the business has grown with it. “At the time we got started, this course was averaging 72 golfers a day, and gradually that’s been boosted up to 85 a day,” said Holmes. He says his business is running ahead of 2017 by several percentage points “and we’d be a good 10 percent up if our April weather had not been nonstop rain,” he added.

But there are many occasions when Eagle Dunes will take advantage of wet weather. The social-media efficiency he and his brand specialist have achieved makes the news of playable conditions spread swiftly. “Our course drains super-quick,” Holmes said, “so after we get an afternoon downpour I’ll email GolfNow and they will jump on social media saying Eagle Dunes is high and dry.” Same goes for when a Wednesday arrives and Holmes’s tee sheet is a bit light for the upcoming weekend—he’ll ask for a wave

GolfNow Plus Specialist Brad Thomas (center) advises courses that “messaging via social media networks works well if you know your audience and know which segments of that audience tends to favor each of the platforms.”

Stay tuned for chapter 4 out soon!

The Eagle Dunes email database has grown from 300 subscribers to 13,000 since bringing on Plus as a partner300

13,000