How can I, a (digitized) golf manager, increase the revenue of a golf club (even more)? What a question, right! So simple and yet so complicated.
That the pandemic has changed lives all over the world is not a secret. But if there is one good thing that has come out of this crisis, it is that our sport, golf, has grown exponentially in terms of the number of golfers. We are lucky to have open and natural spaces.
And we have to take advantage of this.
As we have already said on many occasions, technology has reached all areas of our lives (and golf). Both to help players and to help us, managers. And this technology provides us with countless tools to achieve that desired goal of profitability, both increasing the income of a golf club, as well as reducing expenses.
Today we want to propose some ideas, based on the use of good golf club management software, that will make you succeed as a digitalized manager and one personal advice. But of course, they are not the only ones. With them, we just want to make you think. Innovate. From here your imagination is the only limit. And technology is, basically, the tool to implement them.
1.- Make the most of online bookings
Although there are clients who still call by phone to book a green fee, and of course, we must attend them with the same exquisite treatment as usual, don’t you think it would be more profitable to encourage them to book online? Without the intervention of our staff. Directly from their phone. Quick and easy.
There would be two advantages to achieving this for 100% of the reservations. On the one hand, our staff can do more productive work than answering the phone. And on the other hand, the number of reservations would increase because it is done in a much more efficient way thanks to the golf club management software. A really efficient and dynamic Tee Sheet.
2.- Offer dynamic prices
Let’s put ourselves in a fictitious example (neither real nor necessarily accurate): Monday morning: our field is empty. Tuesday after lunch: our field, full. Wednesday at noon, nobody. Thursday at 6 p.m., full. Friday morning, nobody. And so on day after day.
Don’t you think it would be better to always have a constant and high volume of players? Offering dynamic pricing doesn’t mean having a weekend rate and a weekday rate. Nor does it mean offering a high season rate and a low season rate.
Offering dynamic prices means establishing a large number of price ranges that vary according to the historical occupancy of our course. In this way, our field will never be empty again.
3.- Use the data
Golf club management software provides a lot of data about everything that happens in your club. Study it. Make customized reports. Investigate. Innovate. Go deeper. Think about your client. Who, when, how does he play in your club? How much is he willing to pay? How often does he repeat? Does he come alone or accompanied? How long does it take? hours, days? Where are they from? How do they come to us? What level of play do they have? What is their job? How many children do they have?
Ask yourself all the questions you can think of (however weird and wacky they may be, it doesn’t matter) and rethink them. Take advantage of technology to chart the way forward. Use Business Intelligence. Use dynamic data, which changes in an automated way. Today, information is power. And the possibilities are endless.
4.- Create your own mobile App
The cell phone is the center of our lives today. Everything revolves around the cell phone. From the moment we get up until the moment we go to bed, we are always on this device. Both personally and leisurely as well as professionally.
So, there is nothing better than putting our golf courses in our players’ pockets.
– Direct communication of offers, tournaments, results, incidents, doubts… between the course (Management, Marshal, Caddie Master, teachers, administration, etc) and the player.
– Detailed information about the course and playing tips from professionals.
– Player profile page with complete information
– Reservations from the app
– Payments from the app
– Auto check-in
– Players community
– Additional services and many more options.
Still don’t have your own mobile app for your golf course? Contact our team and we will help you create it.
5.- Create your online store
Another source of extraordinary income that every digitized golf club should promote. When we talk about boosting the online store, we talk, of course, to sell the latest generation of clubs of whatever brand, to sell balls that go further, to sell the latest model of another brand of shoes or shoes, etc…
Why not sell all the club merchandising? Why not sell tournament tickets? Why not sell vouchers? Why not sell other activities? Think about it! After the pandemic, the rise of e-commerce is exponential and unstoppable. In all areas of life. Everything can be sold online today.
Do you want the competitors (direct or indirect) to take these potential sales?
6.- Organize better tournaments and activities.
As you already know, one of our fundamental objectives when starting the path towards the complete digitalization of a golf club is to improve the player’s experience thanks to technology. If a player is happy with our course, it will help us enormously to achieve the fundamental goal of generating new revenue.
A good golf club management software will help you to organize better tournaments and innovative activities that can effectively build player loyalty.
7.- Communicate with your players in a personalized way
By email, by SMS, by Whatsapp, by the mobile App. There are countless channels through which it is possible to communicate with customers. But be careful, with this we are not saying that you should send spam like crazy. It is not worth spending time sending a mass email or forwarding a message a thousand times.
Today’s technology allows you to segment to infinity. Messages must be truly personalized. Each type of target audience expects to receive a different message.
If we are able to send each player what interests him, what satisfies his needs or makes it easier for him to achieve his desires, at the right time, he will even thank you for it. However, be careful, because if we continue on the path of sending everyone the same thing, then the result will be just the opposite of what we are looking for.
8.- Up-selling and Cross-selling
Globally, not only in golf, it is infinitely more expensive to capture a new customer than to increase the average tickets and the number of purchases of an existing customer.
As we mentioned earlier, technology helps you get data and information. Use that data and sell products at higher margins and in greater quantity.
9.- Invent new packages or products
The rise of golf as a sport accessible to a wider audience is accompanied by new ways of understanding the game. Perhaps not all of this new target audience has the same amount of time available to play golf. Or not everyone has the same physical or technical capabilities.
Today perhaps it is not enough to offer 18 holes, or the front nine and back nine. Maybe we have to offer 6-hole packages. Or to be able to play only the par 3’s. Or the par 5’s. Maybe we can offer a price per hole and let the player himself choose the holes he wants to play?
Again, here there are as many possibilities as you can think of. All valid. All innovative. And all of them are supported by technology as a tool to implement them.
10.- Tip: Promote women’s golf and adapt to the younger audience.
Up to this point, we have wanted to provide ideas of actions based on technology. All of them are feasible with a golf club management software such as Golfmanager. Now, we want to give you one more piece of advice, but in a personal way.
Do not neglect women’s golf or the younger audience that for some time now have already had their importance in the income of a golf club.
Strengthen it and adapt your course to their needs and characteristics. In this way, you will not only increase the income of a golf course but also modernize and regenerate your club in a considerable way.
Conclusions
The world and golf have changed. Technology is largely to blame. And technology is there to help us.
If you want to increase a golf club revenue, innovate, think differently, and take advantage of the opportunities that technology offers. The world is full of possibilities. And only those who know how to look for them and take advantage of them will succeed.
Javier F. de la Cruz
CDO – Golfmanager
