Strategies to Boost Revenue at Your Course This Season

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There has been an increase in the popularity of golf in the recent past. However, what can you do to boost your revenue per customer?

Sectors like green fee play, memberships, food & beverage, and pro shop sales are the pillars of a golf clubhouse. So, you need to make sure that they work efficiently, and that is why we will review together the best strategies to boost revenue at your course this season.

Forge a well-designed loyalty rewards program

In business, on average 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers. Identifying those VIPs can be difficult, but you can start a loyalty program tracking the activity of the members of your golf club.

A well-thought-out loyalty program creates stronger bonds within your member base, which is less expensive in terms of marketing than attracting new ones. Your rewards program will translate into incentives to buy more products and services, and therefore will increase your income.

Add an eCommerce page to your website

eCommerce site on a golf clubhouse? Why not? In the end, you are selling products and services as any other business, so you can also jump into the new information era.

Online shopping is an essential portion of retailing and almost every customer research products online before buying. Your clubhouse shop will be the most benefit from this strategy since it will sell its products 24/7 online. But you can also sell golf packages and bundles for extra revenue.

Use branded merchandise

Selling or giving away branded products to VIP customers may increase your revenues directly and indirectly. Your club´s name on shirts, hats, backpacks, windbreakers, balls, umbrellas, etc. transforms those clients into walking billboards and ambassadors of your brand.

Maybe you will need to apply small discounts to those products or directly give them away with a big sale on your pro shop, but it will be worth it when compared to the profit you’ll get by selling more rounds. Remember that almost 79% of people who receive a promotional gift would do business with you again.

Create custom memberships

Instead of having write-in-stone memberships, why not personalize them according to your customers’ lifestyles and needs? Using golf POS software with the prices of all the services you provide at the club, you can give to the member the option of selecting only those they want.

In that way, they will be paying only for those services they want and nothing more.  The idea is not that the occasional and irregular golfer pays more, but to make him a loyal customer of your golf course.

Do dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is much more than a discounting tool: is finding what your tee times are worth at any given time. Remember that is not the same playing on a sunny day with 25 degrees as it is on a rainy or windy day. Tee times are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, so it is better to get some money from it than none.

Include food and beverage preordering

After a round of golf, players are always hungry and eager to enjoy some drinks with their friends right away. Using online food and beverage preordering, they may have their meal waiting for them once they finish the game.

Having the ability to order ahead can also help with issues of the pace of play, since golfers may also pick up their order after the 9th hole and keep playing without any interruptions or delays.

Offer golf by the hole

Instead of having only 9 or 18-hole golf rounds and spending hours on the course, why not sell golf rounds by the hole? It is a great strategy that let your customers decide to how long they want to play, outside of the traditional rules. Even the 9-hole round is a relatively new concept, so do not be afraid of breaking traditions a little bit.

With modern golf management software, we can give the player the freedom to play and pay for however many holes or sections of the course, having exactly the experience they want.

Open up an online booking channel

Pen and paper reservation system, attending dozens of phone calls, and juggling to schedule, cancel, or reschedule tee times is obsolete. Online tee sheet booking has come to rescue the golf industry, so you need to get on this trend right now.

It is not only that most of the golf courses offer these services: golfers expect this service too. Of course, both systems may coexist and it is good to have someone who can talk directly by telephone with customers and help them to book.

Associate with online third-party marketplaces

A golf course may benefit from the association with third-party marketplaces that helps to offer available tee times to a wider audience. These services charge a price for the publicity, but the return on investment of using these services is generally worth it.

Sell packages

A way to avoid discounts on tee times is by creating packages with other products and services. For instance, food vouchers from the snack bar or restaurant work pretty well, since the clients tend to consume more than what the voucher is worth.

Another way to create a package is offering a discount at the shop if the golfer is buying, let’s say, 10 prepaid rounds upfront. Prepaid rounds will ensure that the customer will visit the club often, and give you the opportunity to gain a regular member. Also, being golf is a social sport, the client will bring someone with him for each visit.

Get sponsorships

Another way to increase your revenue is getting a sponsorship from your merchandise vendor. If so, you will become an ambassador of his brand by putting banners, countertop displays, and preferred rates on the merchandise. The merchandise vendor can also become the sponsor of an event at your club, like a tournament.

A sponsor can give you money or a better shop deal while you give him exposure, so be sure to convince him that your golf course is worth the investment.

Do upselling and cross-selling

Cross-selling and upselling are proven strategies to maximize your revenue per customer. You just have to train your course staff to persuade golfers to buy supplemental products and services.

The best time to apply this strategy is during the booking process. Whenever a customer books a round, you may suggest including food or golf equipment on the deal. This is a very efficient way to increase revenue.

Some final thoughts to boost revenue at your golf course

Those are only some of the most successful strategies you may use to increase the revenues of your course, but if you think outside the box and take into account the unique characteristics of your golf club I am sure that you may find other solutions that work for you.

The effective way is not to focus on one strategy, but to implement all of them in your course, trying to establish links between all your facilities and make them work as one. This will lead to creating a holistic golf experience for customers. And the happier the client, the more money will spend.

Always remember: the four main sources of revenue at your golf course are the pro shop, the restaurant, the green fees, and memberships. Put them to work together and the money will flow to you.

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