The Pellucid Perspective - November 2012 - (Page 2)

GOLF COURSE MARKETING Are you missing your calling? Call centers may be the answer, but choose wisely By Harvey Silverman ntil recently, golf courses lagged far behind businesses in not more than 20% of all rounds played are reserved online. As many other fields in the use of call centers to field after- it’s been for seemingly eons, golfers prefer to call, or reserve hours or busy rollover calls from potential customers. their next tee time in person in the golf shop. Nobody has efEZLinks was for many years the sole golf service provider of- fectively changed this consumer behavior, and maybe never will. fering courses a call center option, and since they are a sponsor We sent a list of questions to all four service providers menof ours, it would have been less than objective to write a story tioned above with the intent of finding value points and differtouting call center usage. Now, however, other providers in- ences you might consider before employing a call center. But cluding GolfNow, Coursetrends/Golf 18 and former EZLinks even before you start a search process, the key question to ask executive Andy Weeks and his W5 company have entered the and answer is, “Am I deferring my customer service to a call field, and it is topical to examine whether courses are missing center operation because I am unwilling or unable to find, train, tee time sales opportunities, and what they should consider to and retain staff who can answer phones with an adequate (one remedy that problem. might suggest more than adequate) level of skill and service?” First, a little history. I got my start in the golf industry with All four of the providers have one thing in common: They all EZLinks as one of their pioneer salespeople. I was drawn to barter for their services and attempt to sell the tee times they them by the idea of Internet tee time reservations (this was own on consumer-facing websites. Of the providers questioned, 1996, near the dawn of the Internet revolution) and was im- only CourseTrends/Golf18 Network did not respond to our pressed by their plan to also implement a call request. GolfNow replied that their plans center operation. One of our sales strategies It has taken over 15 are still evolving, and that they were talkwas to buy beer and pizza and challenge the ing to customers about their needs and how years for another course operator to stay one hour after closbest to structure the offering. So that leaves ing and count how many calls came into the golf service provider EZLinks and W5, which have in common golf shop, and how many of those were for the same founder and call center architect, to offer a call center Andy Weeks. Not surprisingly, both offertee times. I learned a valuable lesson about consumer behavior. They did not know, or service. Why so long? ings have similarities. care, what the golf shop hours were. They Both EZLinks’ and W5’s call centers are expected someone to pick up the phone if operated in-house, and operators are availthey called. able 24/7/365. Both companies offer a menu Competing new golf courses were emerging at a frenetic of call center use options, including all calls, busy rollovers, after pace then, which was good for me in terms of selling systems, hours, overflow, and more. Both can transfer calls back to the but bad for the course owner trying to maintain any competitive golf shop or to a designated number. Both have software that advantage. It made EZLinks’ pitch more powerful – by having identifies the course on incoming calls, and reservation agents Internet tee time reservation capability AND a call center, you, are trained to answer as the golf course in ways that can be Mr. Golf Course Owner, will never miss a tee time reservation scripted by the course client. With that, agents are not allowed opportunity. Please sign right here. or enabled to “switch” a caller to another course, unless arrangeIt has taken over 15 years for another golf service provider to ments have been made and agreed to by participating clients. offer a call center service. Why so long? First, everyone thought This could happen where a management company has a cluster Internet tee times would flourish, just as everyone thought Ti- of courses, or where courses have a marketing cooperative. ger Woods’ emergence would generate a new era in golf particiBoth claim to have extensive training and quality control pation. But also, building and managing a call center is damn regimens. The biggest difference is that EZLinks is a primary difficult to do, and expensive. There are both technical challeng- provider of point-of-sale and tee sheet software, and does not es and human resource challenges. It took EZLinks a few years, interface with other tee sheets. W5 is a third-party provider maybe as many as five, to “get it right.” with API interface connectivity to a number of electronic tee The startling truth behind GolfNow’s and Coursetrends/ sheets, as well as providing its own tee sheet software, but not Golf 18 Network’s move into call center operations is that nei- point-of-sale. ther they nor anyone else are selling as many tee times as they’d Finally, both companies accept payment for services by like via online sales. By Pellucid’s estimate, only about 15% and cash, trade times, a combination of both, or reservation trans- U 2 The Pellucid PersPecTive November 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - November 2012

The Pellucid Perspective - November 2012
Table of Contents
Are you missing your calling?
A tale of two cities
Debit or credit? Save either way
Tucson municipal courses at risk
Economy, discounting pressure challenge Tucson market
October golf weather impact: Giving back some of our season gains
TopGolf proposal for takeover of El Segundo range operation encounters opposition
4 more years – wither goeth golf?

The Pellucid Perspective - November 2012