While we are living in a very uncertain period, many businesses are now looking at how they maintain customer interaction and having a digital presence is becoming more and more important.
For Golf Course’s it is important to remember that our prospective customers are connected 24/7 to smartphones and tablets and frequently want to gather information, normally outside of club opening hours. Having a digital part to the business to ensure clubs can respond to these enquiries within a timely manner is becoming increasingly important, with sophisticated automation allowing responses even when the club is closed.
Golf clubs must start to consider how the use of digital technology can be used to reach out to the communities that they serve, whether that is local, regional, national or international, and social media channels are a very good ways to do this, this is not to say Social Media doesn’t have its drawbacks. A club manager must be selective and careful with the Social Media approach it takes and the level of engagement that can be managed. Before launching any Social Media Strategy, make sure objectives are clear from the start and time is set aside for managing this to successfully reach your target audience. The issue that a lot of clubs have is finding the resources for this, with management on multiple platforms being very time consuming and therefore very expensive to maintain.
Golf Clubs can use social media for two very different approaches.
Informational.
Course Conditions – Letting golfers know what is happening at the club, whether the course is closed and what events are coming up. This also gives you the opportunity to really showcase your course with great imagery helping sell the product. Don’t forget to promote your members good wins to generate interest. People can be proud of a club that is proud of their members.
Interactional.
Whether this is running competitions, or sharing members photos or videos, this is a great way of building an online audience of potential new members for your golf club. Interact as much as possible and ask people to like and share a photo or post, your online presence will be noticed. A complementary round of golf as a prize for a group of 4 gives you 4 opportunities for 4 possible memberships.
There are a lot of other things to consider, even having an online payment system where members can sign up quickly can have a huge benefit in signing up members anytime of the day 24/7. Here at PlayMoreGolf with our online payment system, we find that normally around 50% of our sales are done within 2 days from the creation of an account with us online to purchase. Something that would not be possible without a huge digital presence, capturing members while they are engaging with our site.
The final digital area to really consider would be the importance of online golf reviews. Golfers are becoming increasingly reliant on the experience of previous customers, whether to gauge the quality of the service provided, the quality of the course or simply to gauge what they can expect by being a member. More and more golfers are regularly using online reviews to decide where to play their next round and clubs cannot afford to ignore the importance of feedback and the reviews, that maybe cannot control, but managing can reap rewards.
Monitoring feedback, both positive and negative can show how you interact with golfers on a public forum, so be careful. Many would recommend you acknowledge any negative reviews but get in touch via email or other less public forms of communication to follow up and resolve. Here are two great reads on how to manage your online reviews.
Search Engine Journal – Customer Reviews Online
Add People – Our top 10 tips for managing negative online reviews
If you would like to find out more information about PlayMoreGolf and how we can assist in providing a Flexible membership to your club please fill out the contact details below.