Rounding Up

Submitted by Circling Raven Golf Club

by C&RB Staff (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
August 2007
 

Circling Raven Golf Club’s management never stops brainstorming and looking for ways to maximize the operation and its results.

When temperatures soared and held steady at more than 100 degrees in July, the golf club faced something it had never encountered since opening in August 2003—the prospect that it likely wouldn't increase the number of rounds played that month compared to the previous year.

Director of Golf David Christenson could have lamented Mother Nature's cruel turn and the lost rounds-played revenue from the heat-induced tee time cancellations (as well as other related, affected revenue streams, such as F&B, merchandise sales, etc.).

Instead, he made the most out of a challenging situation, and went to work on beefing up July and August numbers by implementing a proactive marketing approach. In Christenson’s words, this was accomplished as follows:

“As the cancellations started to come in early in the month we researched the existing reservations and implemented a plan to maximize play from them— and other category sales, such as merchandise and F&B—from the guests we did host in July. Meanwhile, we planted seeds for guests who might be sitting on the fence in August by sending them, and others in our customer database, promo card offers.

“Then we made our golf course Starters and Outside Service Team larger parts of our sales force for the services and products we offer at the golf club. We armed these key staff members with a message, marketing materials and brought in a motivational speaker trained in Dale Carnegie customer service techniques to help inspire them and provide communication tools they used to help drive our revenue.”
The Results
“Thru this approach we were able to pull green fee revenue up to within one percent of last year’s July mark,” says Christenson. “And we were able to increase sales in the golf retail shop at the same time, exceeding last July.”

The effort to rescue rounds also spilled into the August rounds tally. Eight-five percent of the previous year’s August rounds were pre-booked before the month began. Hence, Circling Raven had only to find a relatively small number of rounds in order to meet their revenue goal from rounds played this year, which is set at a modest increase of 7 percent over August 2006.

So while the fickle finger of Mother Nature can bring bad luck and hand golf course operators the prospect of a compromised budget, Circling Raven’s best practices help render luck as the result of good design. It’s no wonder Circling Raven has earned industry–wide acclaim for its operational savvy.