“What's an L.O.D?” you ask. LOD is short for Leader of the Day, a position created exclusively by Paradigm Golf Group, and it's possibly the most important member of your front line golf team, every day that you have golfers on your course! The Leader of the Day has various duties, but the most important responsibility he has is to maximize the enjoyment level of your most valuable assets--your members and guests.
Many things have changed in the golf industry over the past 20 years, but one thing that has not changed, is that the most important (or one of the most important) factors relating to player enjoyment and overall golf experience, is an acceptable pace of play!!! So the question is, “what can be done to insure that your players have a phenomenal experience on the course and at the same time, play at a pace that maximizes your revenue-generating opportunities now and in the future?” And, how can you encourage this pace of play while at the same time, give your players the feeling that club management actually deeply cares about their experience and appreciates their patronage?
The traditional approach to accommodating pace of play issues at both private and daily fee clubs is to utilize one of two strategies:
1) Hire part time employees that are looking for free golf--this person, at no fault of his own, is either not engaged in, nor does he understand the importance of his job. He is not generally interested in accommodating and helping your guests as he employs a “control and compliance” mentality that he has used to achieve results for many years in a different profession. While this approach may be effective in getting people around the course, it does nothing to enhance experience and encourage return play. In fact the opposite effect is almost always achieved.
2) Block times (starter times) or have extended tee time intervals that cost the club a HUGE amount of potential revenue in pre-planned/intentionally wasted inventory!
As you can see, both of these approaches lead to the inevitable failure of the club. So what do you do to simultaneously maximize the guest's experience and the club's profitability? The answer: Implement the LOD program at your club!!!
The Leader of the Day program will allow you to aggressively book your tee sheet AND assure your guests have a great day. The designated LOD each day is an individual with golf knowledge; a positive/happy person, who you are completely confident can accomplish the following responsibilities:
Personally introduces him or herself to each guest that is on the course (should happen between holes 2 through 5). This will put the guest at ease that someone is out there making sure their round is enjoyable.
Politely and professionally addresses and assists guests that have fallen behind.
Incentivize or recognize guests that have caught up or have been slowed by play in front of them, with free drink tickets or other tokens of our appreciation.
Promote second day specials to guests to book the open inventory over the next few days.
Encourage guests to enjoy lunch and or a beverage in the restaurant following their round to help drive F&B revenue.
Manage the play to an enjoyable pace that is consistent to the expectation set at the first tee.
Did you know that nearly 75% of customers that have a bad or less-than-acceptable experience at your club will not seek out one of your managers to share their concerns. They'll simply “let their feet do the voting” and never return. This is another invaluable reason to take a proactive approach which assures that your guests have a great experience, and for the few that did not, the LOD will use whatever service recovery strategies at his disposal to win that customer back. The LOD will eliminate the #1 frustration expressed by guests who feel that their round took too long-- “we did not see anyone out there” or “nobody did anything about the slow group. You were happy to take our money and then forget about us out there.” In today's competitive marketplace where some clubs will make it and many will fail. Strategies like the LOD will give you the edge to help insure that you not only survive, but thrive for years to come.
To learn more about the LOD and other strategies to get your club a competitive edge on your competition, call me at 760.275.1137
Smile Big * Sell Hard
Joe Dahlstrom
