Did you know that it costs 5 times as much to get a new customer as it does to retain a new one?  Selling to an existing customer is also has a much higher margin than selling to a new customer because they convert at a higher rate and because it costs less to sell to them.  These existing customers are 50% more likely to buy a new product and will spend 31% more on your offering when they do buy than a new customer.  I could quote statistics like this all day and you could find many articles on this on the web to back up the point. . . doing a great job retaining your current customers is vital to running a profitable indoor golf center. 

Since the bottom line here is about keeping good customers, do you know how well you are doing?  Can you calculate your churn rate?   Churn rate is a measure that determines what portion of customers end their relationship with you over a set period, say a month or a quarter.  This would require you to know who your customers are and whether they are visiting every month.  Can you find a way to get them to check in (say, giving points for visits that goes toward food or beverage credits) so that you have a means to measure what portion are coming back.

Once you can measure, you need to segment.  Look at males versus females, different age groups, different skill levels, etc.  Get a little info on them when you set up your points program, maybe check in with Facebook or get an address so you can calculate how far they are driving to get to you.  Do surveys and tie it back to churn.  Find out what features are keeping them and which ones they wish were better.  Every dollar you spend here returns more than the dollars you are spending on ads to get them here in the first place. 

That said, I am not really worried.  Let me tell you why, but first let me give you a bit of context on what you can get on Google for free that I provide in my startup plan.  If you search on Google for a business these days you’ll notice that they have a view that shows the busy times for the day you’ve searched.  You can also look at other days for that business to get a sense of when they are or aren’t busy.  Here is a view for a golf center that I looked up:

You’ll notice that the bar chart shows some high bars for when they are busy and low bars for when they are not.  It is nice and probably very convenient for when you want to plan to go when they are less busy.  That said, it is not as helpful for your business plan as my research.  The reason why is you’d have to look up dozens of indoor golf centers, capture the busy an slow times for every day of the year and then aggregate it into a single view of all golf centers to get the same kind of information you can get in my plan.
                                         
I collected that data directly from the source. . . the indoor golf centers themselves.  I do think it is helpful for you to look at a golf center and see when they are busy to help you understand the kind of data you get in my research.

I've been wanting to feature an interview from an indoor golf facility owner for some time.  I had an opportunity to interview Jason Faubert from The Golfer s Academy recently.  He was kind enough to share his experiences opening a facility with me and I would like to share it with you.  Enjoy.

Yardstick Golf:  Tell us a little about your facility
 
The Golfer’s Academy facility resembles that of an old Scottish clubhouse, As you enter our facility you see right away a spacious lounge area where you can sit in comfort on leather sofas and chairs. Here you can change into your golf shoes while watching a PGA Tour event or your favorite sports game on the large screen TV. Stone accents and pine board throughout give it the charm and feel of a private clubhouse. Gone are the days where you and your friends played winter golf in a noisy bar on an unrealistic video game.
 
Adjacent to the lounge we have 5 private indoor golf rooms. The Golfer's Academy is known in the industry as setting the standard for having the largest simulator rooms in Canada. These rooms measure 20 feet wide, 30 feet long and 12 and a half feet high. Also we have built each room in our center to be either fully private or open.
 
Yardstick Golf: What made you want to start an indoor golf center
 
The Golfers Academy was 1st built out of passion for the game and secondly I wanted a career change. As an Amateur golfer I was constantly looking for that edge in getting better as quick as possible so one day I made the choice to purchase my own indoor golf system and install it in my home. From that moment on I began to see the benefits to how these systems can improve your game.
 
I decided to let people know the secret behind my improvement and from that moment on I started a small teaching center based out of my garage in my home. It became extremely popular to the point where outside professionals where using the system so much with their students in the winer that I lost the ability to work on my own game at times.
 
As a business man first and foremost I realized the need for high level winter teaching and practice facilities in colder months here in Canada. I then decided to invest my own money in building a 4000 sqft full indoor golf center which was located on my property. I gave it 2 years to do the market research and see if this was a viable business. When I build the business model I researched with clients what they really found was the biggest problem with indoor golf. What I found to be the biggest concern was the technology but better yet that they felt almost everywhere they went the rooms where too small causing their swing to change without even realizing what was happening.
 
Yardstick Golf: What was the most unexpected part of starting your business

I would have to say the most unexpected part of beginning an indoor golf business was the amount of time to get the local municipalities to allow operation of the business. Another unexpected part was the amount of hours and time it took to build a reputable name and explain to the patrons how realistic the simulator systems have become over the years. To this day we are still breaking the stigmas that indoor golf is not realistic and just a video game.
 
Yardstick Golf:  Looking back, what do you know now that you wish you’d have known when you first started
 
I would have to say that networking within the industry is the key to building a successful indoor golf business. First and foremost the key would be to link with local golf courses, professionals and industry leaders. With the help of social media in the past 5 years it has been much easier to connect with people in the industry. I also believe that opening a bar within the facility sooner would have helped in increasing numbers and revenue during the slower months where the indoor golf tends to slow down.
 
Yardstick Golf:  What advice would you offer to someone considering starting a facility
 
I would definitely tell someone interested in opening an indoor golf business to do their market research and provide a higher level of service that sets you apart from the competition. Although competition is good and brings awareness you need to make the business stand out. Make your clients and customers want to come back make sure that they leave happy and become the voice of your business. Opening time for your business is key so also get with your local municipalities to figure a timeline of how long it takes to get the proper approvals. You don't want to start building in September if the season starts in October in the end you may loose the entire winter season so key is to have it open at least a month or two prior to the start of the winter indoor golf season so you can be at the courses promoting your business to potential customers. Use the outdoor courses as a base to build your clientele.
 
Yardstick Golf:  We understand you have an offering to help others open a facility – can you share some details
 
The Golfers Academy is passionate about the indoor golf business and we have been working on a franchise model that will help others start their business with minimal costs. The Golfers Academy has built its brand to be one of the most recognized indoor golf training centres in Canada and for those interested in opening a centre we can help with brand recognition and marketing. As you know it takes a lot of time building a reputable business and we have been doing this for over 10 years with support and purchasing power.
 
We would like to thank Jason Faubert for his time on this interview.  If you would like to learn more about The Golfers Academy, you can email him at info@thegolfersacademy.com or call him at 905-335-5858.  

​Better yet, go visit his place and pay a round of indoor golf!!

I've been seeing lots of cool new products hitting the market lately and wanted to take a moment to share a few of my favorites.  Think of this as a unique golf gift guide.  The is perfect for dad, for co-workers or buddies from your club.  Let me know if you have a cool idea that I missed.

The average person checks their mobile phone nearly 150 times a day and spends almost 3 hours per day on a mobile device.  They have their phones with them all the time and are much more likely to read a text than an email.  

In fact, text messages are read 5 times more frequently than email messages

Text is an extremely powerful (and inexpensive) medium to get your message out, opened and READ!  In fact, text Messages Get Opened 9 of 10 Times, and according to Frost & Sullivan, the real statistic is a "97% open rate."

If you have an iPhone like I do, you can't ignore the text message. It pops up, rings, and boom - I just     opened and read it at the same time.  But most businesses and organizations getting into text message marketing are doing it all wrong.  

Some use the infamous Club Promoter Method: Blasting anyone and everyone in sight about your party of offer. Don't do this.  It's the fastest way to end your relationship with your subscribers. It's repairable no doubt, but not the route to go down.

Instead, do this...

Send messages to your customers and subscribers just like you're talking to a friend. Don't be afraid to use LOL, ROFL, or other short words to get the message across. Friends talk that way. So talk like your talking to a  friend in your text messages. 

Then there's folks like Samantha J. who use text message marketing the "right" way to grow her business. A simple coupon text message to her customers on Black Friday turned into a simple 160 character text into $1,578 of new found profits straight into her business.

Not too shabby. :)

If you'd like to learn how to do this for your business, how to get started fast, and discover simple     effective strategies to "move the needle", then check out Call Loop.  

I was able to secure my readers a free account & 25 free messages.

Get your account by clicking here before it's too late.   

Enjoy - and come back and tell me how the service helped you!!

I am always out looking for new places to find great information to share.  Recently I ran across the "IAMA" threads on Reddit.  Reddit calls itself the front page of the internet and the "IAMA" threads are where folks post "I am a (insert what they are) - ask me anything" threads.  

The one that caught my eye was one where the poster said he was going for broke with a few buddies opening their very own indoor mini golf facility.  The post got over 180 comments and probably a high multiple of that in terms of  views.  Many of the posters even said they would come visit when he was open.

Considering the IAMA post is free, I put it on my list as a unique approach to getting some free exposure.  More interestingly, many of the responses asked questions that seemed to help the original poster.  I saw a couple things on trademarking questions, licensing and more that the poster indicated he hadn't considered and appreciated being raised.

If you are not familiar with Reddit, I would take some time to become familiar before jumping out with your first post.  I've included a link to several golf related IAMA threads to help you get a feel for how these work.  I would suggest learning how the subrettids (sections of Reddit of related topics) are organized so you can find the best one to post.  You want to find the section most relevant to your post (I.e. golf or your town).

Folks reading these posts seem to want proof of legitimacy, so I see lots of photo's included to prove the authenticity of the poster.  These are typically a picture of hand written note saying "reddit - IAMA" in front of something that demonstrates legitimacy of the poster.

Good Luck!

I know most of you are probably thinking email is dead and that social media is the way to go, but that thinking is wrong.  Ignoring email as a way to connect with your customers is a perilous choice.  Here are a few facts to consider:

• 91% of consumers check their email every day
  
• 72% of consumers check their email 6 or more times a day
• In an article by Advertising Age, a study of 1,400 U.S consumers, 42% said they prefer to receive ads for sales and specials via email
• 44% of consumers made a purchase based on an email offer
• Per Experian (a credit bureau), for every $1 spend on email, the average return is $44.25

Do I have your attention yet?  Cultivating a robust email list is essential to driving traffic to your facility.  What better time to collect email than when you have folks in your golf center.  Make collecting email part of every conversation, ask for it at the time of payment, offer giveaways for business cards, collect it on your website in return for a coupon . . .you get the point. 

One awesome tool I've used to help me collect nearly 1,000 emails and quadruple my Facebook likes is JustUno.  The have an awesome set of case studies on how business are using their tools to increase subscribers, likes and followers:

Do you have any great ideas on how you get email? Have a reaction to the article?  Please comment!!