Top 10 Customer retention tips

Customer retention is a really important part of keeping your business healthy

Ways to drive indoor golf customer retention

1. Engage with your customers

Building strong relationships with your golfers is key to retention. Remember, a happy customer is a loyal one.  In such a competitive marketplace customer have many entertainment options aside from your club. Creating a relationship between a golfer and your indoor golf center will make a great amount of difference.

How do I engage with my customers?

Great ways to communicate with your customers include:

• Social media, in particular, Facebook and Twitter are great platforms to share useful tips, facility updates and handy information. Social media allows you to keep a constant presence without being intrusive.
• Emails/Text messages are also great ways to share important information and details of any events that may be taking place. Taking the time to communicate with your golfers through multiple channels will enforce how important they are to you.
• Let’s not forget good old fashioned face to face communication. Friendly, approachable and personable. Three key traits of staff that should not only apply to those at the front desk but also around the whole facility.  Greeting a customer on arrival, asking about progress and getting to know them and their goals are perfect ways to build rapport. They will also help a golfer to feel welcome and valued at the club.

2. Position yourself as a resource
Your members will be interested in tips, training, and new features. Ensure that your team is up to date with trends and capabilities and are able to offer informed advice relating to a host of topics and goals. By positioning yourselves as industry experts you will add weight and value to your facilities, allowing your customers to use you as an all in one resource rather than purely a facility provider. Once again achieving this will greatly add to the golfer experience.

3. Encourage customer involvement
Run fun events or skill building talks, keeping customers involved with your club is a great way to add value alongside your facilities.

I’m running out of events to organize!
Why not sign up for a charity event as a group? Get as many customers involved as you can. You can all train together in the months leading up to the event, plus you can put on special workshops depending on what the event entails. Taking part as a group will add a real sense of community, it will be great for the atmosphere within the club too!

4. Ask for feedback!
Ask your customers what they are pleased with and what you are doing well, this way you’ll be able to identify what makes them happy and act upon it.

For example: You get great feedback on your early morning specials, particularly those that are family based. You could introduce more specials like this or rework your less popular morning specials to feature more family options.

Don’t forget to ask for the feedback that won’t necessarily be as positive. Areas that customers are not happy with may often be things that can be changed with relative ease. By taking action on negative feedback you will show your customers that you value their opinions.

Making a golfer feel valued will no doubt improve their loyalty to your club.

5. Create a community
Actively encourage golfers to interact with each other. By building a friendly community, customers will feel a sense of belonging. Your club will not only serve as an entertainment option but also a pivotal part of their social life. Not only will this add a an extra benefit of your facility, but it will also ensure they stay loyal to your club, rather than moving to any competitors.

6. Offer loyalty schemes and Rewards
Offer loyalty programs and rewards, or customer discounts. By offering such rewards you are not only keeping your current customer base happy and engaged, you are also implementing opportunities for prospective customers to be introduced to the club.

What are good ways to reward loyal customers?

An excellent way to not only reward, but also incentivise golfers, is to offer a prize or some form of recognition for those who come to your facility most frequently. For example perhaps giving a free guest pass and sleeve of balls to the golfer who has the most visits per month. This will drive engagement not only with your club but also with the golfers within your club. A healthy sense of competition will drive your community feel.

7. Provide an unrivaled experience
You may think it goes without saying, but providing a great service really is one of the biggest factors within retention, ensuring your customers are loyal and choose you over your competitors. To make sure you are providing a brilliant service you should regularly assess what you are doing to benefit your golfers, why you are doing it, if it is successful and how you can improve upon this. By regularly setting aside time to answer these questions you can make sure you are on track and providing the best possible service. Customers who are happy with their service and feel that it is value for money will have no reason to look elsewhere.

8. Make sure you are easy to contact and highly responsive
It is vital that customers are able to contact you with ease, whether that be over the phone or via email. When they reach out to you it should be a quick and easy process. It is really important to keep members of staff that will be answering the phone updated on all changes to timetables, maintenance of facilities and just general day to day news. Prompt replies to emails are another great way to show you are there to help.

9. Reach out to customers who may be unhappy
Keep track of customers who’s attendance has dropped significantly. If a golfer's number of visits drops below a certain threshold it’s a good idea to reach out to them, whether that’s simply a phone call to check that they are still satisfied with service and your facilities or it could be a slightly different approach, such as a back on track email offering a new special to let them know you care.

10.  Go above and beyond
Fulfill your customers needs and requirements to the best of your abilities. Reputation spreads quickly through word of mouth. Spending that extra few minutes being attentive to a golfer will stick in their mind. A glowing reference from a current customer is more valuable than any campaign or marketing activity that you undertake