Would you encourage a mystery shopper to visit your golf club ?

After lots of twitter rants and plenty of feedback in reaction to my previous blogs, it’s really clear that golf clubs need to improve their offering. What they need is a mystery golfer to visit them who can give unbiased feedback and offer positive recommendations that will not only swell the club’s bank balance but will greatly improve the visitor/members experience of their venue

I've worked at several golf clubs over the past 28 years, from municipals to privates with 9 and 18 hole courses, and they all have their positives and negatives.

However, one thing they all have in common is a lack of training. Club’s normally employ a professional, a secretary, catering staff, green keepers, GM's and volunteer committees , but never in my experience has any club ever sent its staff on a customer service course  - so how can there ever be continuity of service? Can you imagine this happening in any other customer service industry?

Right now clubs are desperate for members and income, but what are they doing differently to stand out above the rest? Maybe now is the perfect time to award clubs an industry standard Kitemark and see how many are prepared to really look at their business, let experts examine it with fresh eyes and then adopt any recommendations that will see them improve……including those from the mystery golfer who really will be on the receiving end of the service they offer!

There are so many ways now for golfers to share their thoughts online and clubs need to listen and make changes. So as a golf club, be proactive not reactive, offer members and visitors a money back guarantee and see how quickly things change for the better!