On-Line Registration

As crazy as this is going to sound, here is a typical Thai business strategy. You invest a bunch of money constructing or remodeling a building, hire a bunch of employees and buy a lot of inventory, equipment and operating supplies. You then obtain licenses and permits and pay off the obligatory politicians and police. They will usually have a grand opening party, which includes a big sign out front, lots of balloons and a pig roasting on a pit. I have seen this happen again and again with Bars, Clubs, Hotels, Restaurants, Coffee Shops, etc.

Notice anything missing? There is no marketing! They do not spend a dime on letting people know about the new venture. The thinking or rational is that once the business starts making money, maybe then they will spend money on non-essentials like marketing. Until then, all the money is needed for necessities like inventory, employees, utilities, etc.

The result for many is they go under in a matter of months -- the failure rate is incredibly high. However, the Thais have found a solution. Budgeting money at the start of the business (or season) would be the natural solution but that would be thinking like a westerner.

Here is the Thai solution: Say you want to open a coffee shop. You go out and find an existing coffee shop that is doing well. Better yet, you find an area where there is several coffee shops doing well. This is where you open your coffee shop! Within 3 blocks of our office in Chiang Mai, there are at least 15 coffee shops (none of which open until 10:30am but that is another story). That way, the coffee customer is already there; you just add your shop. No marketing needed.

This model holds true for everything from selling oranges or mangoes to hotels, spas, retail golf stores, etc. It is quite something to see. At the driving range in Chiang Mai there are at least 75 individually owned golf retail stores all in a row just behind the players hitting balls off the mats. You will be hard pressed to find another golf store anywhere in the city.

Sounds crazy? This is the exact model that the big chain pharmacies and many car dealers use in the States.

Good Friday is the typical unofficial start of the golf season up north. In fact, for many it is the busiest golf day of the year as everyone dusts of their clubs and takes their first whack at the ball. So ready or not, your season is under way. You purchased new inventory, did the maintenance on your tractors and mowers, hired your seasonal staff, stocked the coolers and set up your menus. What about your marketing? What did you do? Advertise on the radio? Take out a print ad in the Sunday paper? (Neither of which are good strategies - see prior newsletters).

If the only thing you are scheduling is your chemical applications and aeration, I hope that you are either very lucky or that you are looking for a buyer. You need to plan your marketing campaigns as carefully as your turf maintenance to succeed.

You can't pick up and move your course next to your competitors'. If you have been collecting email addresses, you don't even have to spend any money, just a bit of your time composing an email.

A public or resort course should have a minimum of 5,000 valid email addresses to target. Sounds like a lot? It is. This means that collecting and verifying email addresses needs to be an ongoing part of your operations.

Want to collect them automatically? Add on the CPS On-Line Tee Times and/or CPS Web Store. Both will collect names, emails, addresses, etc., of golfers for you. Not to mention help you fill up your tee sheet and keep your shop open 24/7. Think your players are from the older generation that don't do email? Please! Show me a grandparent and I'll show you someone with an email address!

Here is what happens when a golfer registers on your On-Line Tee Time or Web Store site.

On-Line your customer will register on a screen you configure that may look something like this:

 

Following successful registration, the user gets an email confirmation and you now have the following information in your database automatically:

And the beauty of it all is that the customer did all the work for you! You now have 1 of those 5000 plus email addresses for which you have been searching. Once you collect your first 50 or so, send out an email blast to those 50 offering a bounty for new golfers. Set up and use our loyalty program (topic of next week's newsletter). Offer 100 loyalty points (or whatever number makes sense) to any of the current players that bring a friend to play golf that results in a new email address for your database. Watch how fast that list grows. Nourish that email list as well as you nourish your turf and you are bound to succeed.

Note: See all the great tips in our prior newsletters posted on our website under the Lessons from the Pro link.