Putting on the ears.

I know this is Disney themed, but is this a little too far? You want me to wear my daughters Mickey Ears to work. Ha. Not really. Your own eyes and ears are the perfect gauge to how you, as an organization are doing. Mickey Ears illustrate the point. We don’t need greeters, or surveys in every area of the club. Those can be seen as invasive and they will not reveal what we truly wish to seek. Members talk. They tell you your customer satisfaction score. We need to hear what they say to each other. To hear it, you have to listen in new ways. That is putting on the ears.

Consider an example:

Perhaps you LOVE the new tee on #4. It adds a challenge to the hole not before seen. It enhances the dog leg. Brings the FW bunkers into play. Longer shot in from a different angle. You move all the tees markers back one box. EVERYONE gets a new challenge. The hole is only 30 yards longer, and it shouldn’t be more than a driver/ 6 or 7 iron in. What is not to love?? Well, many members can’t hit it far enough to clear the FW bunkers, so they have to aim further right, which has the tee ball landing into the upslope on the fairway. Now, they are facing a second shot with a long hybrid or FW Woods into this green (that used to be an 8 or 9 iron).

Two members walk into the bag drop area talking about how they didn’t like the changes to #4. The Outside services attendant listens, and takes his $5 tip. They stop in golf shop after the round. The Assistant Pro says “How did you like the changes on #4 today, gentlemen?” They say “Great. A little long for me, but it sure plays as a new hole.” The Assistant hears “Great” and “new hole”. The members walk into the grill room and sit at the bar. Still talking about #4 (that they played almost 4 hours ago, and played 14 holes since). The bartender overhears this, pours another beer and adds to the tab. This is not the first time she has heard this today…

What this really means is that customers are best heard through many ears. Your best person to hear a members comments about how a tournament was run or the condition of the golf course may be the halfway house attendant or the server in the members grill room. The golf pro may be best listener for the quality of the food in the restaurant. The outside services staff hears everything.

Everyone needs to listen to what the members and customers say, and everyone needs to speak up and say what they hear. Everyone needs to understand every facet of the business. Cart kids need to understand the menu. Servers need to understand golf a tennis operations. Golf Professionals need to understand the valet service, the front office, or the maintenance operation. The organization can’t get better without feedback. A member will not likely tell the Head Golf Professional how he really thought the tournament went today, but he will tell his playing partner what he really thinks over dinner and drinks. He will tell the golf pro that the brush pile behind #6 look terrible. The bartender and servers need to take notes. Everyone does. Anything they can share with the operation as a whole will help everyone get better.

In the example of the new fourth hole above. The superintendent loves it. The Professionals love it. The board loved it until they had to play it. The members don’t. First, we need to know that they don’t like it. We need everyone to hear what they say, and then we can address they situation. But… We got this right. We built a temp tee and tried it. Board members played it and loved it. Players of all abilities tried the new tees. We even played the new tee positions for half of last season – no complaints. This was gonna be great. Until… we implemented it. What can we do? If needed, we can go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan. Perhaps we add another tee box even shorter, so sometimes this hole is almost a drivable par four while others it is a FW Wood in. We can move the tees as conditions warrant. The solution in this example is irrelevant. The relevant thing is HOW we discovered this was a problem.

We all work for the same team.

Your work, your way.

Happy Professionalism. Enjoy your work/ life balance.