50 times? As I sat down to write this, I thought how many times have I been to Disney? Not 50 days, 50 visits. At least. Why so many times? You’ve been there once, you’ve been there, seen it, done it, move on. I say not so fast… There is something different there every time I go. A different attraction. A different restaurant. A different store. I always see something different when I go. Things are built to scale – for kids. It’s neat how they did that. They made a brand creating the “Disney Experience”. HOW they created that, and the painstaking steps they take every day to preserve and enhance it are well worth the time required to investigate it. Can we learn and apply what they do to make our own facilities better? Can we create a XYZ Country Club Experience? I believe we all try to, and I believe we can all improve upon it – no matter how high on the pyramid your facility sits.

Disney. You may not agree with their politics, social agendas, etc., but as a business, it’s hard to ignore the way they do what they do when it comes to their theme parks. As a college student, I fell in love with retailing. The art of how people buy things. It fascinated me, and I learned that there is a better way to present what you’re offering to entice people to buy. Whether you are in a supermarket and you wonder why beer is always the furthest from the front door – and you have to walk by bags of chips and snacks seemingly no matter how you get to the beer coolers. It’s not an accident. Disney is a master at it’s craft. They take theme parking to a level that no one else in the world does. I realized that retailing is about presentation. This presentation creates a perception about you, your facility, your brand, your products and services. Essentially, it’s how people see everything you have to offer. If you’re not pondering what this means, and how it’s all interrelated, or asking what does this have to do with retailing, or more specifically with me and my golf shop?, read on.

115,000 to 150,000+ visitors per day depending on the time of year. That’s how many people visit a WDW park in a day. Over 21 million guests in 2023. What’s more? On any given day, 75% of it’s customers are repeat customers. That’s over 100,000 repeat customers every single day. This, to a place that costs an average of $135.00 for a ticket, $30 to park, food is off the charts… Yet, people pay it. Over and over and over again. Why? It’s about the experience. If you have members at your facility, you basically only get repeat customers. Perhaps they pay the cost of a day at Disney to play at your facility for a day. What do you do to create that magical experience that leaves them wanting to go nowhere else but come back to see you again tomorrow? Hold that thought.

First question abut Disney is how do you keep it clean? I know a lot of guests are less than 3 feet tall, and that equals a lot of spills and drops. A lot of busy parents – too busy to clean up after their little ones (or themselves). Every night, as the park empties, the open spaces look more and more like a series of disaster zones. Yet every morning the sun rises on a spotless park. How the heck is that even possible? Simple. They are committed to it. I read a book on the Disney Magic one time (I’ve read this book a dozen times), and in one scene, a person is observing how “Disney does Disney”, and she sees a man in a suit (with a name tag on) bend down and pick up a napkin off the ground and deposit it into a trash can. Surprised, the observer approached the man and said “Do you work here?” “Yes”. Did I just see you pick up a piece of trash and throw it away?” “Yes”, with a smile. “Don’t you have janitors for that?” “Yes we do. In fact, we have the largest cleaning crew in the world.” “You do? How many people?” “50,000” with a bigger smile as he walked off. As she came back to the group shaking her head, she said I think he said they have 5,000 people on their cleaning crew. The leader of their group chuckled and said “not 5,000 – there are 50,000 that work on the cleaning crew at Disney – it’s everyone’s responsibility to make the park as presentable as possible for every guest.” Every guest who might see anything that isn’t perfect is a fail in the Disney way.

During the day, trash removal is underground. Guests don’t want to see garbage trucks or carry all’s with dripping garbage bags. Shelves are restocked from merchandise that is housed underground – guests don’t want to see a delivery truck restocking shelves during the day. Employees? They take their breaks underground. Also Employees? They come to work in street clothes and “emerge” from somewhere in character. People simply can not see Goofy taking a smoke break by his car where everyone else parks. Not gonna happen. This is not the presentation Disney wants, so they take whatever steps necessary to ensure it doesn’t. Ask yourself if you take all the steps necessary to only let your members see what you want them to see.

What happens after the park closes is almost as spectacular as what happens when it’s open. It’s cleaned top to bottom. Need a touch up of paint? Done. Fingerprints on the brass line separators? Gone. Every detail is attended too. It’s pristine every morning. How do you possibly clean up from having 150,000 guests over in less than 12 hours? If that is the level of presentation you want to have, you’ll figure out a way to get it done.

What does this have to do with “retail”? Perhaps more specifically, Country Club retail. We’re not to retail yet – we’re still on presentation. Presentation is the framework for retail, so we’ll get there. By now, I hope you understand that the “Retail” that we speak of in this context is the facility as a whole. It’s not where you sell individual items. It’s the bigger picture. It’s how you present your facility – how you sell your facility – to your membership each and every day.

We could argue (and make a very good case) that the top of the pyramid Country Clubs treat their members in much the same way as Disney treats it’s guests. At a Country Club, “retail” is more than just how you put stuff on the shelves in a golf shop or have specials on the menu. It’s paying attention to EVERY detail so the member gets a pristine experience every time. One dirty cart is unacceptable. Giving a member his clubs out of bag storage with yesterdays dirt on them is unacceptable. Straw wrappers that blew away and are on the ground behind the tee box on number 5 is unacceptable. Not having ketchup at the halfway house is unacceptable. Having limbs down and leaves on the ground is unacceptable. Take a cue from Disney. This isn’t the responsibility of the grounds crew, the restaurant staff or the golf operations staff. It’s everyone’s responsibility. If the guy cutting greens sees the straw wrappers on the ground in the halfway house, it’s his responsibility to not only pick up the wrappers, but figure out a way to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He’s not a manager, or in “clean up”. He’s an employee who needs to take pride not in his job, but in the facility where he works. If the mowing stripes are perfect, but he leaves paper on the ground, he gets 50% – that’s an F. If the bag staff doesn’t wash every cart and club at the end of every day, they fail. Anything less than 100% is a fail. “Retail” is about presentation. I challenge you to examine your presentation.

Since presentation is what the customer (Member) sees and experiences when he sets foot on the grounds at your facility, it’s implications are much broader in scope and can not be ignored. That customer will measure the experience he has at your facility with every other experience he has at every other facility he goes or does business with – anywhere, not just in golf. He goes to Wal-Mart – that disaster get’s measured alongside the experience at your club. You better win one there. He deals with Lands End or LL Bean – they do “retailing” right. If you don’t do it as well as they do, you lose one there. He goes out and has a steak – he’ll compare the service of the server to the service he received at the bag drop. His dentist, the car wash, the pick up window at Dunkin Donuts… They all count. Fair? Perhaps not, but that’s what we are up against. Every experience your customer has is measured and ranked. If they don’t like where you measure and rank, guess what… They’re going somewhere else.

YOU can control what you can control. YOU can control if the trash cans on the golf course are overflowing leaving trash on the ground. YOU can control if the shop is out of Medium gloves. YOU can control if a player needs help posting a score. No customer should ever see something you don’t want them to see or experience something you don’t want them to experience. Overflowing trash cans – “we empty these every night.” is not good enough if they overflow by 6:00pm. Perhaps they need to be emptied before league starts at 5:00. Perhaps the beverage cart attendant needs to take notice and radio in. If people see trash on the ground, that’s how they associate your facility. Guess what. Other clubs figure out a way for that to not happen. So can you. You are measured against Oak Hill CC even if you are a public muni. Like it or not. The biggest insult you can get is “It’s nice for what it is.” You let “what it is” happen. How are you going to fix it?

Remember, the magic that happens at Disney after the park closes is more important that the magic that happens while it’s open. That’s where they prepare for tomorrows presentation. Ask yourself one final question – do you prepare your facility better or more for, say a Member-Guest than you do a random Tuesday in June? Aside from green speeds or grass heights… If you do, shame on you. You never know who is walking through your door on any given day. Your presentation is your magic.

This is the first in a series of several pieces written about the magic of Disney.

Your work, your way.

Happy Professionalism. Enjoy your work/ life balance.