It seems like nothing can stop Troon to gain footing in Europe. The Swiss Golfclub Domat/Ems has selected Troon to manage its golf club. This is Troon’s 4th new business win in Europe:
- Golfclub Pfalz in Germany,
- Chateau D’Augerville in France
- and its first Troon Privé venue in mainland Europe at Aloha Golf Club, Spain.
The Golfclub Domat/Ems opened in 1996, the well-presented 27-hole course (3*9 hole golf courses: 1. Yellow course: 3072m, Par-36; 2. Red course: 3038m, Par-36; Blue course: 2707m, Par-35) was designed by Mario Verdieri and John Stainer Chilver.
Golfclub Doma/Ems is expecting from Troon that they will help them outdo the best Swiss golf courses. Troon’s tailored approach primarily focuses on enhancing the conditioning of the course and working closely with the club’s greenkeeping team, specifically on the putting surfaces.
Is that all, what Troon should enhance and improve at Golfclub Doma/Ems?
Why should the customer experience matter to Golfclub Domat/Ems?
In the connected economy, customer experience has a special role since people tend to share their experience online (e.g. on Foursquare, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook etc.). After a while shared experiences built upon one another, forming a collective ensemble of people’s sentiment toward a company, in our case towards Golfclub Domat/Ems.
The Innovation and the Earned Brand survey of Edelman found that 90% of customers expect from brands to innovate with societal impact in mind. Furthermore, customers want to get real, contextual value where and when they demand it the most.
These experiences are not created alone by the marketer/golf club, but together with the customer/golfer. These co-created experiences form the basis for a golf club’s/brand’s image. Therefore, we can say that customer experience is the brand, that is your golf club.
The customer experience is a sum of each engagement a person has with a company/golf club, at every touchpoint, throughout the customer lifecycle.
Syngenta in 2013, conducted a survey in the UK (“Growing Golf in the UK”) to gauge what factors are important to golfers. Among the TOP5 expectations, we can find 4 customer experience related demands:
- Friendliness of members,
- Comfortable with the golf course and its surroundings,
- Golf club is welcoming regardless of gender,
- Friendliness of staff.
In a country like Switzerland, where the number of golfers per golf course is 933 (Switzerland has got 96 golf clubs. Source: KPMG: Golf Participation in Europe 2016), it is not enough only to focus on the quality of the golf course, but also on customer experience. I hope this will not escape their attention.