Almost a year ago I composed the list of TOP10 online tee time booking solutions for Portugal and Spain. The article received many comments and feedbacks. Among the comments, I found a very legitimate one, namely where are the real-time/live online tee time booking solutions?
To continue my research, I thought to investigate this time the Italian online tee time booking market. Before we enter into this topic deeply, let me clarify first the connection between live online tee time booking and providing exceptional customer experience.
If you want to become customer committed and to have an effective customer experience strategy, then you need to identify customer needs and desires, plus map customer journeys.
Our customers want to interact with us on an omnichannel and always-on approach. As part of this, they want to get speedy and personalized services, but also effortless actions.
Hence it is not enough to enable your guests and members to book online but to book tee times in REAL TIME.
In other words, to book their tee times fully online. This requires, for instance, live connectivity with tee sheet providers (e.g. Sysgolf/Gesgolf – a leading supplier of tee sheet software in Italy).
Online tee time booking & Real-time marketing
Real-time marketing (including real-time tee time booking) has been proven to increase customer satisfaction which leads to increased satisfaction leads to improved retention rates which decrease churn and in turn improves profits.
What is sure that our customers (e.g. golf tourists, golf club members) are not tolerating those online tee time booking services that are not able to provide fully real-time online tee time booking.
You can be hundred percent sure that they will leave you immediately if they are not able to get what they want and will choose other spare time activity. Furthermore, they will share their negative experience in social media (e.g. on review sites).
The definition of timeliness has also evolved from a customer standpoint. Our guests now expect 24-hour service and almost instant response to any inquiry they have.
This can be very painful in such a golf country and destination like Italy that would like to attract much more inbound golf tourists and boost local golf participation.
Do you know that there are 141 18-hole golf courses in Italy? Some of them are designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jr., Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Peter Harradine, and PB Dye.
I would like to highlight another important dimension of online tee time booking beyond the online, real-time booking feature. It can be really painful for the golfers to check many golf club websites to see their offers and prices. Convenience and effortless actions/services can be a game changer for golf clubs.
This is why I think marketplace like Greenfee365 can be a great help for both sides. Golfers will have better information about golf courses’ offers, tee times availability and prices. While golf clubs will gain extra exposure and a new source of revenue.
This article is brought to you by Greenfee365.