One would think that 2020 was a terrible year for almost all golf clubs. As I look at US statistics, then I see a boom in play that started in the summer continued through the end of the year — resulting in a 13.9% increase over 2019, according to Golf Datatech.
Another surprising insight from the US market is the golf equipment sales (=$2.81 Billion) that were higher by 10.1% than in 2019. A similar size of growth rate was registered in 2012. In the very same year, the US golf industry grew by 5.7%.
The SMS research shows that the 75 British clubs saw an average growth of rounds played of over 40% compared to July 2019.
Jacek Gulmantowicz (Co-Founder, Software.Golf-Booking.com) shared with me even more impressive tee time booking results from 2020. Online tee time booking grew by 304%.
Thanks to the growing share of mobile usage, over 50% of the online tee time bookings happened via mobile applications (28% was in 2019).
He predicts this year the number of round Y2Y will increase about 20% in golf clubs and online tee time booking will be over 65% of all bookings.
I am expecting a similar or even bigger demand for playing golf and online tee time booking in 2021 and the coming years.
The question is whether golf clubs are prepared enough to handle the expectable extra amount of demand via their online sales channels.
Are they able to offer mobile-based online tee time booking? Will they be able to use the right pricing strategy (e.g., yield management, dynamic pricing, etc.) to maximize revenues?
Regarding 2021, we should consider these trends too:
- Golfers will go local and discover a new destination within their home region or country. People want to be vaccinated first and then think about golf holidays abroad.
- Golfers want 24/7 access to tee time booking.
- Many people have been financially affected by the pandemic. They are expected to become price-sensitive as well.
- The average mobile screen time in the UK is 3 hours and 23 minutes per day.
- For safety reasons, people will prefer digital solutions.
- The demand for further golf experience personalization will grow thanks to other industries’ digital innovations.
- Vaccination programs rolling out will determine the speed at which ‘normality’ returns.
- The working-from-anywhere trend has the potential to blur permanently the lines between leisure and work.
- Starting to bear fruit after years of improving core CX competencies.
Recommendations
Although I’m writing towards the end here, it is very obvious that without true 1-on-1 personalization we will not be able to deliver relevance to our golf club members and guests neither to our employees plus gain long-term loyalty.
Therefore, when you consider purchasing your first golf club management software or upgrade the existing one do not forget to ask the vendor about their software’s personalization feature
- to what extent they are able to personalize offers +
- customer data segmentation +
- how data can support golf club operations too.
Take a chance on Golf Booking Software and start to impress your golf club members and guests!
This article is brought to you by Golf Booking Software.