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As I write this I am returning from Silicon Valley in San Francisco \u2013 headquarters of technological innovation in the 21st century and launching pad for the development of new business processes \u2013 where I held important meetings in advance of the US market launch of golf tourism comparison guide GOLFBOO.com.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this is why I feel particularly sensitive about something I have been defending for a while, and that is \u2013 to guarantee a promising future for golf tourism in Spain \u2013 it will be necessary to make some important changes in the way we carry out marketing.<\/p>\n
I have the feeling that in our industry we are still pressing ahead with a marketing concept that is outdated and obsolete, as is the \u201cgolf product\u201d. Working groups and seminars are being organized to discuss the creation of a product \u2013 albeit a quality one \u2013 as if we were still in the eighties, when selling something depended on the famous four Ps that McCarthy invented one day. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m still incredulous when I observe public companies and institutions and those responsible for tourist promotion immersed in a sterile debate about prices and aspects of the quality of a product that is becoming increasingly less interesting to consumers.<\/p>\n
Marketing these days is not like that, and not only because of the emergence of technology, internet and the incipient power of the mobile device in any modern marketing strategy. We live in a world in which you can\u2019t separate products from the context that surrounds them or the consumption process or, even more important, from the people who take part in that process. <\/p>\n
The golf product from a marketing perspective no longer exists in isolation, at least not as we have conceived it up till now. It\u2019s the same whether we buy golf, a telephone, a hotel room or a bicycle. The way we are attended to, the packaging, the key to the room, even the smell emanating from its first use, are decisive in the assessment that a client gives our product, with the price and features relegated to a secondary role opposite the global experience or \u2013 what is the same \u2013 opposite the global service obtained. <\/p>\n
When we book a tee time, we decide to buy a season ticket or enter the website of a golf course to ask for something \u2013 we\u2019re living an experience. Living an experience in the world of golf is to live an experience that someone is providing us with, and it\u2019s there where we need to present our best si- de: in the provision of a golf service. If we want to reach the heart of the current consumer \u2013 and especially the future one \u2013 in the world of golf we are obliged to reconsider those aspects that make a service unique. <\/p>\n
\u2013 THE PROCESSES: There should be no task that is not part of a well-de- fined process. Services in golf tourism are highly interpretable, as two rounds of golf at the same course, on the same day, can be perceived in a completely different way by each golfer. If our processes are not strong enough to guarantee that the experience is as similar as possible, it could be hard to manage. Something as simple as answering the phone, welcoming a potential member, or the starter\u2019s instructions on the first tee \u2013 which in many cases are a client\u2019s first contact with our brand \u2013 can become a good or a bad experience if they are not properly defined. <\/p>\n
\u2013 MARKETING MATERIAL: Often forgotten or resolved in any old way, we don\u2019t tend to pay attention to those tangible elements that the customer uses to interact with our product. This could be anything from a card of the course, an email or a price list to an app for the mobile telephone. They represent our brand and, if we are able to create unique materials, this will help us generate unique services that enable us to stand out from our competition and establish a consistent image in the minds of our clients. On many occasions, there is scrimping on the investment in a professional photographic session or the creation of a website that is capable of generating sales, when the cost could be less than the repair of a single bunker on the course. Where would you allocate the budget? <\/p>\n
\u2013 THE PEOPLE: This is the critical factor in the provision of any service, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s necessary to boost attention on this area. We often for- get that our team requires the appropriate practice, training and instructions in order to be able to look after clients correctly. No one is born knowing this, for all the ability they have. <\/p>\n
New trends such as \u201cActive Listening\u201d, which consists of improving clients\u2019 experience by observing and processing the information they give us while obtaining services, are key to developing successful experiences. It\u2019s no longer necessary to ask clients what they would improve at our club. It\u2019s enough to train our staff to have their ears and eyes open and to define a process that ensures all this information reaches the management so that quick and effective measures can be taken. <\/p>\n
In creating unique services or experiences, we need to work not only on the experience in itself but also the ability to generate expectations befo- re they visit our destination and in the relationship that unites us when they leave our amenities. The service begins even before the client has chosen our golf course, so we need to be prepared for the search phase, which is becoming increasingly important due to the growing penetration of internet into golf tourism. <\/p>\n
And as for the management of client relations (CRM), few \u2013 very few \u2013 are worried about maintaining a relationship with golfers after they\u2019ve provided the service, one of the most important phases of our clients\u2019 experience. Current technology and the internet allow us to take this management to limits that before we could not even imagine. <\/p>\n
In Spain we\u2019ve had a formidable golf product for a while, and I believe the moment has arrived to focus on the development of services that provide experiences to golfer in each and every one of our courses and resorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}