Harnessing The Weather In Florida
For Florida golf course operators, bad weather will always be, well, bad. Even so, inclement weather conditions can be the impetus for enhanced customer loyalty. And while "weather is the largest unmanageable variable in the Florida golf industry," as one source characterized it, it is also true that owners have more tools at their disposal to manage its ups and downs. Some of these are simply more sophisticated iterations of long-existing capabilities. The abundance of weather-forecasting sources, for example, has never been greater. Others represent brand new approaches to the logistics of absorbing and adapting to meteorological mayhem.
In general, the strategic elements of dealing with the elements fall into two categories, those having to do primarily with human interaction and those that are technological and administrative. The former category includes:
An enlightened rain-check policy. "Err on the side of customer satisfaction," says Jim Keane, director of golf at Grande Lakes Orlando Florida, "not on the side of today's bottom line." Keane and colleagues assign percentage values to the number of holes played, and because the majority of his golfing consists of resort guests who often will not be in a position to play the course any time soon, he offers them a choice. Rain victims can use their checks as a pro-shop credit or toward future green fees. Customers feel gratified by the gesture, Keane says, even as they are turned into walking billboards for the property.
Not only should the rain-check policy be applied consistently by the staff, but it also should be integral to the marketing effort, notes Del Ratcliffe, of Charlotte, N.C.-based Ratcliffe Golf Services. "If your rain check policy is too restrictive, you're placing the gamble on the customer," he points out. "The flipside of that is, if you're known for a liberal policy, they'll actually be encouraged to come out in marginal conditions, when there's only the threat of rain. And there's nothing wrong with letting Florida golfers think they're getting a little more than they paid for."
A relationship with weather forecasters. Complaining about inaccurate weather forecasts is a favorite pursuit for everyone, not just golf course owners. Some of us just have more at stake: Losses among weather-dependent businesses in the United States last year totaled an estimated $7 billion. Perhaps more vexing to many Florida golf course operators than mistaken forecasts, however, is the tone, language and even iconography of weather reports, which can seem negative while still being correct in the strictest sense. Given golf-course operators' vested interest, it is prudent to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with those in the forecasting trade.
Keep the superintendent in the loop. Obviously, weather conditions affect maintenance procedures, including pesticide and fertilizer applications, grooming of bunkers and mowing schedules. But the superintendent's function is sometimes underrated as a component in promoting customer satisfaction.
Joe Baidy, director of golf courses and grounds at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., has his own weather-monitoring terminal, which he consults several times each day before conferring with Bob O'Brian, the director of golf. This helps keep O'Brian-and prospective golfers-abreast of approaching storms as well as with making decisions about maintenance-related policies such as "cart path only" or "90 degrees."
The key to a successful collaboration, Baidy and O'Brian agree, is ongoing communication, without which the overarching goal-the largest number of rounds of the highest quality for golfers-can be lost in the technicalities.
"Overall, day in and day out," Baidy emphasizes, "the idea is to provide playable conditions at all times."
Other advances in dealing with weather include:
Multiple alternatives in player protection. Although golf course owners identify lousy weather as the biggest single factor in a decrease in rounds in recent years, the good news is that fatalities from lightning strikes are down by roughly half. The confluence of better and more-ubiquitous GPS equipment and an ever-growing spectrum of weather-reporting entities provides golf course owners with the means to protect golfers from harm at a price point in line with the course's operation.
There are, for instance, commercial weather forecasting and warning systems from companies such as Minneapolis-based Meteorlogix. In addition to offering severe-weather warning using pagers, e-mails and phones, golfers can consult the company's interactive weather-forecasting site while analyzing the desirability of various tee time choices.
Systems such as that made and installed by Thor Guard Inc., based in Sunrise, Fla., are more expensive. On the other hand, as Thor Guard's Robert Dugan points out, the cost is less than that of rebuilding a green, and the hedge against litigation arising from a lightning strike is immense. The company-whose equipment is used at some 4,000 golf and nongolf sites around the country-helps to monitor weather at many PGA tournament sites and TPC courses, where its "Voice of Thor" warning system has become a familiar, if unwelcome, sound effect at many events.
Player protection doesn't have to be elaborate. "The combination of online access to weather forecasts, alerts from your local or national weather services, Doppler radar and other free outlets is very good and very conscientious," says Arthur Jeffords, of Atlanta-based Lighthouse Golf Group. "Combine that with either GPS-enabled systems on golf carts or just the old-fashioned method-sending your staff out on golf carts to warn and retrieve players-and you can have a perfectly effective approach to protecting your customers."
Protection for your revenue stream. The unexpected nature of the weather and its consequences for golf course operators are what motivated the founding principals of Adverse Weather Insurance Group (AWIG) to conceive a program to insure courses against losses. It took some three years to develop but is now in place-the first such protection designed specifically for golf courses.
"The only predictable thing is that weather patterns are no longer predictable," says Florida-based AWIG's Nathan J. Yoder, citing documentation of proliferating severe weather patterns. "Margins are tight in the golf industry now, and when you start throwing in unexpected weather events, insurance protection could mean a huge difference. It's a management tool to protect profits during your most critical revenue days."
Yoder describes several different policy structures but stresses flexibility in devising the best one for an individual golf course operation. Programs can be bundled with corporate outing plans to protect group customers' investment, for example, and double as a marketing tool.
The flip side of indemnifying prospective golf customers, especially groups, is to invite them to share in the risk-and-reward; and here, at least an intuitive understanding of both the clientele and the prevailing weather patterns is invaluable.
"The golfers up here are just kind of conditioned to the weather, and if it looks kind of iffy, they just plan on getting rained on," laughs Jim Smith, an owner at East Bay Golf Club, a daily fee course in Largo, Florida
"They know what they're getting into before they put it into the ground on the first. And we know our weather calendar pretty well. So if you can devise a price schedule that rewards them sharing in the bad-weather risk during shoulder season, you can boost your incremental revenue while giving them a bargain. It's a realistic way of dealing with less-than-perfect weather, with benefits for everyone."
Still, in devising a policy, it helps to have the most accurate information possible about the likelihood of playable weather. That is the object of an index currently being crunched by the Oregon-based Longitudes Group, to be available in the fourth quarter of this year. Called the USA Golf Comfort Index, it is a complex analysis of 30 years worth of data to determine the number of playable days in each of 320 golf markets across the country.
"There is a distinct need in the business of golf for the impact of weather to be understood and accounted for," says Sara Killeen, president of Longitudes, "and for the element of surprise to be eliminated."
Again, this will not change the weather, but it may change our perception of it.
"Typically, when business is down at the Florida golf courses, management blames the weather," Killeen observes. "Ironically, in good business years, 'good management' is the factor pointed to as the key to success." Is it weather or management?
In general, the strategic elements of dealing with the elements fall into two categories, those having to do primarily with human interaction and those that are technological and administrative. The former category includes:
An enlightened rain-check policy. "Err on the side of customer satisfaction," says Jim Keane, director of golf at Grande Lakes Orlando Florida, "not on the side of today's bottom line." Keane and colleagues assign percentage values to the number of holes played, and because the majority of his golfing consists of resort guests who often will not be in a position to play the course any time soon, he offers them a choice. Rain victims can use their checks as a pro-shop credit or toward future green fees. Customers feel gratified by the gesture, Keane says, even as they are turned into walking billboards for the property.
Not only should the rain-check policy be applied consistently by the staff, but it also should be integral to the marketing effort, notes Del Ratcliffe, of Charlotte, N.C.-based Ratcliffe Golf Services. "If your rain check policy is too restrictive, you're placing the gamble on the customer," he points out. "The flipside of that is, if you're known for a liberal policy, they'll actually be encouraged to come out in marginal conditions, when there's only the threat of rain. And there's nothing wrong with letting Florida golfers think they're getting a little more than they paid for."
A relationship with weather forecasters. Complaining about inaccurate weather forecasts is a favorite pursuit for everyone, not just golf course owners. Some of us just have more at stake: Losses among weather-dependent businesses in the United States last year totaled an estimated $7 billion. Perhaps more vexing to many Florida golf course operators than mistaken forecasts, however, is the tone, language and even iconography of weather reports, which can seem negative while still being correct in the strictest sense. Given golf-course operators' vested interest, it is prudent to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with those in the forecasting trade.
Keep the superintendent in the loop. Obviously, weather conditions affect maintenance procedures, including pesticide and fertilizer applications, grooming of bunkers and mowing schedules. But the superintendent's function is sometimes underrated as a component in promoting customer satisfaction.
Joe Baidy, director of golf courses and grounds at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, N.Y., has his own weather-monitoring terminal, which he consults several times each day before conferring with Bob O'Brian, the director of golf. This helps keep O'Brian-and prospective golfers-abreast of approaching storms as well as with making decisions about maintenance-related policies such as "cart path only" or "90 degrees."
The key to a successful collaboration, Baidy and O'Brian agree, is ongoing communication, without which the overarching goal-the largest number of rounds of the highest quality for golfers-can be lost in the technicalities.
"Overall, day in and day out," Baidy emphasizes, "the idea is to provide playable conditions at all times."
Other advances in dealing with weather include:
Multiple alternatives in player protection. Although golf course owners identify lousy weather as the biggest single factor in a decrease in rounds in recent years, the good news is that fatalities from lightning strikes are down by roughly half. The confluence of better and more-ubiquitous GPS equipment and an ever-growing spectrum of weather-reporting entities provides golf course owners with the means to protect golfers from harm at a price point in line with the course's operation.
There are, for instance, commercial weather forecasting and warning systems from companies such as Minneapolis-based Meteorlogix. In addition to offering severe-weather warning using pagers, e-mails and phones, golfers can consult the company's interactive weather-forecasting site while analyzing the desirability of various tee time choices.
Systems such as that made and installed by Thor Guard Inc., based in Sunrise, Fla., are more expensive. On the other hand, as Thor Guard's Robert Dugan points out, the cost is less than that of rebuilding a green, and the hedge against litigation arising from a lightning strike is immense. The company-whose equipment is used at some 4,000 golf and nongolf sites around the country-helps to monitor weather at many PGA tournament sites and TPC courses, where its "Voice of Thor" warning system has become a familiar, if unwelcome, sound effect at many events.
Player protection doesn't have to be elaborate. "The combination of online access to weather forecasts, alerts from your local or national weather services, Doppler radar and other free outlets is very good and very conscientious," says Arthur Jeffords, of Atlanta-based Lighthouse Golf Group. "Combine that with either GPS-enabled systems on golf carts or just the old-fashioned method-sending your staff out on golf carts to warn and retrieve players-and you can have a perfectly effective approach to protecting your customers."
Protection for your revenue stream. The unexpected nature of the weather and its consequences for golf course operators are what motivated the founding principals of Adverse Weather Insurance Group (AWIG) to conceive a program to insure courses against losses. It took some three years to develop but is now in place-the first such protection designed specifically for golf courses.
"The only predictable thing is that weather patterns are no longer predictable," says Florida-based AWIG's Nathan J. Yoder, citing documentation of proliferating severe weather patterns. "Margins are tight in the golf industry now, and when you start throwing in unexpected weather events, insurance protection could mean a huge difference. It's a management tool to protect profits during your most critical revenue days."
Yoder describes several different policy structures but stresses flexibility in devising the best one for an individual golf course operation. Programs can be bundled with corporate outing plans to protect group customers' investment, for example, and double as a marketing tool.
The flip side of indemnifying prospective golf customers, especially groups, is to invite them to share in the risk-and-reward; and here, at least an intuitive understanding of both the clientele and the prevailing weather patterns is invaluable.
"The golfers up here are just kind of conditioned to the weather, and if it looks kind of iffy, they just plan on getting rained on," laughs Jim Smith, an owner at East Bay Golf Club, a daily fee course in Largo, Florida
"They know what they're getting into before they put it into the ground on the first. And we know our weather calendar pretty well. So if you can devise a price schedule that rewards them sharing in the bad-weather risk during shoulder season, you can boost your incremental revenue while giving them a bargain. It's a realistic way of dealing with less-than-perfect weather, with benefits for everyone."
Still, in devising a policy, it helps to have the most accurate information possible about the likelihood of playable weather. That is the object of an index currently being crunched by the Oregon-based Longitudes Group, to be available in the fourth quarter of this year. Called the USA Golf Comfort Index, it is a complex analysis of 30 years worth of data to determine the number of playable days in each of 320 golf markets across the country.
"There is a distinct need in the business of golf for the impact of weather to be understood and accounted for," says Sara Killeen, president of Longitudes, "and for the element of surprise to be eliminated."
Again, this will not change the weather, but it may change our perception of it.
"Typically, when business is down at the Florida golf courses, management blames the weather," Killeen observes. "Ironically, in good business years, 'good management' is the factor pointed to as the key to success." Is it weather or management?
posted by John at
8:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home