GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Difficulty in Finding Staff to Fill Positions Forcing Clubs to Adapt

Right now, it’s a workers’ market.

That was the headline stretched across the top of the Sept. 5-6 edition of the Austin American-Statesman. Of course, golf and club managers didn’t need a newspaper or anything else to tell them what they already know: They’re living through what many say are the most challenging labor conditions they’ve ever encountered. More troubling – they know they’re outnumbered.

“This is the toughest labor market for hourly staff I have seen. When we run an ad that would usually attract 20 to 30 candidates, we’re lucky if we get two applications – and if one (candidate) shows up for the interview,” said Loraine Ellis Vienne, the general manager and chief operating officer of the Hampton Hall Club in Bluffton, SC.

Whitney Crouse, a founding partner of Bobby Jones Links, an Atlanta-based golf and club management company, shares the frustration. “Across the board, in all departments, it’s harder to find and retain good staff, but in the hourly (non-exempt) area, particularly F&B and maintenance, it’s really tough,” he said.

Crouse said the situation became so critical at one point earlier this year that the company was forced to limit the number of diners on certain days, as some restaurants have done. And it’s not just at lower-level positions. “On the managerial front, it’s also hyper competitive for good people, even at some very prestigious clubs,” Crouse added.

Labor shortages across the board

Of course, golf and private clubs are not unique when it comes to the hardships brought on by current labor shortages. Across the US, and in a wide range of industries, employers are hard-pressed to find workers to fill open positions. Especially hard hit are state and local governments, education, transportation/ warehousing/utilities, manufacturing and arts/ entertainment/recreation.

A surge in labor demand saw available positions at businesses, state and local governments, and the federal government spike from 7.1 million in January to 9.3 million at the end of April, according to the latest job openings and labor turnover survey. Barron’s reports that the speed and magnitude of the increase are “unprecedented” and that the number of posted openings has now shattered the previous record set in November 2018.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics did have some slightly encouraging news in its latest report, which showed the unemployment rate declined by a 0.2 percentage point, to 5.2 percent, in August. The number of unemployed persons edged down to 8.4 million, following a large decrease in July. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession. However, they remain above their levels before the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, myriad factors are keeping people out of the labor force and those will take longer to resolve, experts say. They include the large share of workers who decided to switch careers during the pandemic or who opted to retire early after layoffs. COVID-19 fears and federal unemployment checks also made it easier for many to delay their return to the workforce.

David Autor, a professor at the MIT department of economics and co-director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, suggests another theory, one that is potentially more far-reaching. “People’s valuation of their own time has changed. Americans are less eager to do low-paid, often dead-end service and hospitality work, deciding instead that more time on family, education and leisure makes for a higher standard of living, even if it means less consumption,” he wrote.

Damon DiOrio, CEO of Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, AZ, doesn’t believe pandemic-related concerns have played a significant role in creating openings in his 780-person workforce. He says unemployment benefits, which ended in August, were far more influential.

“The hesitancy in coming back had nothing to do with the virus. Lucrative federal unemployment benefits had a lot of people thinking they would take the summer off and spend some time with their kids and worry about starting to find a job in September,” DiOrio said.

Elephant in the room

Then there is the obstacle that seems insurmountable for the club industry, the veritable elephant in the room, which DiOrio was reminded of recently. After addressing a group of hospitality students enrolled in Club Management Association of America programs at various universities, many of whom were seniors eager to enter the hospitality field, DiOrio opened the online discussion for questions.

“Mr. DiOrio, what are the opportunities for kids like us who want to get into the club business but who want to work from home?” His answer:

“There aren’t any,” he said. “We can provide flexibility; we look out for our team members. But if you’re looking for a job where you can walk your dog in the afternoon and then log back on, it’s not happening in the club business.”

Working remotely or a combination of home and office work became increasingly popular during the pandemic and is a priority for many job seekers. Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Chicago estimate that from April to December 2020, half of the working hours in the American economy were supplied from home. They believe that share will eventually fall to around 20 percent, which is still four times the amount of work delivered remotely in 2017 and 2018.

Economist Paul Krugman, writing in The New York Times, is among those who suggest that explaining the future of work in this country goes beyond COVID-19, stimulus checks and remote work. “Many Americans don’t want to go back to the way things were before,” he wrote.

“After a year and a half of working from home, many don’t want to return to the stress of commuting. And at least some of those who were forced into unemployment have come to realize how unhappy they were with low pay and poor working conditions, and are reluctant to go back to their previous jobs.”

‘First, we have to pay more.’

Solutions to the imbalance in the current labor market will require some fundamental shifts in the way club managers hire and retain employees. And it starts with compensation, according to Crouse.

“First, we have to pay more,” he said. “This is a classic demand and supply issue. The market is speaking to us. Personally, even though I have conservative leanings, I think this is good for the country. How do families live off of $10 per hour?”

Vienne said her club now competes with local restaurants for staff. “We have fitness attendants leaving to be cooks for $19 per hour plus tips.”

DiOrio said Desert Mountain Club has “had to totally ratchet up what we were doing from a wage and benefits perspective. You can’t have Target stores coming out nationally and saying their bottom wage is $14 an hour and expect to compete. Now I don’t have a single job in this company (that pays) under $16.25 an hour.”

And as far as supplementing salary with tips, which the club industry traditionally has relied on to attract workers, DiOrio predicts those days are numbered. “People want safety, security and known tangibles in their life,” he said. “They got scared during COVID, and they want to know where that paycheck is coming from, how much they’re going to make and not have this wild fluctuation in tip and gratuity pools.”

In addition to higher wages, Vienne said Hampton Hall is complementing workers’ salaries with “referrals, bonuses, better benefits and increased earned time off.”

Time to get creative

The difficulty in finding staff to fill positions across the board at most clubs is spawning a wave of creativity on the part of managers. Crouse said his company’s goal is to be the “employer of choice” in his clubs’ markets.

To encourage and support the culture that attracts the type of worker Bobby Jones Links seeks, the company has taken a page from the employee-training handbooks at Ritz-Carlton and Chickfil-A, both known for outstanding customer service and welcoming cultures. “We’re proving that it’s possible to get teenagers and Millennials to smile, say ‘My pleasure’ and do it with authenticity.”

At Desert Mountain Club, which has weathered the pandemic without furloughing any staff, DiOrio said his team is implementing “extraordinary” measures from a benefits and culture standpoint, including an on-site healthcare clinic and a new member food-and-beverage minimum that will reallocate more money directly to staff working in the resort’s 10 restaurants.

It’s even considering doggie day care. “You have to think creatively, and if you don’t, you’re going to be left out. Or you’re going to get a B class of labor pool,” he said.

Hampton Hall is finding that cross-training employees to handle multiple tasks in more than one department is helping to even out labor shortages. “It’s benefiting us immensely,” Vienne said. “We’re utilizing fitness attendants and bag/cart guys to fill unmanned shifts, along with maintenance staff. It’s become a win-win as we cross-train and provide a team and staff family atmosphere.”

Long criticized for its reliance on traditional practices, the golf and club industry also needs to think more progressively about hiring and maintaining staff, starting with a warmer embrace of technology and tools that make identifying and vetting candidates more efficient and precise.

“The days of assistant superintendents posting jobs for greenkeepers and then doing the interviewing and vetting – and that’s probably 80 percent of clubs in North America – are dead in the water,” DiOrio said. “They’re working backwards because they don’t have the skills and the sophistication to share the merits of the industry, and to draw out the extroverted talents and teamwork required of these roles.”

Opportunity, not a crisis

The labor scarcity the US is experiencing is real, but it also represents an opportunity, according to those who subscribe to the “never waste a good crisis” philosophy. Krugman said the pandemic disruption of work was a “learning experience.”

“Many of those lucky enough to have been able to work from home realized how much they had hated commuting; some of those who had been working in leisure and hospitality realized, during their months of forced unemployment, how much they

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

GORDON WELCH Gordon Welch, president of the Association of Private Club Directors, has over 20 years’ experience in private clubs and 12 years of experience as an association executive and registered lobbyist. For more information or to discuss your orientation, you can reach him at gordon@boardroominstitute.com or (918) 914-9050

Boardroom Integrity

In my travels, I have experienced different boards and different styles of meetings and governance. Boards and clubs have tradition and let’s be honest, board presidents have their own style, which changes for the club annually.

Sometimes there is a seamless transfer and other times you can feel it throughout the club. The transfer of power is a difficult task for a GM/COO because of the personality difference.

I want to emphasize that every club is different, and each club’s needs are different and ever changing. Some of the clubs I work with have GMs who are club managers, but the title supersedes them. In other words, they don’t have the power or confidence to be true leaders and go to the board with everything.

Other clubs have a true GM/COO or CEO who is in charge of the operation of the club. Again, all clubs are different and have differing needs and styles. I’m not faulting either one, but the true GM gets the job done and runs a business.

Personally, I refer to the GM/COO as the CEO. The position is a CEO role and many of your clubs are over $10 million operations.

One important thing to remember is to be yourself. Be true to yourself. In my younger years as a GM, I tried to be perfect. I dressed the part and was cordial, kind and I tried to speak in a positive manner when I should have been straightforward and not sugarcoated the issues or my true feelings.

The truth is, we aren’t perfect, and it is so much easier if we just live up to who we are. The club and the GM will benefit from being real. And being real in the boardroom is most important. You’re running a multi-million-dollar business and sometimes business hurts and other times it prospers.

It is guaranteed that if you’re open, honest and forthright, your business will be better off, and you will find that board members are in business with you instead of trying to micromanage you and your business.

Board members are also challenged to let go and let your professional staff run the business. A good example is a club in the Midwest that had a board that tried to manage the club and felt like it was their duty to make every little decision.

The management team had identified needed changes in pricing and wanted to make the changes. The board wanted to be involved in these decisions, but that is not the board’s role. That is a business or oper-

ational decision that senior staff and the GM/COO should be making without question.

Board members and club executives have busy lives. You have a lot on your plate and you need to support each other. You are professionals and you need to be treated as such.

Board members, know that your club is in capable hands and support your club professionals. If your club is not in capable hands, maybe you need to consider professional development or an orientation to help build trust. The boardroom is a place of trust and integrity. If yours is not, you have a long road ahead of you. BR

Board members are also challenged to let go and let your professional staff run the business. A good example is a club in the Midwest that had a board that tried to manage the club and felt like it was their duty to make every little decision. The management team had identified needed changes in pricing and wanted to make the changes. The board wanted to be involved in these decisions, but that is not the board’s role. That is a business or operational decision that senior staff and the GM/COO should be making without question.

RITA BARRETO Rita Barreto is an engaging, motivational speaker on the national stage. She also has 30+ years as an award-winning human resource executive for a Fortune 500 company. Don’t hesitate to visit toptierleadership.com, and then give Rita a call to book a free 20-minute consultation. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Compassion Is the Club Manager’s New Superpower

The global COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed people’s priorities and their attitudes toward their work environment.

The crisis has afforded many people the time and space to focus on all aspects of their lives. Surveys reveal that a quarter of workers are less satisfied with their jobs.

It is incumbent on the club’s leadership and managers to reshape the workplace to accommodate the new sensitivities of their employees. Workers have developed a higher sense of concern. Many are overwhelmed with the challenges of caring for sick loved ones, coping with the loss of family members, dealing with their children’s fears. Those who are juggling both children and elderly parents carry a new level of anxiety.

Compassion at every level is needed, and it starts at the top. Leaders need to understand that there has been a major shift in attitudes, mental health, and behavior.

Compassionate leaders innately understand that flexibility and empathy are essential for business continuity. The new era of engaging the workforce means employees need to feel: • Supported • Comfortable • Reassured • Trusted • Valued • Safe • Happy.

Clubs in states that have warm weather have experienced new growth in membership and in real estate sales since the pandemic set in. The best states for year-round weather, including California, Arizona, Texas, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and even Delaware, report a surge in members and daily play.

They cite several factors. Businesses across the country closed, giving many people the choice to opt for early retirement. Also, as executives started working remotely, they found that managing their schedules allowed them to get in a game of golf or tennis during the day. Many also had the need not to isolate at home, and the opportunity to get outside and get some exercise was a driving force.

Finally, the lure of good weather, away from the northern winter lockdown, became the motivation to move to areas that promised more ideal weather and space for outdoor sports and dining.

Private clubs have risen to the challenge. Savvy club managers have added new amenities to attract members and energize employees. They expanded outdoor dining facilities, added more outdoor socials and ninehole outings, provided outdoor gyms, aerobics and yoga. Some clubs even built outdoor kitchens for casual eating, special events and weddings. Touchless technology and strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols have become the new norm.

The challenge for the club workforce and managers has been two-fold. Clubs experiencing a loss of membership and other clubs experiencing a boom in membership. The human factor of managing expectations and employees has seen dramatic change. Solid leadership has never been more important, and to survive, managers need to step up the way they communicate with employees who are fearful, stressed and overwhelmed.

A well-trained, professional and caring staff is the backbone of a successful club. Club employees are valuable assets you don’t want to lose. Perhaps, never have we seen the urgency for clubs to adapt or fall behind.

Steps compassionate club managers would be wise to consider: • Providing designated private spaces that are calm and quiet for employees to take restful breaks, make personal phone calls, or just breathe • Redesigning offices to provide more space • Offering time off or remote workdays when requested • Revising schedules to provide split days when people work at the club • Providing time and access to both active and meditative exercise • Dedicating space for group Zoom meetings to build camaraderie • Strictly following COVID-19 protocols • Increasing compassionate communication.

We believe that a compassionate mindset can be learned. Compassion is empathy with positive action. It’s the ability to do hard things in a human way. It’s about leading your workforce to thrive in their professional and personal lives. It’s a manner of leading that is transformational and energizing.

It’s a leadership tool that draws a fine line between compassion without compromise. It begins with the intention to see as others see and feel.

Take time to assess your gift of leading others. It won’t happen overnight, but we do know it will increase performance and profitability. Embrace the philosophy of compassion and begin taking the steps to launch the superpower of compassionate leadership. BR

ON THE FRONTLINES

MARIAN MCGILL Marian McGill, CCM is assistant general manager, Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club, Gold Canyon, AZ. She can be reached via email: mmcgill@superstitionmtngc.com

From Traditional to Family-Friendly Club

Two of the biggest topics buzzing around our industry these days are the resurgence of golf and how to make the sport, and private golf clubs, more inclusive.

Our core demographic is changing and if your club isn’t actively looking for ways to attract and retain the next generation of members, you should be.

Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club, in Gold Canyon, AZ, like many golf clubs, was designed as a traditional private club. Its resort-style amenities and events have been highly targeted to older adults, often retirees and, in our case, snowbirds. That trend has been steadily shifting over the past few years and even more so since the pandemic.

Largely because golf is a COVID-friendly sport that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels, the industry has been seeing amazing growth. And with growth, must come change.

Traditional clubs need to shift focus to cater to both their existing, core membership and the new golfer – including young families.

Memberships: Offering a variety of membership levels is one way clubs can attract new blood. For example, our associate membership is available to people 39 and younger. This option helps break down one of the most common barriers to private club membership for this demographic by reducing the initiation fee and decreasing monthly dues.

Upon turning 40, the member will be bumped up to paying full membership dues. In the past year, we went from 10 associate members to 40, which is our current cap for this level.

Dining: For a majority of traditional clubs, most kids’ activities were designed for visiting grandchildren and often planned around family holidays. In many cases, dining at the club was a white tablecloth event with a strict dress code.

While there is still a time and place for this type of occasion, clubs must learn to diversify. In fact, we’ve discovered that fine dining alone isn’t enough anymore. Casual dining and special events are becoming more and more popular.

One way we keep our members excited about our dining program is by hosting pop-up nights. Members RSVP to a dining event but won’t know where or what until the night of the event. From dining under the stars in the courtyard to progressive dinners that travel to different locations on the property, it’s a fun way to enjoy elegant meals in new, perhaps unexpected, settings.

A relaxed dress code that allows denim in the main dining room at all times can also go a long way to making the club your members’ go-to spot to fill their social calendars. And really, that’s our goal. We want members to look to the club first before seeking dinner and entertainment elsewhere.

Events: When your club is not outfitted with a lot of kid-centric amenities, you may need to get creative to keep young families excited and engaged. In our case, it was a 100-foot slip and slide on the event lawn. Private club members of olden days may be rolling over in their tweed jackets, but it was a huge hit.

At the end of the day, it’s all about diversity and trying new things. From live music and happy hour events to cooking classes and offsite wine tastings, you must have something for all levels of your membership to enjoy.

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME

Making golf fun for a variety of ages and abilities is key to retaining membership at any level.

Our junior golf program has been booming as younger members want their children to be able to join them on the course. We also host clinics and personalized instruction sessions to meet every golfer where they are in a non-intimidating manner. Our golf pros and instruction team can also work with professional-level golfers looking to take another stroke or two off their game.

Within our two Nicklaus-designed courses, we have an executive course and a par-3 option. This allows us to keep the integrity of our award-winning courses – and keep it challenging for skilled golfers – while offering the ability to get in a faster round or adjust the difficulty as needed.

As we continue to enjoy a more diverse demographic among our membership, our team will continue to find new ways to keep members engaged and excited about their club, and this game that we all love. BR

HOUSE COMMITTEE

BRUCE BARILLA Bruce Barilla has 20 combined years of golf locker room experience at The Greenbrier and Butler National plus 50 professional tournaments. He is president of Locker Room Consulting. www.lrcgolf.com

State of the Locker Room

Before venturing out to provide on-site locker room evaluations with staff training, I worked at Edgewood Valley Country Club (La Grange, IL) and Butler National Golf Club (Oak Brook, IL).

Both have fine locker rooms, with features and amenities that members and guests would expect and deserve at a private club. It wasn’t until I began to see other locker rooms that I realized what I thought was the norm was actually the exception. Here are trends based on 52 on-site consultations and visits to 65 more locker rooms over a 10-year period.

TRENDS 1. Newer locker rooms are not as big as older ones. 2. The locker room staff is not always allowed to accept tips. 3. Many clubs are not staffed from before the first golfer arrives to after the last golfer is off the course. 4. Very few clubs have a steam, sauna, whirlpool, massage room and business center. 5. Large fitness centers open to both men and women are very popular. 6. Not all clubs provide single-use bars of soap. 7. Locker room staff need accountability. 8. It is uncommon to see the locker room manager’s picture included on the club’s website. 9. Clubs do not realize just how much better the locker rooms can be. 10. Robes are not provided or sold at most clubs. 11. Men’s locker rooms have more features and amenities than women’s, except for Liberty National Golf Club (Jersey City, NJ). 12. Most shoeshine rooms would not pass a neatness test. 13. Inexpensive dollar store brands cheapen the experience. 14. Water volume and pressure in the showers is not always that good. 15. New showerheads with the water limiters removed are often overlooked. 16. No men-only grill in the locker room at every club. 17. A good choice of sink and shower amenities is lacking and quite often not neatly arranged. 18. Better-quality colognes are not featured because of theft by members and guests. 19. Grooming stations, if any, are inadequately supplied. 20. Full-size tall wood or metal lockers and shorter metal type with two doors are preferred over double stack. 21. A barbershop is impressive but only a handful of clubs have one. 22. Some clubs do not provide washcloths yet only offer shower gel. 23. Locker room managers provide their personal cellphone numbers for better service. 24. On course food and drink deliveries are part of the service. 25. Manager and board meetings do not necessarily include the locker room manager. 26. Shower towels with soiled-towel drops are not always conveniently located by each locker cove. 27. I have never seen a tall glass door refrigerator for dry-chilled bath towels by a steam, sauna or whirlpool. 28. No club I have been to offers heated towels or heated robes by the showers. 29. Annual locker fees range from under $100 to over $300. 30. Employee suggestions are not always implemented when major renovations are done, causing low morale. 31. Clubs say they want to be the best but will not spend the money to be such. 32. There is a shortage of guest lockers and at times lockers for members. 33. Few have separate sinks for the showers and separate sinks for the bathrooms. 34. Other than The Greenbrier (White

Sulphur Springs, WV), no club has a walk-in shoe drying room. 35. Placing shoes on locker tops is not always allowed or possible. 36. Scented damp-chilled washcloths are rarely seen. 37. Some clubs provide a dry cleaning and laundry service, but this is not the standard.

The locker room should be as important as any other department. It can bring significant revenue to the club in annual locker fees, guest play income and new members joining.

Not having full-time locker room staff diminishes the overall club experience, worth and reputation. However, at fully staffed clubs, the locker room manager/attendant is still a confidant and friend who makes members and guests feel special. This has been a trend for years which, thankfully, will never go out of style. BR

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

What Does the Labor Shortage Say About Our Workplaces?

A quick Google search for “labor shortage” offered more than 81,600,000 results. To say that finding employees to fill roles in our traditional business models is top of mind for many would be a massive understatement.

For those of us in the golf industry, the startling lack of staff and the exponential growth in club activity and interest in the game of golf is the perfect storm for staffing hardships. While there was some hope that the end of extended unemployment benefits would drive people back to the workplace, if recent data is to be believed, the impact isn’t nearly what employers had anticipated.

States that ended benefits early have seen little benefit. Both Britain and continental Europe are seeing similar labor shortages despite only modest expansions to unemployment benefits associated with the pandemic. So, what’s the answer? Where have all the people gone? Why does a recent JPMorgan study show that half of the people who lost jobs during the pandemic aren’t looking for a new one?

The answer may be more complicated than simple dollars and cents.

Many of the people we are looking for have a different perspective on the valuation of their time. Individuals seek opportunities that connect with their values and lives and are less willing to sacrifice other parts of their lives to appease their wallets.

Americans are less eager to engage in low-paid service and hospitality work and have decided that more time spent on family, education, and leisure provides a higher standard of living, even if it means less to the bottom line.

Our industry has long relied on cheap labor, particularly in the front-line service and entry-level roles, and assumed it would always be abundant. To be fair, we’re not the only industry that has operated under this premise.

It seems clear that the era of bottom-line friendly labor is quickly coming to a close. If you combine a shift in values with an aging population, lower birth rates, and the rapid expansion of gig-economy opportunities that provide flexibility and lifestyle choices that people seek, the labor pool isn’t just shallow, it’s draining.

And don’t forget, it’s not just unskilled laborers working at Uber or DoorDash who take advantage of the gig economy. Highly skilled professionals and craftsmen can leverage their skills to provide consulting services and contract work. So, where does this leave us as an industry?

Well, we’re certainly not giving up. The PGA of America’s Career Services Department recently hired four additional staff members to augment the 22 consultants already in the field to provide outreach, awareness, and onboarding to attract individuals to our industry and get them connected.

It’s a start, but as an industry, we will need to continue to address compensation, work-life integration, and advancement opportunities across the board. It falls to all of us to be proactive in multiple ways to face this new era: • Retain. Take good care of the staff you have. Pay them well, treat them well, develop them and mentor them. The replacement costs will far outweigh the additional financial burdens involved in retention. • Recruit. Stay aggressive in your approach to adding talent to your team. Use your network, manage your brand, and approach recruiting like a marketing activity, not a human resource activity. • Reinvest. Your current employees are your best recruiters. Make sure you invest the time and money to develop, engage, train, and challenge them. There is no quicker way to turn a labor shortage into a labor crisis than earning a reputation as a toxic or dead-end workplace. • Reinvent. Wendy’s is opening 700 new locations that are drive-thru only. A special purpose acquisition company recently invested $100 million in ghost kitchens for delivery only and locations with no dining rooms for BurgerFi. It’s time to reimagine how you can operate your business with less human capital. New technologies, efficiencies and, most importantly, managing consumer expectations will be essential. Facilities will have to decide what is critical and what is nice to have and adjust accordingly. The end of this labor shortage isn’t in sight, but with savvy business acumen, genuine care for your people, and a specific plan to engage them, we’ll see the other side of it together. BR

KRIS BUTTERFIELD Kris Butterfield is director of membership, communications & public relations at Bethesda Country Club and president of PCMA. She can be reached at (301) 767-8252 or kris.butterfield@bethesdacountryclub.org MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

The Importance of Background Screening for Private Clubs

Private clubs have a new definition of “coming out of the woodwork.” People who never considered joining a private club are now drawn to personalized service and the safety and security of a private membership base.

As clubs benefited from an increase of cold inquiries, many maneuvered around membership referrals as the preferred and primary source of new members. As a result, membership professionals have spent more time qualifying leads, navigating a shorter buying cycle, educating prospects on terms like assessments and refundability, helping prospects transition from client mentality to owner mentality, and detailing an adjusted onboarding process.

New members are joining private clubs with the mindset of a customer versus an owner, causing the onboarding process to be more inclusive and educational. Now memberships are being sold quicker and without buyer hesitation.

As we expand our membership base, it is critical to maintain our prerequisite for high caliber character which makes our club exclusive and desirable. Rapid expansion of club membership requires us to thoroughly vet new members before onboarding begins.

An influx of membership applications can mean great things for revenue but with new members comes added risk. As owners and operators, it is imperative to remain socially and financially responsible to the club. Ensuring new member affordability with a clear background will maintain the organization’s reputation, culture, and sense of community.

Recognizing this need for thorough and compliant background vetting, Bethesda Country Club engaged Reliable Background Screening to facilitate comprehensive review for members. For over 30 years, the team at Reliable Background Screening has been protecting corporations, private clubs, and member organizations as a nationwide provider of background checks.

President Rudy Troisi states, “Not all background checks are the same and no single criminal database covers the entire country. To best mitigate the risk of accepting a dangerous individual, thorough and compliant background screening, designed specifically for member organizations, should be considered a top priority as private clubs work to strengthen their operations and grow their membership bases.”

The best practice for private club background searches includes all legal names and counties where an individual has lived for the past seven years.

Troisi remarks, “As no criminal database exists that covers the entire United States, it is important to supplement a criminal database check with non-instant county criminal searches, especially when those counties are not regularly updated in the database.”

Furthermore, searching all legal names – past and present – is important, as most criminal records do not have Social Security numbers attached to them.

In addition to thorough criminal searches on prospective members, a credit report is helpful as it illustrates the financial capacity and responsibility of new members. To maintain legality, make sure to engage a background screening company that is also a consumer reporting agency (CRA) and can provide authorized reports to your country club, yacht club, golf club, or other private membership organization.

For country clubs that attract members abroad, hiring a background screening company with access to international credit reports and records databases is also vitally important.

Member safety and security is a fundamental expectation and most members take it for granted that their security is assured. Unfortunately, without performing thorough background checks on new members, private clubs place their existing members, employees, and brand at great risk.

Conducting thorough background checks on members is one of the best tools private clubs have at their disposal to help protect their members, staff, reputation, and bottom line. BR

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

RYAN MAIONE Ryan Maione is president, MembersFirst. He can be reached via email: rmaione@membersfirst.com

The Waiting List Game You Can’t Afford to Lose

It wasn’t that long ago that clubs were searching for the key to unlocking the puzzle posed by member recruitment and marketing in a digital age.

Forward-thinking clubs implemented modern club marketing efforts, and for some that meant real questions about the sustainability of membership numbers in the face of an aging demographic.

Then came the spring of 2020 and with it all of the challenges a global pandemic presented, including a surge in new and unexpected memberships at clubs nationwide.

For those prepared to handle that surge, with digital tools and processes in place, this event posed an enormous opportunity. And as the 2020 season progressed—and from all indications 2021 has been much of the same—fervent interest in club memberships continued. Waiting lists returned, and for many clubs, they were created for the first time.

Membership waiting lists in the digital marketing age are uncharted territory for most clubs. So much so that I’ve even heard that clubs have stopped responding to membership requests because their waitlist is “full.”

This self-imposed cap is not doing clubs any long-term favors. At some point membership directors will be replacing outgoing members with new prospects, so they should continue to fill the top of the sales funnel with high-quality candidates, nurturing them along the way.

To keep that funnel full, your club website should continue to accept online membership inquiries, with enhanced messaging to keep expectations in line with when memberships will become available. Once received, membership inquiries should be answered, ideally with an automated email marketing campaign so as not to create more work.

Modern marketing best practices would also advocate you track this information in a CRM so that nobody waiting gets lost in an old Excel file, and that new inquiries are reacted to intelligently.

Much like a garden, a waitlist needs to be tended. Yes, there might be a few seeds that will eventually bear fruit from the rain and sun alone, but if you want a full harvest, the seeds will need consistent care. A list of prospects needs to be communicated with on a regular, albeit less frequent, basis.

Your club is a place your prospects want to join, so keep them up to date on larger club events, capital planning projects, and upcoming club improvements to maintain their interest. Send updates every other month for a total of six emails in a year. If that is too much, consider a quarterly prospect newsletter.

Does your club have a time during the year when memberships are most likely to become available? This is when you really want to send out direct emails to those at the top of your waitlist to gauge interest. Some prospects will have moved on, and that’s to be expected, but those that are likely your best candidates will wait in anticipation of a soon-to-open spot.

Social media has been a focus of membership directors for the last five years and attracting members through beautiful Instagram posts and stories has proven effective. If your waiting list is full, should you still promote the club through these channels? Yes, because now is the time to capitalize on your full roster.

Club life should be bustling and what better time to get photographs and videos to share on social media to raise the reputation of your club? Every post doesn’t need to use the hashtag #RequestMembership, but your followers will be watching and wishing they were taking part in the fun.

Your crop of new members is also a gold mine for creating member testimonials. They joined the club during a really tough year and probably found refuge in the amenities that only a club was allowed to offer. A video interview with new members could be featured in your waiting list email newsletter.

To keep your waiting list engaged and uncover prospect intelligence, it might be a good idea to send out a survey to ask what these future members look forward to most at the club, how often they hope to visit, whether they have had a change in lifestyle and other information that might help you prepare a better onboarding experience when they are able to join.

If your club has a waiting list today, remember that these are the members of tomorrow. The likelihood that these prospects will one day be your club’s biggest asset and promoters starts with how they experience your club, even if it is from the outside looking in. BR

TED ROBINSON Ted Robinson is a partner with Private Club Associates and can be reached at (478) 741 7996 or via email: tcr@privateclubassociates.com

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

What’s Next When it Comes to Building Lasting Member Loyalty?

“Whatever you do. do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” – Walt Disney “Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” – Jeffrey Gitomer “The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” – John Russell

Thanks to the COVID-19 golf bump, many clubs now have full memberships or are approaching their limits. It has been a long time since clubs have seen this level of demand for membership – and the emergence of waiting lists.

However, as many of us who have been in the private club industry for many years know, the membership flow can quickly change to “out” instead of “in.” Remember 2008 and the following years when members walked away from six-figure initiation fees, and refund lists and club liabilities grew exponentially?

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again – or at least to that magnitude, but to quote Lee Child’s protagonist, Jack Reacher: “Hope for the best; plan for the worst.”

So, what should we as membership staff be doing? I think now is an excellent time to deep dive into member retention.

“Depending on which study you believe, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one when times are normal. It makes sense: You don’t have to spend time and resources going out and finding a new client – you just have to keep the one you have happy.” – Amy Gallo

Now is the time to analyze what steps, processes and efforts your club must take to build lasting loyalty in your current members.

Step one is doing continuing (but not burdensome) research. Ask your members what they value. What would drive them out? How happy are they with their club? What more can you do to enhance their member experience? What do they want next year?

Every good company learns what makes customers tick and measures how well the company is doing. This week, I answered three surveys on the effectiveness of “the agent who handled my call.”

Have you hosted regular “discussion groups” with members to take the club’s temperature and solicit ideas that would enhance loyalty? Does the club’s governing process (committees, board) encourage getting members involved – or is there excessive inbreeding?

Step two is making sure every member is folded into the club’s fabric. Does each member, and that member’s family, have multiple opportunities to be in “their crowd”? Is the club truly welcoming?

We were engaged to facilitate a strategic plan and were initially informed that this was the friendliest club in the market. When new members, former members, and neighbors were polled, the club received an “as friendly as a wounded alligator” rating. What new programs or services have you added to enhance members’ perceived value, to make the club their “third place”?

Step three: Do you engage members if their club participation declines? Do you follow up if a member has no charges in a 45-day period?

Step four is tracking your attrition rate. As well, do you conduct exit interviews and stay in touch with resigned members?

These four steps can be a guide and checklist to encourage and assist membership directors to prepare for a “just in case” scenario. “The future depends on what you do today.” – Mahatma Gandhi BR

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

MIKE PHELPS Mike Phelps is CEO/co-founder at Pipeline Agency. He can be reached via email: mike@pipeline.agencymike

Improve Your Club Website With Easy Ways to Fix Your Site

This year, we’ve helped more clubs redesign their websites than ever. It seems clubs are taking advantage of the increase in online interest by freshening up their online presence, updating their story and messaging, and modernizing their websites to reflect current navigation and design elements.

These design elements must also be balanced with how search engines will rank your website – in other words, how well the content and technical details of your site are interpreted by Google and other search engines.

Once people find your site, you still only have a short amount of time to grab their attention. On average, people will read 20 percent of the words on a page. If your website is cluttered and doesn’t have a clear message or call to action, visitors won’t be sticking around long.

Here are seven quick ways to enhance your website, increase conversions, and improve your search engine optimization.

1. Value proposition

The value proposition tells the visitor what you do and why you do it. Put your value proposition on your home page, in your headline if possible. Add it to your contact or about page. Let visitors know exactly what they will be getting if they join your club.

Here are two examples of how to structure your value proposition: • [Our club] is where [our audience] can [what benefit/ outcome]. • [Our club] is the only club that offers [benefit/outcome] for [audience].

2. Website navigation

The navigation on your website serves two purposes: It helps users find what they’re looking for, and it helps your search engine rankings. Your visitors should come first, search engines second. Be human. Use descriptive navigation instead of generic “What We Do” text. Descriptive navigation that uses key phrases is better for two reasons. Here’s where SEO and conversions come in.

• Descriptive labels in your navigation are good for search engines

The navigation bar is a key place to indicate relevance to search engines. Since your navigation appears on every page, the descriptive label shows Google that you are truly about that topic.

• Descriptive labels in your navigation are good for visitors

Your navigation bar is visually prominent, so it communicates instantly. When it lists your main products or services, it will be obvious, at a glance, what your company does up front, so they’ll know they’re in the right place.

Use your main navigation as a place to start telling people and search engines about how members enjoy the lifestyle your club provides. Use labels with top-of-mind phrases for visitors – words that your visitors would use and words that your visitors are searching for.

Remember that your visitors may be new to private clubs, so try to stay away from internal terms or club lingo. This creates fewer clicks for the user and helps search engines indicate your relevance.

3. Call to action text

The call to action, or CTA, is huge. You’ve got your users on the site, they’re interested, now what do you want them to do? Tell them.

Buttons are for actions, like Download Our Lookbook, Schedule My Visit, Add My Name to the Interest List. The text on the button should begin with a verb. Otherwise it’s not a call to action, just a button with some text on it. “More Information,” for example, is not a call to action.

Use the first person voice (I, me, my) to let the users tell the CTA what to do. For example, Download My Lookbook.

Another effective approach is to say that the words on a button must make sense after both the interrogative “Would you like to…?” (where the publisher speaks) as well as the conditional “I would like to…” (where the user speaks). You should be able to evaluate every button you create using this test.

4. Carousels

According to studies, user interaction greatly decreases after the first slide in a carousel. Not really shocking, but almost no one makes it to the fourth or fifth slide. If you decide that your site needs carousels, keep it to three at most.

Studies also warn against auto-forwarding slides. Top conversion rate experts agree that while it seems counterintuitive, motion from carousels actually distracts visitors. The human brain is hard-wired to notice the onset of motion, which makes rotating banners especially distracting. We literally cannot tune them out – mainly because carousels

don’t tell a story or engage users in the same ways that video might.

Does that mean you shouldn’t have a carousel on your site? Not necessarily. Take into account the message, context and design. Using a carousel for image galleries on an interior page may make sense, especially for mobile designs.

5. Team pages

We all want to know, like and trust you before we are willing to buy anything from you – especially before we join your club. Let your website visitors know who’s behind the scenes in your club and, most importantly, what your culture is all about through the eyes of your team. At the end of the day, people want to join a club where their beliefs and values are shared – not only among fellow members, but also among your team, within the experiences they are motivated to create for members.

6. Forms

We tend to caution our website clients against asking for too much information on their website forms. Too often we see clubs asking for details that aren’t relevant for the initial stages of interest. Do you really need to know a prospect’s birthday or the type of membership they are interested in before you’ve ever had a conversation with them?

Sometimes, in order to get a site visitor to convert, you might need to capture much more than just a name and email. In these cases, instead of using a longer form, break your form up into multiple steps with easy to digest sections. Once the first form is submitted, a new form appears with the next set of questions.

Multi-page forms boost conversion rates and help to gain higher qualified website inquiries. In all cases, however, your sign-up forms should be visually prominent and promise something specific. Make it clear what people are signing up for.

7. Bundled versus unbundled websites

Our industry is served by a handful of website providers that include websites as part of a bundled suite of back-office software. While the bundled approach can streamline things, there are shortcomings when it comes to website design, messaging, measurement, and SEO. We’re seeing many clubs shift towards best-in-class website design, SEO and hosting – relying on specialized agencies to enhance their online presence.

Unbundled websites can offer the same integration and technology benefits, with built-from-scratch website design and done-for-you copywriting, advanced technical and on-page SEO, and ongoing content and visual updates. The rest of your existing bundle (member portal, reservations, member billing, etc.) remains as is, minimizing disruption. If your club is considering a website refresh, consider how unbundling your website can help your club stand out to prospective members and employees. BR