59CLUB USA INKS DEAL TO CONDUCT MYSTERY SHOPPING TESTS FOR VICI PROPERTIES’ FOUR GOLF COURSES

Friday July 30, 2021

STATHAM, Ga. – North American customer service satisfaction and benchmarking firm 59club USA announced today they added VICI Properties and their four golf courses to the 59club USA client roster. 59club USA will use their industry-leading proprietary software and objective data analysis tools to provide mystery shopping services to help audit and improve the golf experience, event sales and group-outing sales at all four VICI owned golf courses.

“We’re excited to be assisting the high-end properties in the VICI portfolio with their customer service operations,” said Mike Kelly, managing partner of 59club USA. “We’re thrilled to get started and look forward to providing detailed feedback for each of their four unbelievable golf courses.”

The mystery shopping services provided by 59club USA will capture the golf experience from start to finish and provide industry-leading, unbiased feedback on hundreds of data points that fully encapsulates the customer experience at each club.

“We are excited to partner with 59club USA as our teams strive to offer the best customer service at each of our VICI Golf facilities,” said Jeff Krohn, VP of Golf Operations for VICI Properties. “Using 59club USA tools, our teams will have the best resources available to WOW our guests during each visit. The team at VICI Golf is very excited to get started.”

VICI Properties owns and operates four golf courses in the United States including Rio Secco in Las Vegas, Nevada, Grand Bear Golf Club in Biloxi, Mississippi, Chariot Run Golf Club in Laconia, Indiana and Cascata Golf Club – touted as the 8th Wonder of the Golfing World – in Boulder City, Nevada.

59club is a service-based management tool and customer service provider which uses objective data points and images to measure, improve and then maintain standards of customer service, in turn increasing visitor and member retention. Results of on-site testing from 59club are a boost to customer satisfaction, revenues and profits for clubs who use their services such as customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shopping services and employee training – both virtual and on-site.

Already, 59club USA has established and developed relationships with more than 80 well-known golf clubs and resorts in North America including 14 TPC Network properties, Reynolds Lake Oconee, The Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, Haig Point in South Carolina, Bobby Jones Links, and Landscapes Golf Management – two of the world’s largest golf management companies.

About 59Club USA

59Club USA is specifically designed to elevate sales and service standards. 59club USA provides mystery Shopper Audits, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, and Training Services, empowering venue managers to analyze their entire visitor and member experience, enabling them to set targets, monitor performance and ultimately make informed decisions to enhance their guest services. To learn more about 59club USA, visit www.59clubusa.com.

About VICI Properties Inc.

VICI Properties Inc. is an experiential real estate investment trust that owns one of the largest portfolios of market-leading gaming, hospitality and entertainment destinations, including the world-renowned Caesars Palace. VICI Properties’ national, geographically diverse portfolio consists of 28 gaming facilities comprising 47 million square feet and features approximately 17,800 hotel rooms and more than 200 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and sportsbooks. Its properties are leased to industry leading gaming and hospitality operators, including Caesars Entertainment, Inc., Century Casinos, Inc., Hard Rock International Inc., JACK Entertainment LLC and Penn National Gaming, Inc. VICI Properties also has an investment in the Chelsea Piers, New York facility and owns four championship golf courses and 34 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip. VICI Properties aims to deliver sustained income and value growth through its strategy of creating the highest quality and most productive experiential asset portfolio in American real estate investment management.

Do You Know What You Don’t Know?

Wednesday July 14, 2021

A unique question was posed of PGA TOUR star Marc Leishman during his 2018 BMW Championship appearance – do you know what you don’t know? The philosophical, almost Zen-like inquiry left the Aussie star perplexed and confused, but he eventually answered the riddle with charming befuddlement, stating with a chuckle “No. I don’t know what I don’t know.” Lucky him.

When it comes to their on-course game, Leishman and the rest of the PGA TOUR’s best might have the luxury of blocking out the riffraff, choosing instead to focus only on winning – the one component of their career that matters. But for the remaining 99.9 percent of golf industry professionals like course operators, hospitality managers, F&B personnel, outside service members and others who use the game of golf to make a living, knowing what you don’t know is the difference between providing a valuable golf experience or receiving an angry Yelp review. 

Golf course operators and managers cannot be everywhere at once to ensure every single element of the golf experience at their club matches the price point. But with many clubs operating at high price points, excellent customer service is not the exception. Excellence is expected, and the reason why high-profile daily fee clubs and private clubs alike rely on third-party customer-service expert consultants to figure out what they don’t know and fix it.

“An independent mystery shopper audit allows managers to view their club through the eyes of their customers,” said Mike Kelly, Managing Partner of 59club USA. “Feedback will pinpoint strengths and weaknesses, while the ability to make service comparisons to not only chosen competitors, but also the 59club industry and best performing clubs, gives operators actionable data, goals and opportunities to evaluate their tactics.”

Mystery shopping audits measure all service offerings at the club and are not solely limited to turf conditioning or bunker presentation – although that is a large component of the program. Staff attitude, sales and upselling prowess, facility management and general operating procedures also are factored into the mystery test – which gives club managers a real-time snapshot of their entire customer-service presentation. 

59club USA has helped more than 80 high-profile clubs collect customer-service data and elevate their golf experience all over the country including the TPC Network which operates 32 golf properties was one of the first to adopt 59club USA customer service benchmarking techniques, using the collected data to increase customer loyalty and provide employee feedback. But Kelly suggests the tools provided by his firm are not reserved for only high-end or private properties.

“Investment in bricks and mortar do not sustain and grow reputations,” said Kelly. “It is people who build reputations. You may or may not be the ‘biggest’ club in the area but you can definitely achieve, deliver and then maintain outstanding customer service.”

As we slowly come out of the pandemic and get back to what serves as a new normal – whatever that might mean – we have a little breathing room to reflect on silver linings. The golf industry enjoyed a mini boom over the last 15 months, drawing a large number of first-time players and overall participation not seen since the early 90s. And with that newfound reinvigoration, the game itself is in a unique position to renew its focus on elevating the game from standardized commodity to an elite-level golf experience. And it seems as though 59club might be the best way to know what you don’t know.

Friendly Conversation Starters – The F&B Upsell Engine

Friday July 9, 2021

Making members and guests feel valued and welcome is an absolute no brainer for any hospitality venue, but for golf course F&B establishments which often operate with smaller margins and lower foot traffic than traditional restaurants, the line between success and failure is razor thin. And with labor shortages and employee turnover at levels not seen in decades, the importance of increasing margins through upselling and keeping good employees has never been higher.

According to 59club USA’s industry leading proprietary data sets, the F&B customer service tactic most in need of improvement is also the least costly and happens to be a catalyst for increased margins. It also helps raise tips for servers and happens to be one of the key components of exceptional customer service – friendly conversation starters, A.K.A the upsell engine.

Customers are far more likely to purchase premium items when they have a personal connection to their server. Something as simple as a friendly introduction from the server or a well-placed engaging question can be the difference between your customers ordering the cheapest thing on the menu or opting for the larger size – and higher margin – appetizer, special of the day, beer, cocktail or dessert. Developing rapport through the friendly conversation starter tactic is something every server in your organization should strive for at the beginning of each individual interaction. And it works.  

This same tactic is also one of the driving forces of higher tips. Since most diners in the US tip a percentage of the bill, raising the final total through upselling – made easier through friendly communication – will increase gratuities and employee satisfaction and assist in lowering employee turnover.

The stats:

Clubs are simply not taking advantage of this tactic. Even at the podium levels – the best of the best – of 59club clients, only 66 percent (66%) of tests showed a server’s willingness to engage in friendly conversation starters. The industry average drops to an abysmal 40%, showing an industry wide opportunity for growth and higher F&B margins. Let’s do some math!

Club X has an average of 140 players per day of which 40 (29%) order a small beer at the end of their round. The small beer is priced at $7 with a 78% margin. The large beer is priced at $9 with the same 78% margin. If servers at Club X used friendly conversation starters to prime the pump for the upsell to the larger beer and managed to convert half of the 40 drinkers to the premium beverage, the result is a $11,534 increase in profit over the course of one year – on only one menu item – just by implementing a no-additional-cost tactic in your customer service toolkit. Win win.

Does your service staff need a tutorial on friendly conversation? Take advantage of 59club USA’s online training platform that is designed specifically for the club business.

59club USA Adds 20 Clubs to Rapidly Expanding Client Base Through Agreement With Landscapes Golf Management

Tuesday July 6, 2021

North American customer service satisfaction and benchmarking firm59club USA announced today they added Landscapes Golf Management (LGM) – a sister company to Landscapes Unlimited – to their client roster. 59club USA will use their industry-leading proprietary software and objective data analysis tools to provide mystery shopping services to help audit and improve the golf experience, membership sales, event sales and group-outing sales for 20 LGM golf properties in 13 states.

“We’re obviously thrilled to begin working with Landscapes Golf Management and their extensive list of extraordinary golf properties,” said Mike Kelly, managing partner of 59club USA. “We look forward to showcasing our world-class customer service platform and providing knowledgeable insights which will help shape future plans and achieve customer service excellence throughout their portfolio.”

With the addition of 20 LGM properties, 59club USA expands its client roster to more than 80 golf properties in 28 states across the country.

“Landscapes Golf Management invests extraordinary time, effort and resources into all levels of our organization, especially customer service and training, but we understand there is always room for improvement,” said Tom Everett, president of LGM.  “By utilizing 59club USA’s services, we will receive access to real-time, unbiased data which will help us achieve our goal of consistent customer service improvement, and continued success and growth in all customer-facing areas. We’re extremely excited to begin.”

59club is a service-based management tool and customer service provider which uses objective data points and images to measure, improve and then maintain standards of customer service, in turn increasing visitor and member retention. Results of on-site testing from 59club are a boost to customer satisfaction, revenues and profits for clubs who use their services such as customer satisfaction surveys, mystery shopping services and employee training – both virtual and on-site.

Already, 59club USA has established and developed relationships with more than 80 well-known golf clubs and resorts in North America including 14 TPC Network properties, Reynolds Lake Oconee, The Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, Haig Point in South Carolina, Bobby Jones Links, and now Landscapes Golf Management – two of the world’s largest golf management companies.