Spair Corporation improves Club performance by over 20%
By Geffri Rasip – November 2006
Craigieburn Golf Club evolved from a group of like-minded golfing friends, and we should acknowledge their original social name "The Dirty Dozen".
In 1994 with growing numbers, it was decided to register and incorporate the fledgling club. Acceptance to The Victorian Golf League was achieved in that same year.
In January 2002, Craigieburn Sporting Club obtained management and control of what was known as a very ordinary golf course. It is suggested the course was re-born that year. With the immediate reconstruction of 13 new tees, the planting of 2600 new trees, rebuilding of two fairways and sowing with Legend Couch.
Today, they have a successful group of juniors – winning the VGL Individual Junior Scratch and Handicap trophies, and in 2004, winning the Division 1 Junior Trophy Pennant.
With a rapidly growing membership, the Golf Club is pursuing a full amalgamation with the Craigieburn Sporting Club, that is also endeavouring to gain affiliation within the Victorian Golf Association - thus ensuring future growth and advancement of the club.
It is proposed that within the next three years all eighteen fairways will have been redesigned and re-sown. With a total length of 6142 metres off the back-markers, Craigieburn Golf Course has been acclaimed by golfing writers as "the best kept secret in the North".
Graeme Trew is the manager and proprietor of the Craigieburn Pro Shop. He took over management of the operations in 2001 bringing with him over 4 years' circuit experience in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Asia. Graeme was very familiar with the business behind successful Golf Clubs having also run operations in Queensland and Victoria.
His assessment of Craigieburn was frank, "To be honest, it was a fairly run-down course. Revenue and membership had levelled-off and the entire operation needed a lift."
Graeme's priority was to bring the Pro Shop up to his standards, then to communicate to the members, players and public. Graeme had ideas on how to increase player numbers and raise memberships. Raising the profile of the Club was paramount.
He was a quick to gain support of local businesses and actively engaged local sponsors.
"I was pleased how well my proposal was received by local business." Graeme also conducted a straw poll and found a large number of members were ready to be engaged and wanted to know more about what was happening at the Golf Club.
The first step was to consolidate and transfer all their member details from paper into a more effective form.
"Spair Corporation contacted me early in the year, our busiest time. Even before we decided to go with their solution, we sat down and discussed if it was the right way to go."
Graeme knew what he wanted but was not resourced to deliver on it. Spair Corporation assisted with the marketing and communications strategy, and then took Graeme and his team through the steps.
CRM is a business philosophy and it was a steep learning curve but Graeme was determined to see the solution implemented.
Initially over 2 months, Spair Corporation and Graeme developed and implemented Craigieburn's very first email Newsletter.
"It went as I had imagined. The newsletter went out just before the school holidays and we were advertising a junior program. Within 30 minutes of the newsletter going out I got the first booking. I think everyone was more relieved than pleased."
"It's been 6 months since we started sending out the newsletters and it's paid for itself a few times over. We've increased lessons by 20% and getting more business through word-of-mouth."
"The next step is to start using SMS to let our members know when we have special events and promotions. We also have some other ideas in the pipeline but we don't want to give anything away to our competitors."
Spair Corporation continues to work with Graeme to consolidate his business growth and take Craigieburn Golf Club to the next level.
THE FINAL ANALYSIS
Background
Craigieburn Pro Shop had a database of members and customers with no effective means of communicating with them. Valuable marketing and up-selling opportunities were lost.
Solution
We implemented SC-CustCentric Campaign Management solution to manage multi-channel outbound communications. The immediate effect was to create a Monthly Newsletter that provided recipients with golfing tips, promotions and course information. The solution also allows Craigieburn Pro Shop to track responses and behavioural trends.
Conclusion
Craigieburn Pro Shop discovered an immediate response to their School Holiday Program. Over a period of 6 months Graeme Trew measured an increase of over 20%.