Brandon Stooksbury, the 2012 Southwest PGA Section, and 2015 and 2017 Georgia PGA Section PGA Professional Development Award, and 2018 Georgia PGA Section Teacher of the Year Award Winner is PGA Head Golf Professional at Metairie Country Club in Metairie, Louisiana.
Brandon Stooksbury on the importance of reaching out to members you may not have seen recently:
Time on property is huge, so at my prior facility every department head began doing monthly or quarterly internal reports to highlight members we may not have seen recently. We then cross-referenced it with all other department heads so that if that John Smith, previously seen in golf, was now all about tennis, he was removed from the list. Same for Sue Jones if her fitness class attendance dropped but she wore out the golf practice area. By the end of the day, we ended up with a list where, for one reason or another, no one had seen the person recently. We wanted to touch base and just check in. No pressure, very relaxed; at the end of the day, we’re humans and if someone needed help, we wanted to provide that help.
Brandon Stooksbury on the business impact of reaching out to members you not have seen recently:
On the golf side, I called it “Play with the Pro,” and my message typically started with calling them and saying “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while, would you like to come out and play with me on Saturday. I have an opening in my foursome?” Only then, on the course, would I ask the “hey, what’s been going on?” question. Injury, illness, a new baby, whatever it may have been — we only wanted to engage on the reason when they were back in their normal element. On the golf side of things, half the members would play that no-frills round, and overall, nearly 100 percent of the members would re-engage. Some would become very active members and some less so, but all appreciated the reach out. So, if you have a batch of members you haven’t seen in a while, check in on them. They may be grateful for the phone call.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email stooksburygolf@gmail.com.
