Sean Driscoll is the PGA director of instruction at The Big Swing Golf Center in Sewell, New Jersey.
Sean Driscoll on the importance of using your website to preview your teaching style:
As the PGA director of instruction at Big Swing Golf Center, I teach men and women of all ages and skill level. As such I still rely on the model of Laws, Principles, and Preferences, which start with grip, aim, posture and setup as fundamentals, from the PGA Teaching Manual as my core teaching principles. In addition to the fact that solid fundamentals give the student the best chance of returning the club to the ball, I’ve also found that it’s a good promotional tool. It lets my students know ahead of time that they won’t be taught any complicated or confusing techniques, only simple fundamentals that lay the groundwork for a solid swing. Five years ago I created my website as extension of that philosophy. The site contains my teaching philosophy, and also links to sample lessons and tips and gives potential students my contact information. My hope was that this would primarily drive new students to me by telling them my style and allowing them to feel comfortable with me as their teacher before even scheduling a lesson. I also thought it might help with referrals, as current students could tell their friends about how I teach and use the website as a vehicle to demonstrate that.
Sean Driscoll on the business impact of using your website to preview your teaching style:
The website has grown from getting 50 hits per month to 500, giving me 200 new students in the process. And in four years of operation, the Driscoll Golf Academy and the range at Big Swing Golf Center have realized a 20 percent gain year over year, aided by traffic from the website. A great example is the experience of a gentleman from India, here on business for a couple weeks, who decided it would be in his best interest to pick up the game. He searched for nearby instructors, stumbled upon my website, liked what he saw and booked a lesson. That day he went from a true beginner to being able to get it in play and get himself around the course. He left absolutely ecstatic. That’s been repeated countless times, as students have thanked me for utilizing a simple approach, exhibiting patience, and giving them the feeling that they learned something technical that they both understand and can tell to others. That has led to repeat business and an opportunity to see my students on the range and ask how they’re doing. Those impromptu meetings have led to referrals and interest from players in adjoining hitting stalls. All of this was possible due to my website, and the fact that I let students know right off the bat what my teaching philosophy would be. And that creates great memories as with the gentleman from India.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email sean@driscollgolfacademy.com
