American Golf Ranges Install Self-Serve Swing Recording Kiosks
American Golf Corp. has installed the Inpractis 4View Digital Swing Recorder at four of its Southern California driving ranges: Vista Valencia, Arcadia Golf Course, Dominguez Hills Golf Course and Lake Forest Golf and Practice Center. Two Northern California American Golf facilities, Tilden Park Golf Course and Monarch Bay Golf Club, already have the self-serve recorder kiosks. Engineered to be a permanent fixture in the driving range bay, the 4View Digital Swing Recorder captures the entire golf swing from two angles and measures club head and ball flight speed so golfers can analyze and improve their swing.


Magique Golf Launches Custom-Fit Program on New Web Site
Arizona-based golf club designer Magique Golf’s new web site features product-intensive graphics, refined navigation and a user-friendly custom-fitting program to help golfers play the right club. The 16-point program carefully cross-references a golfer’s abilities, swing speed and fitting characteristics to calculate the best-performing clubhead, shaft and grip recommendations that will produce the desired game-improving results.

Fixing a Secret Problem
This issue will approach marketing from a different perspective than usual. Marketing is usually defined in specific terms like TV, radio or print advertising. However, one of the most critical elements of marketing is the product you offer.
You might be surprised to learn that your products aren’t just the obvious things like range balls and mats. Sure, they are extremely important, but they are just a part of the total picture. They are only elements of your customers’ total experience. The customers’ experience is your true product.
Do you know what kind of experience your customers are having? Most people would say yes. Too often this response is overly influenced by the friendly conversations that take place between the GM/owner and the regulars—those customers who patronize the range frequently and strike up a relationship with the staff.
But what about the rest of your customers? Do you know how they feel, or how their experience was? Answering “Yes” to those questions becomes even more difficult when you are not even at the range when they’re there.
One effective way of finding out is by hiring a secret shopper service (also known as a mystery shopper). A secret shopper service will send in an anonymous person (not even you will know who he or she is) as a paying customer. The secret shopper will pay the normal customer fee, use your facility and observe everything—paying particular attention to specific things that you want feedback on. Their visits are followed up with a written report to you.
Being an objective party, secret shoppers have no reason to sugarcoat their review, as a friend might do. On the contrary, they want to uncover problems—it helps to justify their fee. For less than $50 per month, you can get real and honest feedback from your customers’ perspective. It’s definitely money well spent.
In addition to the obvious benefits of uncovering secret problems that you never knew existed, there are other benefits, too. You should share the report with your staff and point out the good and bad parts of a review. When your employees know that any one of your customers may be a secret shopper, it can have a profound effect on their behavior.
To realize the full benefits of your secret shopper investment, you must have rewards and consequences associated with good and poor employee behavior. This means that you need to tell your employees very clearly and publicly (i.e., in a staff meeting) when they’ve done something that deserves special attention. No employee likes to be publicly scolded, but of course almost every employee enjoys being praised in front of his or her peers.
An effective extension of this idea is to pay a significant bonus ($100 cash) to an employee who gets mentioned positively in the report.
So, invest a little and buy the secrets of your own business. You may be surprised what you learn. You’ll certainly make more money because your customers’ experience will be better as a result.

Upcoming Events:
• 2006 PGA Golf Show, July 20-23, Sydney, Australia
• PGA Fall Expo, Sept. 13-14, Las Vegas
• Fun Expo, Sept. 27-29, Las Vegas

For a complete list of upcoming events in the golf industry, check out the
Industry Calendar on Golf Range Times' home page.

From the Magazine
Paint It Black
Paintball and golf aren’t the likeliest of pairs. Yet a number of entrepreneurs— trying to capture dollars from the 9.6 million paintball players nationally— operate both activities successfully. Find out if what works for them can work for you.

Calling All Innovative Marketers
Does your direct mail deliver more customers? Are your demo days a hit? Have you developed community partnerships to extend your reach?
Tell us about your marketing ideas and win an award for your creativity.
Golf Range Times’ inaugural Innovator Awards will recognize driving range owners and operators for their marketing achievements and celebrate the best practices that advance the industry. We’re looking for events, programs and on-site promotions that use creativity and ingenuity to produce success—measured by either the number of new customers captured or increased spending by existing customers. The best marketing practices will be published in the November/December issue of Golf Range Times, and online at www.golfrangetimes.com. Plus, the top five entrants will receive a copy of Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing for Free: Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits. Download an entry form today. Deadline is July 28.

Call for Entries: 2006 Best New Range Award
Come January, one outstanding range will be named Best New Range of 2006 and earn industry-wide recognition when its story is told in Golf Range Times. Enter your range in the annual Best New Range Award contest to be considered. To qualify for entry, your range must operate as the primary business (revenue generator) of the facility. Ranges that opened or underwent major renovations after Sept. 1, 2005, are eligible for the 2006 contest. All nominees must complete an entry form and submit photographs and other materials to illustrate the achievements of the new facility. The winner and runners-up will be announced in the January/February 2007 issue of Golf Range Times and on golfrangetimes.com. Download an entry form here or call 804-282-5760. Deadline for entries is Sept. 15.

2006 Buyers’ Guide and Directory Now Available
The 2006 edition of the Golf Range Times Buyers’ Guide and Directory is hot off the presses. It’s the only directory published exclusively for the golf range industry, and the one resource you’ll refer to all year long as you make important purchasing decisions. More than 200 alphabetical company listings are cross-referenced by product category, making it easy to find the equipment and services you need. In addition, the directory includes information on purchasing large equipment such as pickers and washers and what various suppliers offer, as well as a checklist outlining smaller equipment needs. All Golf Range Times subscribers received a complimentary copy of the directory. To purchase additional copies for $35 each, download an order form here.

Sell Used Equipment Fast
Got pickers, washers, balls, mats or tee dividers taking up space? Convert them to cash with a classified ad in Golf Range Times.
Special low rate for range owners: $50. Plus, we’ll help you extend your reach by posting your ad online—for free! Contact Sally Schall, advertising representative, to place your ad in the next issue. Classifieds are sold on prepaid basis only.

Missing an Issue?
Missing an earlier issue of Golf Range Times? Or looking for reference articles on adding amenities, insuring your facility or hiring qualified and committed staff? Click through all back issues of the magazine to find these topics and more here.

About the Golf Range Times e-Newsletter
The Golf Range Times e-Newsletter is a free bimonthly publication sent to range owners and developers who have provided e-mail addresses. You can subscribe online here.
Don't hesitate to forward a copy of this newsletter to friends and associates or to let them know that they can subscribe at www.golfrangetimes.com.

Have a tip or idea?
Contact Marshall Norton Jr., Golf Range Times managing editor, at 804-272-9100, ext. 112, or by e-mail at marshall.norton@douglasmurphy.com.

© Copyright 2006 Golf Range Times