The Finest Properties & Leaders Iconised with Eminent Status in 2024.

The latest properties and leaders from the world of golf & hospitality have been welcomed into 59club’s ‘Eminent Collection’ at two exclusive events, hosted at Park Hyatt, Dubai Creek; and at The Belfry Hotel & Resort on the 19th and 21st of November 2024, respectively.

The intimate ceremonies brought existing members, 59club’s regional teams and industry partners in Club Car,  Reesink Toro & Turtleson together to welcome the newcomers into the prestigious Collection.

Glenn McNaughton (Long Ashton Golf Club), Jack Heginbotham (Long Ashton Golf Club), Kristoff Both (Club de Golf Alcanada) and Matt Sandercock (Mount Juliet Estate)were amongst the Leaders who were awarded the enviable title, with the newcomers joining thirty-one existing individuals who were honored with Eminent Status in previous years since its formation in 2022.

With Club de Golf Alcanada; The Els Club, Dubai; Frilford Heath; Jumeirah Golf Estates; The Mere Golf Resort & Spa and Mount Juliet Estate the latest Properties recognised for having met the demands synonymous with the Eminent benchmark of excellence.

With the newcomers officially welcomed, the elite collection of Properties iconised for their commitment to customer service excellence spanning 59club’s international network in 2024 now includes The Belfry Hotel & Resort; The Celtic Manor Resort; Spa; Club de Golf Alcanada; Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club; Emirates Golf Club; Forest of Arden; Foxhills Club & Resort; Frilford Heath; Gleneagles; Golf Son Muntaner; Jumeirah Golf Estates; The Els Club, Dubai; The Grove; The Mere Golf Resort & Mount Juliet Estate; Rockliffe Hall; Saadiyat Beach Golf Club; Trump International Golf Club, Dubai; and Yas links, Abu Dhabi.

“Together we’ve pushed the boundaries and set the ceiling for what excellence is all about. It’s a privilege to come together once again with the people we are proud to call the best of the best. I sincerely look forward to supporting other managers and venues to excel in the Business of Golf, ultimately by exceeding customer expectations and reaping the rewards. The sky’s the limit for everyone within 59club’s network, and when we start to reach the limit, we’ll all continue to push a whole lot more”

Simon Wordsworth, 59club CEO

The ‘Eminent Collection’ was established in 2022 to honor long-serving standards of customer service excellence delivered over a minimum of 5 years; with 59club Flag Designations, along with individual and team accolades, all contributing towards the global Eminent benchmark of excellence.

Recognition is unbiased, independent, and non-subjective, the only industry award of its kind, symbolizing a true badge of honor for those venues and people consistently delivering the finest levels of customer service, during 59club’s vigorous mystery shopper program.

The Belfry Hotel & Resort
The Celtic Manor Resort
Club de Golf Alcanada
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
The Els Club, Dubai
Emirates Golf Club
Foxhills Club & Resort
Frilford Heath
Gleneagles
Golf Son Muntaner
The Grove
Jumeirah Golf Estates
The Mere Golf Resort & Spa
Mount Juliet Estate
Rockliffe Hall
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
Trump International Golf Club, Dubai
Yas Links, Abu Dhabi

Andrew Whitelaw
Angus Macleod
Anna Darnell
Barney Coleman
Bernat Llobera
Brad Gould
Casper Schonfeldt
Chris Eiglaar
Chris Fitt
Chris May
Chris Reeve
Clinton Southorn
Craig Haldane
Francisco de Lancastre David
Fraser Liston
Gary Silcock
Glen McNaughton
Houssem Belabed
Jack Heginbotham
Jacques Hobson
Jason Adams
Jim McKenzie MBE
Jonathan Wyer
Kristoff Both Club
Matt Aplin
Matt Sandercock
Phillip Chiverton
Rob Rowson
Scott Fenwick
Sean Graham
Simon Howell
Stephen Hindle
Stephen Hubner
Stuart Collier
Tom Hughes

The Viya app allows consumers to book golf and leisure activities across hundreds of venues in Dubai. We asked Julian Danby, Viya’s Director – International Business, to explain how it is driving global business.

What is Viya and its role within your organization?

Viya is our dynamic golf lifestyle loyalty and rewards app, launched in Dubai in 2020 under the umbrella of Dubai Golf. Viya was initially designed to enhance the experience for our golfing community and has since evolved into a powerhouse platform spanning nearly 200 venues. Beyond golf clubs, it now includes leading restaurants, beach clubs, gyms, and a variety of activities like fitness classes, personal training, marinas, and spas. Customers can seamlessly book and pay for services through Viya while earning and redeeming points.

Think of it as your all-access pass to living the good life while earning and splurging points between rounds. I am responsible for redefining Viya to suit international markets and roll out the product globally.

This exciting venture involves adapting Viya’s versatile platform to resonate with diverse cultures and preferences worldwide.

We’re not just aiming to expand geographically; we’re crafting tailored experiences that cater to the unique tastes and expectations of global users. It’s about enhancing accessibility and ensuring that, whether you’re in Dubai or London, Viya remains your ultimate golfing companion.

Who owns Viya and how has it impacted your business?

Viya is proudly owned by Dubai Golf, a leading entity under the Dubai government managing iconic properties such as Emirates Golf Club and Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The impact of Viya on our business has been transformative, especially evident in our recent expansion into Abu Dhabi. Taking charge of venues like Yas Links and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, Viya quickly became instrumental in driving revenue.

A standout example is Yas Acres, where Viya facilitated a remarkable 70% of our monthly green fee revenue within just four months of operation.

How do you measure Viya’s success, and what metrics are crucial?

Success for Viya hinges on customer loyalty and engagement metrics. We gauge this through repeat visits, customer referrals and of customer spend habits.

“The impact of Viya on our business has been transformative, especially evident in our recent expansion into Abu Dhabi”

Was it challenging to onboard partners to Viya’s concept?

Fortunately, our established golf facilities in UAE provided a strong foundation and a compelling case for potential partners. As Viya expanded to encompass leisure and lifestyle options, it quickly gained traction in the market.

Clubs and vendors recognized that being part of Viya meant offering excellent value and attracting a dedicated customer base. Viya became the word on the lips of every golfer and their close network of friends, and as such we had vendors knocking on our door wanting to be a part of it.

How do you evaluate the return on investment from your collaboration with 59club?

The return on our investment with 59club is evident in improved staff retention, enhanced service delivery, and the consistent delivery of exceptional experiences. While it’s challenging to quantify in purely financial terms, the value lies in our ability to maintain high standards and implement innovative ideas.

What’s the best advice you’ve received and how does it resonate in your work?

The best advice I received from my dad was: “If a job is not worth doing properly, it is not worth doing at all.” This mantra drives our commitment to excellence in planning, execution, and ensuring we have the right resources and team in place to deliver exceptional results.

It’s the same ethos that lights up our game with 59club, pushing us to wow our customers by reinforcing our dedication to exceed customer expectations and achieve operational excellence.

You’ve collaborated with 59club extensively. Why is this partnership crucial?

Our partnership with 59club, spanning more than a decade, has been pivotal. 59club provides invaluable training and customer feedback that enhances our operational standards. By benchmarking against other clubs internationally, 59club helps us continually raise the bar that keeps our F&B and Golf operations running smoother than a ball on a glassy green

59club Asia, the premier provider of performance management and training services in the golf and hospitality industries, has partnered with the Thai Golf Course Association (TGCA) to deliver a series of specialised training programmes aimed at elevating service standards across Thailand’s golf courses. The first event was proudly hosted by Mr Chaovatas Supapantita, at the renowned Palm Hill Golf Course in Hua Hin on the 25th September.

This collaboration marks a significant step in 59club Asia’s ongoing commitment to advancing the quality of golf club management and customer service in the region. With a focus on enhancing both operational efficiencies, along with member and guest satisfaction, the training was designed to empower golf course personnel with the knowledge and tools necessary to deliver world class experiences to members and visitors.

A range of practical and fun exercises highlighted best practice in relation to human behaviour and the management of first impressions, as well as the development of sales skills such as conducting a needs analysis and sales closure techniques.

Participants included senior managers and staff from golf courses across the West Region of Thailand, all eager to learn from 59club Asia’s industry-leading expertise. The partnership between 59club Asia and the TGCA ensures that the knowledge shared during the training can be adapted and implemented across the country, setting a new bar for excellence in Thailand’s golf tourism sector.

“We are thrilled to be working alongside the Thai Golf Course Association to bring this high calibre training to the region”, said Will Hewitt, Director of 59club Asia. “Our goal is to help elevate standards across the entire region and we are fortunate to benefit from the skills and expertise of Araya Singhsuwan of Absolute Golf Services, along with the support of the Association together with The Tourism Authority of Thailand in bringing this project to life.”

Palm Hill Golf Course, Hua Hin, proudly hosted the event, where the excellent facilities provided the ideal setting for immersive, hands-on training sessions, allowing participants to experience real-world applications of the techniques taught.

“We are delighted to partner with 59club Asia in this important initiative,” said Mr Suchat Suwannasri, President of the Thai Golf Course Association. “Uplifting the necessary services and sales skills for the team members at our golf courses is invaluable; it will enhance the overall golfers experience of both local and tourist golfers, whilst also undoubtedly enhancing the ever-growing tourism market of Thailand.”
This training is part of a broader strategy to position Thailand as a leader in golf tourism, ensuring that courses across the country offer premium services that meet global expectations. With golf tourism playing an increasingly important role in Thailand’s economy, partnerships like this one between 59club Asia and the TGCA are essential for driving sustainable growth in the sector.

Andrew Whitelaw led operations at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai – the first property in the region to work with 59club. He is now General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the 2026 PGA Championship venue Aronimink.

Andrew Whitelaw, Aronimink General Manager and Chief Operating Officer

Tell us about the set-up and model at Aronimink?

It is a traditional American country club and golf is the primary function of the club. The governance structure is fairly typical, with a board of governors – including a President, Secretary, Vice President and Treasurer. We have 14 committees and they are involved in the running of the club. It is a modern governance model and is progressive. We have a forward looking board and we are in the middle of a $30m renovation of the whole property with clubhouse renovations and an upgrade of some of the golf facilities as well as our sport and leisure areas.

We have a new golf learning centre which is now finished. The membership are fantastic, they really love this club and they are very involved and passionate about everything Aronimink. The course is incredible, which is important, and is the basis of everything we do – we are a walking-only course and everybody who plays it will say that the conditioning is as good as you are going to see anywhere. Visually it is stunning and it is most definitely one of Donald Ross’s finest creations.

What is happening now in the planning stages for the 2026 PGA Championship?

The PGA of America have a future sites programme, so for the last three years we have been going to events and meeting the committees who are running all these tournaments from their clubs’ perspectives and learning from their experiences.

The PGA will come on site in the next month and hospitality sales have already started. Our main priority at the moment is working with the local townships or various permits that we need to host such a large event. It is a big year for Philadelphia; it is the 250th anniversary of the United States, the FIFA World Cup is in town that year and the PGA Championship will kick it all off.

How do you calculate a return on investment when working with 59club?

Nearly 15 years ago we started working with 59club at the Emirates GC in Dubai and it was an important piece of how we improved our service at the property. In those days we were focused on customer satisfaction and understanding how we could improve the service side at every touchpoint. We weren’t using 59club to deliver a return of investment or upselling, our main use was to identify gaps

in our service and drive engagement and satisfaction among members and guests. When I moved to Trump Dubai in 2016 we introduced mystery shopping and training and achieved Gold Flag status in the first year. We did the same thing at Portmarnock in 2019.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve had?

Listen carefully and understand what is being said to you before you reply. A lot of people jump in with a response before they completely understand what they are being asked a lot of the time. You don’t always have to be the first person to speak. I have found that invaluable. Also, when you are starting out, always try and do more than you have been asked and take on things that maybe you weren’t asked to do.

Out of everything that 59club do, what do you like the most?

You can’t be everywhere all the time and, when you work in operations, you don’t always experience what the member or guest experiences. I like the view you get of the personal experience of individuals who understand golf who are then able to give you an unbiased view of every aspect of the service journey. If you get the service at a level where it needs to be people are going to return, they are going to come more often and enjoy their experience more. For me this is the key part of the 59club product although there is so much more to what they offer which is of value.

59club’s commitment to elevate Sales & Customer Service across the entire golf & leisure industry, has seen the Customer Experience Management Specialist launch the industry’s first independent B2B magazine, concentrated solely on excelling standards, service optimization and elevating club profitability.

With operations spanning the UK & Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia, the USA, Canada, Australia & New Zealand and Korea, 59club are perfectly positioned to become the authentic voice of the global golf business, something their clients, associates and those on the inside have been championing for decades. 

Thousands of affiliate properties have benefited from the customer service insights and data collected through 59club’s extensive mystery shopping program and real-time customer satisfaction surveys. And now, the eagerly anticipated Insights Magazine will act as a platform to share that wisdom and education with a wider audience, as the new publication fills the void and counteracts any misinformation that the industry has suffered. 

Simon Wordsworth, 59club founder & CEO, said; “With opening rates of digital magazines falling, engagement in that digital space can be very difficult and in general any interaction is short lived. We don’t want to be ‘read today, forgot tomorrow’, we’ve just got too much to share for that.

“I wanted us to produce a high quality and informative piece of work that simply ‘lingers longer’in a venue, to remain open at point of interest with the reader, affording them the time and perspective to make positive changes within their business based on fact and understanding. In addition, there are more people within the club/organisation to educate and stimulate discussion. For that reason, digital alone just wouldn’t do for us. 

“We can see from our Club Study results what is on our managers minds and the Insights Magazine will allow us to discuss these topics with the trade and other influencing factors.”

The global edition of the aptly named ‘Insights’ magazine will be hard mailed four times per year to club’s within 59club’s immediate and growing network, a digital counterpart is also available to download on mass. 

The first edition celebrates the best operators in the world having achieved 59club flag status for excelling Customer Service standards and also features the elite Leaders and Properties within 59club’s Eminent Collection - the list to end all debates, as those included truly are the industries finest service providers.  

Subsequent issues are driven by live industry data, as 59club’s universal intel uncovers the truth behind visitor perception, member satisfaction, onboarding processes, attrition behaviours, and event management, right the way through to the Club Study survey results that are posted every two weeks. 

The magazine will also delve into the success and life-lessons shared by some of the greatest operators and most celebrated properties in the world of golf & hospitality. The final publication of the year, will always review the annual customer experience wins & losses, seeking predictions and forecasting for the future. 

Each edition will be informative, educational and focus on insights that you can’t find anywhere else, it’s a guard-down approach to excel.  

Read the Insights Magazine now, and for more information about 59club and the lasting change they can bring to the overall success and profitability of your club, simply visit 59club.com and reach out to your regional 59club Manager.

59club Asia welcomed the golf industry’s finest golf clubs, teams and individuals to The Eastin Thana City Golf Resort on March 27^th, 2024, to honour the leading properties across Southeast Asia for delivering the finest customer experiences during 2023.  

An elaborate awards event sponsored by Jebssen & Jessen, TORO, Beyond Green Co., Ltd., Club Car among with many other leading industry brands such as Titleist, Fenix XCel and Fore Event Management. The day included many special activities, such as, golf event,educational seminar, networking, all centered around the prestigious annual Service Excellence Awards Ceremony, the 3^rd staging for 59club Asia, and the very first hosted live in Thailand.

59club Asia’s team has also made the Awards Ceremony extra special this year bycollaborating with Golf Channel Thailand HD to air the honourable winners for a broader audience within Thailand through Golf Channel platform, as well as welcoming Mr. SuchatSuwannasri; President of Thai Golf Course Association and Mr. Somchai Suebboonphongfrom board of director within the Thai Golf Course Association to witness, excellence being honoured and personally congratulate the award winners during the Ceremony.

Qualification for these highly-regarded awards remain unbiased, based solely on scores collected through 59club’s impartial mystery shopping programme, which recognises service excellence across all areas of the hospitality business – including management, sales, service, operations, retail, golf course condition, along with food and beverage.  

Nikanti Golf Club impressively claimed three of the main service excellence awards, with Kornwat Aiemngamngam winning Food & Beverage Team of the Year, whilst Brad Revillearned Agronomy Team of the Year, and Sukum Phongprateep rounding off the triple crown,being named Golf Operation Team of the Year.  

Double celebrations followed for Aquella Golf & Country Club, as they saw Siwaporn Srisajjangretain the Golf Retail team of The Year title for the second consecutive year, and Best Caddy Experience of the Year went to Naratip Srisupab.  

Finally, in the main service excellence awards segment, the coveted Golf Manager of the Year title was presented to Chris Geraghty of Vattanac Golf Club.  

The evening continued with 59club’s Golf Flag presentation, recognising properties who have achieved the ultimate benchmark of excellence for pairing the very best facilities for members and guests, with the highest customer service offering. 

A milestone for golf in Asia, saw 59club present to region’s first ever coveted Gold Flag Destinations. With Aquella Golf & Country Club making history, having soared from Bronze to Gold status in just under 24 months. Vattanac Golf Resort also made great progress moving from Silver to claim Gold Flag status in just under 12 months, with an impressive rise to fame saw Nikanti Golf Club who only joined 59club Asia in 2023, and claimed the coveted Gold Flagduring their very first year of partnering with 59club.

Brian Gibson; General Manager of Aquella Golf and Country Club added; “I am extremelyproud that we won these Awards, jumping from Bronze to Gold is fantastic and my team is beyond proud. Working with 59club has been a good guide for us in terms of customer service and it’s great to measure ourselves against some of the best clubs in the world, we look forward to retaining our Gold Flag in 2024, as our team and Absolute Golf Services continue to set the standards in service in Phuket, Thailand.”

Chris Geraghty, General Manger from Vattanca Golf Resort also said “We are delighted to be receiving the 59club’s Gold Flag and one other Award. These recognitions are testament to the relentless dedication of many stakeholders including our endeared and respected Ownership, Troon, and each and every one of our Associates at Vattanac Golf Resort who are all passionately unified in pursuit of exceeding the expectations of our Guests. Working with 59 Club has empowered us to utilize objective feedback and industry benchmarks to make regular assessments of our performance, and has been a valuable resource for all departments.”

Warissara Sasomsub; Nikanti’s Managing Director said “Nikanti was born from a dream to create an exceptional golf course; delivering a beyond-excellence experience for all golfers; that has always been our dream, mission and goal. Our team try their best every day to make this dream become reality. By receiving these Awards myself and all Nikanti team are very proud, yet we will still continue to work towards our dream & goals.”

Celebrations followed for Riverdale Golf Club and Thana City Country Club both enjoying an uplift; each landing a sought-after Silver Flag Designation, with Bangkok Golf Club earningtheir very first flag designation, straight in at Silver. 

Mr. Kiattisak Ketsiri said that he is proud of his team for having made progress and improvements. He also said “I am confident that the future year is bright for both Riverdale Golf Club and Bangkok Golf Club, both park of the MBK Group of companies, as the team hasfully embraced 59club Asia Mystery Shopping Audit, I am proud of what the team has achieved, and I am certain that we will continue to make good progress to achieve more success in 2024”.

In addition to the global honours roll, and to recognise excellence across the region’s most recently affiliated properties - those just starting their journey with 59club Asia during 2023 and not managing to complete the necessary number of audits to qualify for the main service excellence awards - an additional 5 accolades were introduced to showcase the new coming venues for delivering the best one-off service experiences. 

Leading the newcomers into the winner’s arena was Laguna Golf Group, who saw their properties claim two titles after Lisna Wati of Laguna Golf Bitan was crowned the Leading Retail Experience 2023, and Stephen Banks of Laguna Lang Co was crowned Leading Golf Operations Team of 2023. Mark Bates of Laguna National Golf Resort Club claimed the Leading Golf Course Presentation 2023. Joining the best newcomers with a double celebration was the team at The Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club who impressively saw General Manager Peter Downie claim the Leading Golf Visit Experience 2023 and Peggy Cheung honoured for delivering the Leading Food & Beverage Experience 2023.  

59club Asia’s Director of Operations, Araya Singhsuwan said; “This is the first time we have hosted the event live here in Asia, and it was incredible that our clients and industry professionals embraced our event to share in the industry celebrations.

The Customer Service levels in the region are being elevated year-on-year, and it is truly rewarding to witness the clubs affiliated with 59club Asia enjoying the benefits that come with a pioneering customer-centric approach to business. I’m honoured to have been supporting our clients, who all dedicate themselves to providing the absolute best experience for their member and guests’ enjoyment.  Personally, it is very rewarding for me to see many that I’ve worked side by side in 2023 stepping up the stage to collect their trophiesand plaques. I am immensely proud and very much look forward to continuing the greatersupport to our partner properties for the next year, as we continue to drive standards in the industry to an all-time high.” 

In addition to 59club Asia’s Awards Event, the global Customer Service Management Specialists, have hosted five additional awards ceremonies during 2024 – which started in the UK, before heading off to Europe, USA, MEA, Canada, and most recently Asia, before finishing their seventh awards celebration of the year with 59club Australia & New Zealand later in June – as 59club continue uniting the world of golf & hospitality around their commitment to deliver customer service excellence. 

59club Service Excellence Awards 2023

Food & Beverage Team of The Year - Nikanti Golf Club, led by Kornwat Aiemngam 

Golf Retail Team of The Year - Aquella Golf & Country Club, led by Siwaporn Srisajjang 

Agronomy Team of The Year - Nikanti Golf Club, led by Brad Revill 

Golf Operations Team of The Year - Nikanti Golf Club, led by Sukum Phongprateep 

Golf Manager of The Year - Vattanac Golf Resort, led by Chris Geraghty 

Best Caddy Experience of The Year - Aquella Golf & Country Club, led by Naratip Srisupab 

59club Flag Designations

Gold Flag Designation: Aquella Golf & Country Club, Nikanti Golf Club and Vattanac Golf Resort 

Silver Flag Designation: Bangkok Golf Club, Riverdale Golf Club and Thana City Country Club 

59club's Best Newcomer of 2023

Leading Golf Visit Experience 2023- The Clearwater Bay Golf & Country club led by Peter Downie 

Leading Retail Experience 2023- Laguna Golf Bintan led by Lisna Wati 

Leading Golf Course Presentation 2023 - Laguna National Golf Resort Club led by Mark Bates 

Leading Food & Beverage Experience 2023 - The Clearwater Bay Golf & Country club, with Peggy Cheung 

59club Asia, in collaboration with Eastin Thana City Golf Resort, will be hosting the 3rd Annual Industry Service Excellence Awards. This prestigious ceremony will take place on March 27, 2024, welcoming esteemed clients from across Southeast Asia.

The ceremony will serve as an opportunity to recognise and honour excellence in the region’s golf industry. The renowned Eastin Thana City Golf Resort will proudly host the awards ceremony, marking the first live hosting of the Service ‘Excellence’ Awards ceremony. This event promises to bring together industry professionals to celebrate outstanding individuals, departmental achievements, and golf club success across all spectrums of 59club Asia.

At the heart of the event lies the recognition of leading golf venues that consistently deliver ‘service excellence’ across various aspects of their operations. Winners will be awarded based on actual audit scores collected from independent mystery auditors, reflecting the truly exceptional experiences provided to both golf visitors and other customers, such as food and beverage patrons.

The highlights of the evening will be the announcement of the 59club Asia’s Industry Benchmark Awards – the Gold, Silver and Bronze Flag Awards. These accolades will be bestowed upon member clubs and commercial venues that not only meet the required standards of service, but also offer excellent facilities for customer enjoyment.

The event will kick off with golf and education, featuring a Best-Ball golf competition for the venue representatives and educational seminars and workshops for Head of Departments and Departmental Managers. The day will conclude with an inspiring Awards Ceremony, promising valuable insights for team empowerment throughout 2024 and beyond.

As 59club continues to garner attention globally, this event stands as a testament to our commitment to advancing and developing the industry. It is an opportunity to bring together industry professionals and acknowledge collective achievements. We extend our gratitude to our partner, Asian Tour Destination for their invaluable support in Marketing throughout 2023.

To secure your place at the Education and Golf Day, along with the Awards Ceremony, and for all accommodation/ travel requirements, please contact our Event Manager, Miss Pradubporn, or "Oui", at pradubporn@59clubasia.com or visit

www.59clubasia.com

Stay updated with all the action and behind-the-scenes insights, by following 59club Asia on Twitter and Facebook.

For more information contact:
Araya Singhsuwan
Director of operations
59club Asia
E: araya@59clubasia.com
T: +66 (0) 98 280 4055

59club's spotlight shines as the 2023 Eminent Collection is announced.

The latest properties and leaders from the world of golf & hospitality have been welcomed into 59club’s ‘Eminent Collection’ at two exclusive events, hosted at Trump International Golf Club, Dubai; and at Wentworth Club, England on the 21st and 23rd of November 2023, respectively.

The ‘Eminent Collection’ was established in 2022 to honor long-serving standards of customer service excellence delivered over a minimum of 5 years; with 59club Flag Designations, along with individual and team accolades, all contributing towards the global Eminent benchmark of excellence.

Recognition by 59club is unbiased, independent, and non-subjective, the only industry award of its kind, symbolizing a true badge of honor for those venues and people consistently delivering the finest levels of customer service,during 59club’s vigorous mystery shopper program.

The intimate ceremony, saw 59club welcome nine industry ‘leaders’ who join twenty-two individuals honored with Eminent Status in 2022. The newcomers receiving the enviable Eminent titles were; Casper Schonfeldt, Discovery Land Dubai; Chris Eigelaar, The Belfry; Chris Fitt, Moor Park; Clinton Southorn, Troon; Francisco de Lancastre David, Finca Cortesin; HoussemBelabed, Gleneagles; Jason Adams, Rockliffe Hall; Matt Aplin, Goring & Streatley; and, Scott Fenwick, Gleneagles. 

With only one new property having met the demands synonymous with the Eminent Collection in 2023; as Saadiyat Beach Golf Club join twelve existing ‘properties’ from within 59club’s international network. The elite Collection now represents The Belfry Hotel & Resort; The Celtic Manor Resort; Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club; Emirates Golf Club; Forest of Arden; Foxhills Club & Resort; Gleneagles; Golf Son Muntaner; The Grove; Rockliffe Hall; Saadiyat Beach Golf Club; Trump International Golf Club, Dubai; and Yas links, Abu Dhabi.

Of the honors, Simon Wordsworth, 59club CEO said; “What an incredible celebration of ‘excellence’! The Collection all came together to welcome our newcomers to this elite group of industry champions, whilst we honored our existing members for a second term. The Eminent Collection is the ultimate accolade we can bestow on any venue or individual, and it remains 59club’s honour and privilege to continue to shine a light on the people who are shaping the direction the industry continues to take, by maximising the experience that every single customer can enjoy.”

59club’s signature partner; Club Car once again extended their commitment to the Collection, in true reflection of their devotion to honor customer service excellence; with both Reesink Toro & Golf Genius also aligning their brands with this unique portfolio of industry professionals.

The Belfry Hotel & Resort
The Celtic Manor Resort
Delta by Marriott, Forest of Arden
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
Emirates Golf Club
Foxhills Club & Resort
Gleneagles
Golf Son Muntaner
The Grove
Rockliffe Hall
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
Trump International Golf Club Dubai
Yas Links Abu Dhabi

Andrew Whitelaw, Aronimink Golf Club
Angus Macleod, The Belfry
Anna Darnell, The Grove
Barney Coleman, Burnham & Berrow
Bernat Llobera, Arabella Golf Mallorca
Brad Gould, The Grove
Casper Schonfeldt, Discovery Land Dubai
Chris Eigelaar, The Belfry
Chris Fitt, Moor Park
Chris May, Dubai Golf
Chris Reeve, The Belfry
Clinton Southorn, Troon
Craig Haldane, Gleneagles
Francisco de Lancastre David, Finca Cortesin
Fraser Liston, Forest of Arden
Gary Silcock, Murrayshall
Houssem Belabed, Gleneagles
Jacques Hobson, The Belfry
Jason Adams, Rockliffe Hall
Jim Mckenzie MBE, Celtic Manor
Jonathan Wyer, Rockliffe Hall
Matt Aplin, Goring & Streatley
Phillip Chiverton, The Grove
Rob Rowson, Forest of Arden
Scott Fenwick, Gleneagles
Sean Graham, Foxhills
Simon Howell, Forest of Arden
Stephen Hindle, Worsley Park
Stephen Hubner, Jumeirah Golf Estates
Stuart Collier, Stoke Park
Tom Hughes, The Belfry

59club is all about detail & data, and our technology plays a vital part in all of that, providing you with the ability to collect survey data direct from 1-1 survey invitations, or the simplicity of a well-positioned QR code or shareable link. We’ve also made some loyal friends along the way via mutual clients, and working together we can generate even more intelligence, while eradicating human error - that’s right, today we’re opening your eyes to CRM & POS hook-ups!  

For the average golf & hospitality business, that simply means each time member and guest data is entered into your software, 59club’s survey platform will ‘auto-invite’ the customer to complete the venues bespoke satisfaction survey based on their recent encounter. For example; having joined the club, paid to play, visited the spa or F&B outlet, attended a golf club fitting appointment, made a retail purchase, or having relinquished their club membership.  

The functionality can even track a customer’s experience at significant landmarks during their journey, auto generating a ‘series’ of questionnaires, in sequence at set intervals, as programmed by the venue; measuring a new member’s experience over a set timeframe, or even a ‘get into golf program’ as a guide. 

Over the years we have managed integrations with a number of the leading CRM & POS providers globally on behalf of our mutual clients. 

Most recently we have been linked with Lightspeed; a global innovative ePOS system, and we have also delivered integrated surveys for many clients with the help of other leading providers such as Concept, EZLinks, imaster.golf and Premier Software, all with the ultimate goal of supporting our shared clients to maximise the intel they receive from their customers. 

With technology always at the ready, and a wealth of flexible survey templates that cover all areas of the hospitality industry, club staff can save valuable admin time, with elements of human error also eradicated, as the POS & CRM takes over. That means more time to spend on analysing the data, utilising the industry specific benchmarking comparisons, and ultimately; on the important parts of customer experience – spending time with the customer and subsequently around planning improvements! 

And while our survey platform is all algorithms, metrics and values, there’s no bots here! We are human, with expert servicing teams located in 9 international regions - from ideation and build support, to launch assistance, data analysis & next-level advice - when you need us, we are with you every step of the way.  

We'll even support your CRM & POS provider with all the necessary's tech-talk to maximise your data-capture. So, what are you waiting for? Talk to us about your provider, and let’s get you hooked-up and away to go.  

Never again will you make decisions blindly or be left wondering why... because you’ll have the hard and fast data at your fingertips, as we open your eyes to the wonderful world of wisdom...  

As always; reach out to your regional 59club Manager for more information and to get started...  

WARNING!!! Please be assured that 59club will guide you through the process of becoming a tech wizard – no former data-geek experience necessary – full 59club support provided, we have an open API, we’re friendly like that, and we’ll even manage the integration process with your CRM & POS provider as required.  

The greatest thing about golfers is that they like to play in groups. No one likes to play golf alone and that gives us a huge advantage, whether that’s a monthly seasoned away day, or an annual group of 40+ visiting golfers, we want them to choose to visit us, right?! But are we consistently hitting all the high notes during their enquiry? After all, they’re probably canvasing a few other venues for the best rates.

But does rate really matter?  

To some, absolutely! Rate may be everything – but when you consider;

Value = Experience less Cost, it’s the experience that we really need to pitch, and that’s where excellent customer service and call management will always win, but how do you know what to pitch?  

Well, I’ll let you in to a little secret - it all comes down to following a solid sales process - none of this wishy-washy stuff - and at 59club we’re experts at mapping out the perfect journey, so here’s some helpful hints & tips, just for 10.  

Phone rings – so where do you start? 

1. Has the group been before? 

2. What’s their previous experience, where did they visit; what did they enjoy; and what are the most important factors to ensure a successful event?   

3. Discuss their previous budget and typical spend. 

4. Sniff out the competition; who are we up against, have they made other enquiries, have they been given any package prices? 

5. Discuss the frequency of the event? 

6. Data collection - name, email, number, address, how did they hear of us, what prompted them to call – we want it all…  

7. Event data - date, times, number of golfers and their level of flexibility 

8. Establish the parameters of their budget? 

9. Understand the event specifics – and boy there’s a lot of technicalities to cover here, from F&B requirements, on-course services, and prize tables, to golf clinics and leaderboards. 

10. Demonstrate that you truly value their business.  

Promotion begins...  

Then it’s a simple case of delivering a ‘tailored’ promotion to exceed expectations; as you discuss the venue, your product and your USP’s - demonstrating added value along the way!!! And please ALWAYS give more…   

Sales close & Follow up...  

Finally, you start your ‘sales close’ and agree your follow-up protocol, because we’re going to be proactive with our next steps. Whether that’s still attempting to convert the business, offering to hold space, or issuing a personalized proposal; or simply providing pre-visit advice having secured the booking.  

Yes, the rate may be high on a specific day or time, but by simply understanding the flexibility of your group; you may well be able to come up with an alternative tee time to help shape a great package for them. That’s what group golf is all about, keeping the group happy, and if we can be seen to value their business, tailoring our offering to accommodate them, tweaking this and that to give them the very greatest experience for their buck, then we are hard to beat! 

Stop thinking of golf as a solid flat rate – how can it be, when there are so many SPECIFICS to navigate with the group organizer, and added extras that may well cost you nothing, but make the group feel like a million dollars.  

If you start out with a solid sales process, designed to glean the information necessary to over-pitch your offering, then you’re on to a winning formula.  

• Ask your regional 59club manager about our Group Golf Sales audits, education and survey tools. There really is a better way to do things, and we are here to help guide you through initiating that sales process…  

From the second an employee arrives for work, and even before they’ve slipped their coat off and settled into their daily duties, there are customers waiting to be supported & served, and we expect that interaction to be delivered with a smile and genuine interest to help. (As well as hitting all the high notes within our Mystery Shopper audit criteria)  

On the whole, performance is true to form, but from time-to-time standards slip - employees may feel the pressures of their role, they may feel undervalued, they may have unknowingly inherited bad traits from other team members – and slowly that smile becomes strained.  

The customer may not even notice the difference in behavior at first, but over time it starts to show, you may even hear customers speaking of the uncharacteristic behavior of their favorite employee. 

"Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them... they'll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they'll come back." 

J. Willard Marriott, American entrepreneur, businessman and founder of the Marriott Corporation

To consistently deliver exceptional service, you must nurture your people, inspire their behavior, support them with the right tools and training to perform well within their role, predict their needs, and listen to their woes.  

With so many customers to serve and departments to oversee, time often slips away, and every good intention becomes lower down the priority order, but it doesn’t need to be that way. 

Just like your customers, there is also a ‘need’ to survey your employees, and for that matter we created a bundle of HR Survey Templates, to make analyzing employee wellbeing that much easier, whether they are an existing employee, new recruit or a leaver. 

There’s a whole load of pre-set questions for you to include – as always, we try and take the guess work away, but there’s also the freedom to add any custom questions to your surveys - you’re always able to do that within any of our golf & hospitality templates, you can even make a survey entirely of your own if you prefer.  

What always captivates me with the inclusion of a templated question, is the ability to compare your own outcomes with the global industry & podium set averages, that’s what fascinates me the most. How other employees' experiences, preferences, willingness and loyalty compares to yours, and what you can take from the wisdom of stepping out of your own four walls.  

The venue will also be able to identify what motivates individuals, and how they can support continued growth within their employees existing role, also providing clarity and vision over personal career progression. 

There may be other survey providers out there - heck one google search and you can find a ton of them! But what you don’t get from any of them is the specialized industry expertise, the flexibility, and the miniscule analytical data that only 59club is synonymous for.  

We aren’t just here as a survey provider like some of our competitors are, or as a mystery shopping company either, we are here for the greater good. We don’t just help you to spot flaws or celebrate excellence with you, we give you the solutions to perfect experiences.  

Circling back to Mr. Marriott, our very own mantra is cut from the same cloth, we exist solely to help you to motivate your team, to care about them, to train them, and every year we make winners out of them. Your people are the foundation to achieving customer service excellence, that’s the business we are all in, and we’re all in it together!  

The Human Resource Survey Templates are free to use within your Survey Platform, they address all areas of the employment roster - from measuring the New Employee Experience, general Employee Satisfaction, plus an Employee Exit Survey.  

So, while we’ve got your attention, take some time out today, look into the HR Survey Suite. Give us a call if you prefer, and let’s set some time aside to prioritize employee wellbeing, as we look forward to enjoying the perks of increased customer service delivery.

59club’s ‘Eminent Collection’ celebration is set to return this fall, as we continue to recognize the finest properties & leaders across the world of golf & hospitality, for their unwavering dedication to Customer Service Excellence.  

With exclusive events taking place at Trump International Golf Club, Dubai, and at Wentworth Club, England on the 21^st and 23^rd of November 2023 respectively; 59club are delighted to announce that their signature partner; Club Car has once again extended their commitment to the Collection; with both Reesink Toro & Golf Genius also aligning their brands with this unique portfolio of industry professionals, as the 2023 inductees are set to be announced. 

Eligibility into the ‘Eminent Collection’ is based solely on achievements across the 59club Service Excellence Awards, with individual and team accolades, along with 59club Flag Designations, all contributing towards the Global Eminent Benchmark of Excellence; measuring performances over a minimum of 5 years.  

In 2022, just twelve ‘properties’ from within 59club’s international network had achieved the required benchmark synonymous with the Collection, with a further twenty-two ‘leaders’ honored with Eminent Status.  

Of the impending celebrations, Simon Wordsworth, 59club CEO said;

“The ultimate accolade 59club can bestow on any venue or individual is to grant them entry into The Eminent Collection. The calculation is fair, transparent, objective, and open to all industry professionals, and by design showcases individuals and venues who not only invite independent scrutiny, but who then deliver outstanding and consistent performances across a minimum of five years.  

“It is my honour and privilege to continue to shine a light on the people who are ultimately shaping the direction the industry continues to take, by maximising the experience that every single customer can enjoy.” 

As the wider industry waits on bated breath for the 2023 announcement to be made later in November; 59club are preparing to host a full house, as the entire Collection reconvenes to officially welcome the newcomers as they join this elite group of industry champions.  

For more information about the Eminent Collection, or to learn about 59club and their plight towards elevating service standards and profitability across the golf & hospitality industry; please visit www.59club.com  

Last year, 59club announced its commitment to become carbon neutral across its global operations by 2030, and is unbelievably excited to have taken a huge step on that journey, with its UK & Ireland business now officially accredited with achieving neutrality in 2022.

To help guide them through the transition to carbon neutral, 59club found solace in the services provided by “Neutral Carbon Zone (NCZ)” – a leading consultancy, management and certification platform.

“Strategically we decided to start with the UK business as it is our most mature business. If we can achieve carbon neutral here, we know we can share best practice and achieve it in our Asia, Australia, Canada, European, MEA, Nordic & USA businesses.” said Simon Wordsworth, Founder and CEO of 59club.

Over the last 16 months, Alan Stenson & Krys Stanton from NCZ supported Will Hewitt, Andy Etherington and the 59club UK team to adopt NCZ’s three scope structure to tackle the key areas of emissions, by creating strategies for every emission line, either at the company’s cost or simply behavioural changes within the business.

“We reviewed emissions directly generated by the company’s activities, emissions that are indirectly generated by energy purchased by the company, and lastly emissions that arise from organizational activities, but from sources owned or controlled by other organizations."

“It’s taken time simply because of the complexity of our business, as it’s not just our office and our people, but all the emissions created by our mystery testers and auditors as they move around the UK & Ireland, the events that we host such as the annual awards ceremony, client golf days, the servers that our software runs on…the list could just go on.” continued Wordsworth.

The business even went further than ‘required’ to help its team members tackle their own carbon emissions through their personal travel and home energy use.

To date, 59club’s UK & Ireland division has completed the first phase of its pledge, having received the results of a recently commissioned carbon footprint assessment, which measures the carbon emissions generated by the organisation’s activities. The assessment is the critical first stage of a comprehensive and commercially focused carbon management plan. The measurement of 59club’s carbon emissions follows the internationally recognised standard ISO-14064-1:2006.

Wordsworth added; “As we progress through this journey, will start to change company buying decisions to ‘fellow green businesses’ who are positively seeking neutrality – where we stay, where we eat, who we buy from etc.”

Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2030 across 59club’s Global Operations

"For 59club, the pursuit of excellence extends beyond exceptional customer service; it encompasses a responsibility towards our planet. Today, we proudly reaffirm our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality across our global operations by 2030. With this effort, 59club is dedicated to creating a brighter future, where exceptional experiences coexist with a greener world."

"Today's announcement marks an important milestone in 59club's journey towards global carbon neutrality. We firmly believe that every long journey begins with a first step, and this commitment to becoming carbon neutral across our entire global operations by 2030 is just the beginning.”

Wordsworth concludes; “Some of our operations that cover huge geographical areas are going to find this really difficult whilst still trying to grow and be profitable, but we believe this is an absolute necessity for the preservation of our planet. Over the coming decades, we will continue to forge ahead, implementing innovative measures and collaborating with partners worldwide to ensure a sustainable future. We have always tried to be amongst the first/early movers, tried to be creative and innovative and this journey allows us to flourish, playing our part to inspire positive change for generations to come."

Laguna Golf Group, renowned as operating world-class golf courses in three different countries located in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, has recently joined the rapidly expanding list of clients of 59club Asia. Recognised as Asia's first integrated golf resorts, which offers not just golf, but also impressive lifestyle amenities like spas, restaurants, bars, boutique shops, and sports activities, Laguna Golf Group is committed to maintaining a very high level of service, following its own high standards.

By utilising the industry leading services provided by 59club Asia, such as customer service analytics and unmatched training platforms, the resorts can ensure ongoing improvements in providing service excellence to both members and guests. At the same time, the resorts are dedicated to achieving enhancements in all operational aspects to enrich customer experiences.

59club Asia provides tools for assessment that are peerless in the market, including Customer Service Analysis, Staff Training Programmes, Surveys for Members & Visitors and Mystery Shopper Audits. These tools can provide important information to hospitality management teams to help them improve customer service and sales practices.

Paul Wilson, AVP & Group Golf Director of Laguna Golf, expressed great enthusiasm about partnering with golf’s leading benchmarking company, 59club Asia, and said;

“We're excited to announce our collaboration with 59club Asia, renowned experts in people development with a proven track record of managing top-tier golf courses in Europe, Middle East, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. This partnership focuses on elevating our golf courses and services alongside 59club Asia. Our selected participants include our prominent golf courses in Phuket, Indonesia and Vietnam—Laguna Golf Phuket, Laguna Golf Bintan and Laguna Lang co. With 59club Asia, we're dedicated to achieving our shared goals.”

After securing the collaboration with the Laguna Golf Group, Araya Singhsuwan, Operations Director, 59club Asia, said with confidence: “Laguna Golf Group stands out as a prime destination for golfers in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. With a dedicated management team focuses on enhancing customer experiences, their collaboration with 59club Asia brings even more value. Through Mystery Shopper Audits and Member & Visitor Surveys, they're gathering essential insights to further elevate their already high standards and provide an exceptional experience for all”.

59club Asia stands as the foremost provider of cutting-edge software and comprehensive assessment criteria within the golf industry across Asia. Based in Bangkok, the organisation is at the forefront of revolutionising customer service analysis and training for golf clubs, the leisure and hospitality industieres throughout the region. Through innovative technology and tailored evaluation standards, 59club Asia empowers golf clubs to enhance their service quality, ultimately leading to elevated customer satisfaction.

In the competitive world of golf and country club management, staying ahead of the curve requires a combination of dedication, innovative strategies, and utilizing the right tools.

Today, we bring you insights from an industry leader who’s making headway in optimizing member experiences, Jason Hanna, COO of the Credit Valley Golf and Country Club in Canada. We talk about his vision, 59club’s transformative role in their operations, and the future of golf clubs in the region. 

The Visionary Path

Under Jason's stewardship, Credit Valley aims to grow its member service standards by "creating means to measure our progress year over year and benchmarking with similar clubs in our market." This ensures they're either meeting or exceeding industry standards and expectations. 

Jason highlights the significance of 59club's industry benchmarking services, calling them "an invaluable tool, not only for club managers but for committees and Boards to better understand industry standards." 

Striking a Better Club Experience

Credit Valley is focusing on enhancing locker room and outside golf operations. They’ve found an ally in 59club, whose survey software and mystery shopping audits has resonated with the club’s team, mainly due to its granularity. This has facilitated more accurate evaluations, streamlined internal communications, and enriched staff training. 

"Benchmarking and surveys have been instrumental in setting targets. We have used the HR survey templates exclusively on staff to date in order have a sense of their comfort heading into a busy season, and a peer assessment method with our management team that folds into their appraisals. We will also be expanding to use surveys for Board and committee effectiveness," Jason shares. This bespoke approach has been pivotal in understanding Credit Valley’s unique aspects, and driving continuous improvement. 

On Course for Continuous Improvement

When asked how they intend to capitalize on data, Jason expressed that the information gathered has already contributed to shaping their operational plans, especially around staff engagement. 

He also emphasizes the role of mystery shopping services in evaluating customer experiences, stating, "Receiving a timely, comprehensive report covering all areas of interaction at the club allows management to make real-time adjustments, or seek further inquiry into areas performing below standard." 

Industry Influence and Future Forecasts

As a leader in the golf industry, Jason believes that 59club’s insights will contribute significantly to the growth of golf clubs in Canada, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area, that holds about 20% of the nation’s population and many of the top-tier clubs. 

“Implementing new operations or software can be daunting at times, but working with 59club makes implementing new protocols and services fairly routine,”

He advises other golf clubs considering a partnership with 59club; "Due to the ability to build services around the specific needs and nuances, 59club will capture data and measure service standards at any club." 

On the horizon for Credit Valley is further integration of these performance management services, especially in terms of member satisfaction surveys on targeted areas of the club’s amenities and additional mystery shopping across other areas of the business such as member onboarding. According to Jason, 59club’s regular training and support will make this a walk in the park.  

“Implementing new operations or software can be daunting at times, but working with 59club makes implementing new protocols and services fairly routine,” said Hanna. “59club is with us every step of the way, not only helping us read and interpret mystery shopping data, but also recommending and helping us with our employee education and training plans, as well as providing operations support, they are always focused on identifying opportunities for growth.” 

The partnership between Credit Valley Golf and Country Club and 59club paints a picture of progress and promise. With a vision to improve, the right tools in place, and a commitment to service excellence, the future seems bright for Credit Valley and the Canadian golf club industry as a whole. 

The world of golf and country club management, as observed through Jason’s lens, is one of relentless innovation, continuous improvement, and unwavering dedication to service excellence. As we navigate the future, these insights serve as a testament to the transformative power of collaboration, and the drive for progress that defines leaders like Jason Hanna and organizations like Credit Valley Golf and Country Club. 

In the world of club operations, having the right people, in the right places, behaving in the right way is paramount to success. A customer only has to receive one bad experience to disassociate themself with a brand or organisation, while spreading news of that poor experience far and wide. 

To some, the notion of reinvesting surplus back into operations specifically to educate and develop the team may seem groundbreaking, but could it potentially become the standard for future budgeting?  

Now, imagine we shift our perspective slightly and ask: what if a ‘specific portion’ of your overall revenue is dedicated to staff training and development in your budgeting process, just like McDonalds, Starbucks and other enormous global companies earmarks a particular amount for advertising each year? 

Although training and development have always found a place in your annual expense report, how can you be certain that your investment is enough, and how can you be sure that it’s paying dividends?  

Over the past three years, Club Study has conducted multiple surveys via its industry network to understand the investment trends in staff training and development. 

Interestingly, the Club Study industry peers report that their investment seems to have slightly dipped since 2021, as seen in the graphic below. 

Surprisingly, these numbers seem rather underwhelming for something so crucial to club operations. Observing the expenditure as an absolute dollar value, however, changes the narrative.  

A club with a $3 million turnover will spend less than $30k on average on training & development. Given the financial constraints that club budgets often have to grapple with, including break-even targets, slim profit margins, and increasing inflation, this amount suddenly seems justifiable, even generous to some. But can we really justify increasing this budget? 

In the wake of a recent increase in club activities and longer wait lists, many clubs may not see the immediate need for investing more in staff training. The decision-making process is typically reactive rather than proactive, and clubs often prioritize preventing losses over seeking gains. But wouldn't you agree that the clubs investing more than 2% in staff training probably enjoy a more robust staff culture, leading to better relationships, longer staff tenures, and an overall happier environment? Ultimately, selling and servicing customers to better degrees. 

We are pleased to report that we have seen an increased appetite for staff training in recent times, with many 59club clients who receive ‘mystery shopping’ audits investing heavily in training, probably for the same reason they are challenging the golf industry by delivering some of the finest customer experiences in the world of golf.  

59club handles enormous quantities of live data and insights, so much so that we are the only authority in golf who can go out on a limb and make such bold accusations about global CX benchmarks and industry trends.  

Surprisingly, these numbers seem rather underwhelming for something so crucial to club operations.

Just as we support our clients to understand their customers, we know our clients and we know them very well, and we can whole-heartedly confirm that they take education extremely seriously – so much so that we have witnessed a 166% increase in the number of training sessions delivered by the 59club UK team between 2021 & 2022.  

Taking it back to the wider industry, the Club Study network reports that the largest proportion of development dollars is spent on middle management. So, where exactly do these training dollars go? The most logical answer seems to be conferences, organised by various associations and governing bodies at national and regional levels. Conferences can provide inspiration, reflection, and innovative ideas, not to mention the fantastic networking opportunities and the fun that they provide.  

Yet, it remains hard to precisely calculate the ROI from these events. 

The crux of the matter when justifying expenditure lies in quantifying the return on investment (ROI) from training and development, which is no easy task. If we don't measure it, it's likely to be overlooked. 

To quantify improvement in training and development, we need a benchmark. This is where "mystery shopping" comes in. As an unbiased, ground-level measure of your customer service, it provides the perfect service benchmark. After a period of conducting such audits, you’ll have a robust dataset highlighting your strengths and weaknesses, confirming (or disproving) your suspicions. 

So, what’s next? The answer is simple: Train! Use the data, celebrate the successes, and develop strategies to address the weaknesses. Department-specific training, consistent programming, and building an ongoing relationship geared to enhance club culture, audit after audit, will make a world of difference. 

Your focus should always be on measuring. Once you start doing that, you'll start viewing training as an investment that yields a return. This brings us back to the heart of the industry: relationships. 

As the world continues to blaze the digital frontier, there are now more ways than ever to book a tee time or make a dinner reservation at your club. At face value, that’s a good thing. Additional ways to sell tee times and restaurant covers mean more ways to make your club more accessible and potentially profitable.  

But new digital pathways also create opportunities for digital missteps. Mainly, customers want to know their credit card information is secure and they want to know when you have reserved their spot – whether that be for a tee time booking, a dinner reservation or even a treatment at the health spa. And if you’re not providing a written record of their place on your tee sheet or a table at your restaurant, customers may start to feel uneasy about the entire process.  

More importantly, an inquisitive written confirmation – which we’ll discuss below – eliminates common customer service problems and opens additional upsell opportunities at your club and restaurant. 

Golf Visitor Experience Mystery Shopper Insights: 

The global golf industry failed to request an email address during 40% of all tee time reservations made during 2022.  

17% of all email confirmations went astray; either the incorrect email address was recorded, or possibly never sent.  

Only 56% of golfers ever received their booking confirmation…  

What’s the point? 

The initial purpose of a written confirmation is to acknowledge the correct date and time of the reservation. Simple. The bare minimum.  

If you ordered a widget from Amazon without a confirmation of the purchase, you would be left wondering if Amazon is, in fact, fulfilling the order. That kind of digital misstep creates enormous uncertainty and is unlikely to be the first impression you want to convey to your customer.  

With email fields being mandatory, most online tee-time and restaurant booking engines provide immediate and automated written confirmation, allowing customers sight of their booking details and the opportunity to spot any potential errors. When the reservation is booked over the phone the duty of collecting the email address sits with the reservations agent. According to Matt Roberts, 59club’s Director of Training & Education, the absence of a written confirmation can lead to uncertainty and potentially some level of confrontation, not to mention the potential loss of revenues.  

“If you’re taking the reservation by phone, it’s imperative to take the customer’s email address and ensure it is correct by repeating it back to your guest to avoid errors. From our experience, you would be amazed at how many people show up at the wrong time or even on the wrong day. This leads to an awkward conversation at the check-in counter trying to figure out how the error may have occurred.” 

Additional Components  

“My customer has booked, my software generated an immediate written confirmation, or my staff have access to send a ‘templated’ email. Done and done. Right?” Not exactly. For many places around the world, golf and secondary revenue channels like restaurants and bar are seasonal. Operating hours, menu items, club dress code and practice facility access and other large parts of the overall golf experience can change and be different from week to week. How often do you rehash the templated message? – and does it contain everything you’d expect?  

Small additions to a written confirmation with updated restaurant hours, dress code or practice facility access, for example, ensure customer expectations match your club’s operations. According to Roberts, clubs who don’t include this information in their written confirmation are leaving themselves open to poor customer experience.  

“Everything in the written confirmation has to match the customer expectations,” said Roberts. “The last thing you want to happen is someone arriving at your club expecting to eat breakfast and the restaurant is closed or wishing to hit some balls prior to play and it just happens to be that one day the range is closed for maintenance!  

Worse yet, and the one that can cause confrontation, is when a player arrives wearing an outfit outside of the club’s dress code policy. The staff are now faced with an undesirable dilemma: do I make a concession to this one visitor and risk others perceiving this as special treatment, or do I force this customer to purchase attire from the club shop to then adhere to the dress policy? A bad experience either way. Both are avoidable with an informative written confirmation.”  

Revenue generation  

Asking questions or providing additional information within the written confirmation also creates upselling and subsequent marketing opportunities. A common example is the promotion of a golf cart/buggy if one hasn’t been reserved at the call stage. Just by offering a link or a contact to the consumer for them to be able to reserve prior to arrival is imperative for increasing revenue. It also allows the club to prepare this hire item for the arrival of the guest.  

Any operator will tell you that the whole check in experience can be busy, but then throw in additional needs of the customer, such as buggy hire, club rental, use of a caddy, or even a personalized gift that the club wasn’t aware of, will lead to more time servicing the guest’s needs and a delay in an already busy operation.  

Multiple course operators can also promote the options of an upgrade or highlight other courses within a group. The booking confirmation can also promote elements such as accommodation either on-site, or at other local establishments that offer preferential rates when booked via the club. 

And, let’s face it, the opportunities to upsell are endless, when you consider other services and facilities such as high-ropes, custom-fitting, score card marking, leisure & spa usage, private dining etc that can be accessed either on the day, or that may tempt a future return to the club. 

Directions or a link to an interactive map, potential transfers and how to book them as well as any information about how to access the club are always useful for any visitors who may be unfamiliar with the area.  

Finally, and possibly the most important, are the Terms and Conditions of the club which are there to provide clarity on payment and cancelation, pairing up policy, bad weather and course closures must also be included within the confirmation. You will always be in a more comfortable position, when facing any confrontation, if your T’s and C’s are set in place.  

Of course, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to customer service at your club, and your fellow 59club manager can guide you through industry best practices.  

Last year, 59club announced its commitment to become carbon neutral across its global operations by 2030, and is unbelievably excited to have taken a huge step on that journey, with its UK & Ireland business now officially accredited with achieving neutrality in 2022. 

To help guide them through the transition to carbon neutral, 59club found solace in the services provided by “Neutral Carbon Zone (NCZ)” – a leading consultancy, management and certification platform. 

“Strategically we decided to start with the UK business as it is our most mature business. If we can achieve carbon neutral here, we know we can share best practice and achieve it in our Asia, Australia, Canada, European, MEA, Nordic & USA businesses.” said Simon Wordsworth, Founder and CEO of 59club. 

Over the last 16 months, Alan Stenson & Krys Stanton from NCZ supported Will Hewitt, Andy Etherington and the 59club UK team to adopt NCZ’s three scope structure to tackle the key areas of emissions, by creating strategies for every emission line, either at the company’s cost or simply behavioural changes within the business.   

59club even went further than ‘required’ to help its team members tackle their own carbon emissions through their personal travel and home energy use. 

“We reviewed emissions directly generated by the company’s activities, emissions that are indirectly generated by energy purchased by the company, and lastly emissions that arise from organizational activities, but from sources owned or controlled by other organizations. 

“It’s taken time simply because of the complexity of our business, as it’s not just our office and our people, but all the emissions created by our mystery testers and auditors as they move around the UK & Ireland, the events that we host such as the annual awards ceremony, client golf days, the servers that our software runs on…the list could just go on.” continued Wordsworth. 

The business even went further than ‘required’ to help its team members tackle their own carbon emissions through their personal travel and home energy use. 

To date, 59club’s UK & Ireland division has completed the first phase of its pledge, having received the results of a recently commissioned carbon footprint assessment, which measures the carbon emissions generated by the organisation’s activities. The assessment is the critical first stage of a comprehensive and commercially focused carbon management plan. The measurement of 59club’s carbon emissions follows the internationally recognised standard ISO-14064-1:2006.  

Wordsworth added; “As we progress through this journey, will start to change company buying decisions to ‘fellow green businesses’ who are positively seeking neutrality – where we stay, where we eat, who we buy from etc.”  

Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2030 across 59club’s Global Operations

"For 59club, the pursuit of excellence extends beyond exceptional customer service; it encompasses a responsibility towards our planet. Today, we proudly reaffirm our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality across our global operations by 2030. With this effort, 59club is dedicated to creating a brighter future, where exceptional experiences coexist with a greener world. 

"Today's announcement marks an important milestone in 59club's journey towards global carbon neutrality. We firmly believe that every long journey begins with a first step, and this commitment to becoming carbon neutral across our entire global operations by 2030 is just the beginning.” 

Wordsworth concludes; “Some of our operations that cover huge geographical areas are going to find this really difficult whilst still trying to grow and be profitable, but we believe this is an absolute necessity for the preservation of our planet. Over the coming decades, we will continue to forge ahead, implementing innovative measures and collaborating with partners worldwide to ensure a sustainable future. We have always tried to be amongst the first/early movers, tried to be creative and innovative and this journey allows us to flourish, playing our part to inspire positive change for generations to come." 

In the ever-evolving world of golf club and hospitality management, being a successful manager involves juggling multiple roles. In the whirlwind of these responsibilities, there isn't enough time to play guessing games about your member or guests’ needs. The best way to learn what your customers want at your club?  Ask them !!! 

Over the years, we have witnessed a significant shift in customer behaviour within our Survey Software. What started out with aspirations of becoming the most comprehensive pick & mix survey tool in the golf & hospitality industry, has inspired a new-age of club managers who stretch beyond the realms of typical club surveys, to solicit feedback on a whole host of areas to help inform their decision making and the direction the club chooses to take.  

Some of those uses border on being radical – a phrase that doesn’t usually appear in the context of Customer Service Management or in Golf in general... but then again, we’ve always been a magnet for those in the industry who like to do things better, and in doing so we like to support them to behave a bit differently...  

So, what exactly are these new radicals up to?  

They’re putting the club’s destiny in the hands of their members, guests and employees, they're not just seeking opinion, they're making instant ‘data-driven’ decisions to help guide the most suitable offering for their customers without prejudice and based on science.  

A new age of club managers are delivering surveys for a whole multitude of reasons, some even to establish where their members would prefer grant monies to be spent – on the course, or in the clubhouse?  

We’ve seen a club make their entire stock selection based on responses to a simple ‘one question’ survey to establish which brands members would prefer to see in the pro shop – giving different supplier options to both male & female members. 

Many clubs are now turning to their members requesting feedback on the club’s competition calendar in an attempt to increase participation, with others collating data to help shape their social events calendar, based on likes and dislikes from previous years, whilst ascertaining interest on potential new themes. 

There are so many daily decisions that as managers we face, but the new-age of club managers are involving their members, guests and employees, after all it’s their club and we need them to enjoy it to the absolute maximum, if we want to secure their loyalty.  

We’ve always been a magnet for those in the industry who like to do things better, and in doing so we like to support them to behave a bit differently...  

We’ve witnessed members inspire seasonal menu changes, and on occasion beer and wine suppliers being switched to the delight of those thirsty members. And then there’s a whole bunch of clubs who made member driven changes to their tee-sheets.  

There’s so many survey templates to choose from, and so much data to gain and take inspiration from, but there’s one that remains a favorite, always topping the usage charts - and that’s the new member survey. Designed to ensure all newbies are integrated into the club community from day one. Some club managers go one step further using the intelligent software to send their new members a ‘series’ of surveys at specific landmarks during their first three months at the club – monitoring their journey into club life, and addressing any weaknesses along the way.  

But let’s not forget the most important people within your business – your employees!!! Forward thinking managers are gathering critical data from the HR survey template bundle, to analyse new and existing employee's satisfaction levels, along with finding out why some chose to leave.  

We’ve noticed a huge shift from being reactive to pro-active, and that in itself is pure 100 percent karat gold, gone are the days of making assumptions of what will sell in the shop, or what events members may enjoy attending, or why suddenly a loyal group of members went AWOL.  

The best way to learn what your customers want at your club?

Ask them!!! 

Big shout out to all our radical customers – you know who you are!  

And if you’re just starting out on your journey with us - let us guide you to get the best out of your customers, and to give the best back.  

The game of golf has seen significant changes over the past few decades and so have the people who play it. Once stuck with the stigma of being stuffy and elitist, golf is now showing signs of getting younger, more inclusive and available to players of all abilities.

As a result, what was expected of a golf course in the past – in the way of customer service and player experience – is changing at the same rapid rate. In phrase: the days of focusing only on turf conditions are coming to an end.  

In this 59club Spotlight on Service, we head to Mallorca, Spain to catch up with Bernat Llobera, Area Golf  Director at Arabella Golf who echoes the importance of providing exceptional customer service across the board, and uses 59club’s industry leading services to objectively evaluate their customer experience, drive continuous improvement, and establish a club-wide culture of service across their three golf properties on Spain’s largest island.  

“We see nowadays that it is not only about having a course in great shape. It is about a journey, a full experience.” – Bernat Llobera.  

For Llobera, identifying growth opportunities – for revenue and service operations – begins with understanding the experience from the player’s perspective. Working with 59club has made that objective infinitely easier through regular mystery shopping services at Arabella Golf. 

“59club's evaluations are incredibly valuable assets as they provide a client's perspective which resembles a real guest experience,” said Llobera. “The objective insights provided by 59club are far more valuable than internal assessments. The ‘extra bonus’ is being able to compare ourselves, our three courses, and the ability to compare this to the wider industry benchmarks. And once we have identified areas for growth, 59club’s training and education services allow us to make improvements to our systems and protocols extremely quickly.”  

Llobera went on to say identifying and fixing problems as they arise is only half the battle. A commitment to continuous improvement must be the driving force behind changes to customer service protocols.  

“Once we receive our evaluation results, we immediately sit down to discuss them as a group,” said Llobera. “We look at everything from comments and images to objective ratings and begin to identify trends and long-term solutions, something that wouldn’t be possible if every team member wasn’t completely committed.”  

That commitment to improvement at Arabella Golf, and regular training through 59club has created a culture of customer service at the club. Employee training sessions are completed every year in many aspects of hospitality service, including phone skills, upselling options and retail protocols. 

“We see nowadays that it is not only about having a course in great shape. It is about a journey, a full experience.”

“Our team members love the training sessions,” said Llobera. “It’s clear to see that everyone takes them seriously and strives to improve. The common feedback from the team is that 59club knows and understands the intricacies of the business, and from what I know, there is nothing that can be compared to what 59club offers. Most recently 59club training sessions have been instrumental in improving our reservations department – often the first impression with your customer.”  

Another goal for Llobera this year? Pick up a few awards. 

“We were extremely proud of all three of our properties’ recognition at the most recent Service Excellence Awards, with Son Muntaner leading the way with a gold flag,” said Llobera. “It encourages you to keep working hard. Ultimately, our team members are the ones who create an incredible golf journey for our guests, so it’s especially gratifying to see the entire team recognized for their commitment and hard work.” 

The age old saying goes, ‘that great managers lead by example’; and 59club are quick to point out that Llobera was recently invited into 59club’s Eminent Collection, joining only twenty-two managers spanning 59clubs global territory – and the very first in Europe - having achieved this international benchmark of excellence, which recognises the finest individuals who are leading the industry in the customer experience realms. 

Eligibility into the Eminent Collection is based solely on achievements across the 59club Service Excellence Awards, with individual and team accolades, along with property flag designations, all contributing towards the Eminent Benchmark of Excellence; measuring performances over a minimum of 5 years. 

Golf experience in Spain is being elevated by managers such as Llobera who seek analysis and feedback to support their team to strengthen their proposition in the marketplace. The advice that he would give to other club managers in Europe and across the wider golfing landscape is that “59club’s wide range of services and solutions improve the business, and therefore, the bottom line. Through personal experience they understand the golf operation and the hospitality industry better than anyone we have met before; they are a great support specialising in customer service; I highly recommend them and their services.”  

A case Study exploring global New Member Onboarding trends

In the modern landscape, data stands as the pivotal cornerstone guiding our actions and shaping our strategies. It offers insight, reveals patterns and uncovers hidden opportunities.

In short, data becomes our road map. Insights collected from our recent multi-national survey of new club members reinforces not only the importance of data collection in this industry, but also how action – or in this case, inaction – can create a mismatch between Member needs and Club operations.  

Out of more than a thousand global respondents to the member onboarding survey, a striking 80 percent cited "lose weight or get in shape" as the primary motive for joining the health club. This clearly signals a profound desire among members to prioritize their fitness journey and take proactive steps towards health and wellness.  

However, there exists a disconnection in the club's member service ecosystem, indicated by other data points from the survey. A sizable 82 percent of the respondents disclosed that they had not received a new member welcome call within 5 days of joining the club, and only 47 percent received any type of health & fitness induction with the personal trainer, with 40 percent failing to even receive a fitness class schedule. 

This data demonstrates a significant gap in communication and service delivery that can hinder members from realizing their wellness goals. It paints a stark contrast between what members expect and what they experience. 

Data is a powerful tool, but it's only as valuable as the action it inspires. What can we, as industry leaders and club managers, do with this data? How can we turn these insights into effective strategies? 

Firstly, this data suggests a crucial need to improve communication with new members, ensuring they are well informed about the fitness services available to them. This should involve a personalized welcome call, with an invitation to attend a face-to-face meeting with the personal trainer and / or operations manager, to provide all the necessary items and advice to help them integrate instantly into club life. This simple act of proactive engagement can not only facilitate their fitness journey but also build a stronger rapport, promoting a sense of belonging within the club community from day one. 

Secondly, the importance of implementing a comprehensive and structured onboarding program for new members. This should start with a new member initiation meeting, this could include guided tours, allowing the club to emphasize the various fitness services, the different fitness classes or group activity programs and to make introductions to other employees within the fitness team as well as like-minded members, those of a similar ability, or members with relatable fitness goals.  

Subsequent appointment scheduling – should not be overlooked, employees should as part of their regular service calls attempt to engage new members in health assessments, equipment inductions, fitness programs and future goal settings, with appointments set aside for regular reviews - and perhaps a complimentary session with a personal trainer.  The goal is to provide an enriched experience that encourages members to actively utilize the club's fitness offerings, and engage with fellow club members and the wider fitness team, whilst serving them to meet their goals. 

Lastly, feedback mechanisms should be put in place to continuously gather member input. These might include regular surveys and service calls where members can share their experiences and ideas. This ongoing data collection not only helps to identify any areas needing improvement, but also to anticipate changing member needs, fostering a responsive and adaptable club environment. 

This example is a wake-up call for clubs to re-evaluate and reinforce their new member engagement strategies. It's a clear testament to the importance of effective communication, a well-structured onboarding process, and ongoing feedback collection. By embracing data and taking the appropriate action, clubs can bridge the service gap, enhance member satisfaction, and ultimately, help members succeed in their fitness journey. After all, data is a tool, and its power is realized only when it's put into action. 

If you are ready to measure your member experience and develop a structured onboarding process for your new golf and leisure club members, then help is at hand...  

• Our New Member Integration Survey, Member Retention Survey and Member Exit Survey Templates will deliver the data to support you to tailor your offering throughout your entire member life cycle.  
• And you can follow the education lessons within 59club’s Mentor platform, or request for one of the 59club training managers to guide you through the various training modules.  

Together we can build a successful member integration and retention strategy for your club, ensuring members feel welcome, connected, and valued, with the purpose of encouraging them to visit more often, enter into club life, refer friends and family and linger-longer whilst they are at the club.  

We are thrilled to share some great news about our founder, Simon Wordsworth, who was recently recognised as the latest PGA Member to achieve PGA Master Manager status. This announcement comes from the Professional Golfers' Association itself, marking a new milestone in Simon's illustrious career and adding another feather to his cap. 

The PGA Master Manager status is an accolade of the highest order, recognising Simon's significant contribution to the golf industry and his immense expertise in club management. He is one of only sixty one PGA members to have been granted this honour. 

Our founder has always been a forward-thinker, a trailblazer who has ceaselessly worked towards promoting the golf industry's best practices. He founded 59club back in 2008, with a vision to revolutionize golf management and service excellence. Under his leadership, we have grown from a handful of clubs in the UK, to a multi-national brand and industry leader with divisions and operations on five continents.  

Reflecting on his achievement, Simon shared, "It's incredibly humbling to receive this recognition. I'm passionate about delivering excellence in golf management, and I believe this honor represents the collective efforts of our fantastic team at 59club. We've always strived to deliver the best, and we'll continue to do so." 

Over the years, Simon has always been a proponent of professional development within the industry. He believes that the key to success lies in continuous learning, evolving with changing times, and always striving to improve. This ethos has been ingrained in our organisational culture at 59club and continues to drive us towards excellence. 

Simon's PGA Master Manager status comes as a result of his vast experience, his dedication to the industry, and his ability to lead, challenge and inspire. It not only recognizes his past achievements but also underscores his potential for future contributions to the golfing industry. We're confident that under Simon's stewardship, 59club will continue to reach new heights and redefine industry standards. 

We are absolutely delighted for Simon and immensely proud to be led by a PGA Master Manager. As we continue our journey, we remain committed to the pursuit of excellence, championing the finest standards in golf and leisure management. 

Congratulations, Simon! This is a well-deserved recognition, and we are excited to see where your leadership takes us in the future. 

Golf clubs aren't merely venues for a beautiful round of golf; they're spaces where members bond over a meal or drink. As such, food and beverage operations play an essential role in shaping the member experience. However, balancing quality with profitability is a delicate dance that golf clubs across the world grapple with, especially during off-peak days. 

According to recent analysis by 59club Study; 1 in 4 golf clubs reduce or even eliminate their F&B operations during their slowest days of the year, 56% of clubs identified Monday as the slowest day of the week, with Tuesday trailing at 22%.  

In this case, the data - based on research from a global network of managers within the 59club Study community - affords managers industry insights around how other clubs are making changes to their F&B opening or closing times on specific “slower” days.  

Data collection and understanding are fundamental before making any decision at your golf club. Precise data collected from your own members and guests will enable you to objectively assess your club's operations, track member & guest preferences, and identify trends. It takes the guesswork out of decision-making, giving you a solid foundation upon which to design effective strategies.  

These "slow" days offer an opportunity for creative solutions that can boost sales and enhance member satisfaction. If the data suggests that you should remain open, and lets face it, who wants to shut up shop when there’s potential revenue to gain, maybe it’s a case of kicking your restaurant into gear to boost sales on these slow days. 

Remember, the goal is not just to increase sales but also to enhance the customer experience. The strategies you adopt should reflect your club's ethos and cater to the needs and preferences of your members & guests, here are some strategies to consider; 

Innovative Marketing and Communication 

Using email newsletters, social media, and even the club's website to communicate special offers or themed nights can spark interest and increase attendance. Communicate consistently and ensure that your message reaches your customers effectively. 

Customer Engagement Activities 

Involve members & guests in activities such as cookery classes, wine tastings, or a 'meet the chef' evening. These initiatives can create a sense of community and encourage members to visit the club on slower days. 

Strategic Partnerships 

Consider partnering with local businesses to create attractive package deals that combine a round of golf with dining discounts. This can help attract new visitors to the club and possibly convert them into regular members. 

Streamline Operations 

Use data and analytics from platforms like 59club Study, alongside your own regular customer satisfaction surveys  to identify trends and monitor member preferences. You can use these insights to streamline your F&B operations, optimize menus, manage inventory, and reduce waste. 

Slow days need not be a drain on your club's F&B operations. By adopting creative strategies and leveraging data, you can turn these off-peak periods into opportunities for growth and member engagement. Remember, every day at your golf club is a chance to make a lasting impression and deliver an exceptional experience.  

Don't let the off-peak blues bring you down; instead, use them as a springboard to elevate your club's F&B operations to new heights. 

In the world of retail, there is a common question that has plagued salespeople for years. It’s an easy question to ask, an easier question to answer and it does exactly nothing for your bottom line.  

The question in question? "Can I help you?"

It seems innocent enough, a well-meaning attempt to assist customers. However, according to 59club Global Trainer Matt Roberts, this question may be the absolute worst to ask in any retail setting, and what’s more staggering is that 59club’s industry leading data suggests that 75% of all mystery shoppers were either asked this very question, or simply ignored after showing interest in a product. 

The Ineffectiveness of "Can I Help You?": 

According to Roberts, the question "Can I help you?" often falls flat, and worse, creates a negative feedback loop between you and your customer. The most common response? "I'm just looking, thanks." This lackluster interaction fails to create a meaningful connection between the salesperson and the customer, leaving both parties unsatisfied.  

A fact supported by 59club’s mystery shopping data, which highlights, “of those that were asked this question; 58% identified that they would not wish to make a purchase”. Immediately, nearly 80% of customers who are asked "Can I help you?" aren’t buying. Now that’s a big-time problem. 

Missed Sales Opportunities: 

Asking the wrong question can trip up sales professionals and hinder their ability to create sales opportunities. Instead of resorting to the generic "Can I help you?" query, it is crucial to engage customers in a conversation that promotes active dialogue. By understanding their specific needs and preferences, salespeople can tailor their recommendations and provide a more personalised experience.  

Turning Conversation into Sales Opportunities: 

Having eliminated the "Can I help you?" scenario; 59club’s education stresses the importance of asking engaging questions that promote casual chat. For instance, sales staff asking customers a combination of open and closed questions about their golf game, their abilities, or their favourite part of their game can lead to fruitful conversations. These interactions can uncover areas where customers are struggling and allow sales professionals to offer relevant solutions or services. By actively listening and providing personalised recommendations, retailers can turn missed opportunities into successful sales. What do customers want in a personalised experience? Let’s find out through needs analysis. 

The Power of Needs Analysis: 

One key element of 59club’s education is the importance of conducting a needs analysis for customers seeking a particular product. Rather than immediately showcasing a range of options, salespeople should focus on understanding what the customer is looking for in that specific product. By asking a selection of well-constructed questions about their preferences, why they’re in the market for the product in the first place, current usage, and desired improvements, sales professionals can gain valuable insights to guide their recommendations. Failing to conduct a proper needs analysis can result in further missed sales opportunities. Alarmingly, only 50% of 59club mystery shoppers received a needs analysis during their encounter with the retail team, and to their detriment, 77% of those shoppers stating that they did not feel compelled to make a purchase based on their sales experience. 

What’s a better way?  

A crucial aspect of the retail sales process is the significance of linking product features to their benefits. Rather than overwhelming customers with a laundry list of specifications, salespeople should emphasize how a product can meet their specific needs and provide value. By identifying the benefits that resonate with the customer, sales professionals can create a compelling case for making a purchase. This approach not only enhances the customer's understanding, but also increases the likelihood of closing a sale. 

In the realm of retail, the question "Can I help you?" may be the worst one to ask customers. It often leads to missed sales opportunities and fails to establish a meaningful connection. By embracing alternative approaches, conducting a needs analysis, linking features to benefits, and promoting engaging conversations, sales professionals can transform their interactions with customers.  

It is through these personalized and attentive strategies that retail businesses can foster stronger customer relationships, increase sales, and provide exceptional shopping experiences. So, the next time you step into a retail environment, remember that a genuine conversation can make all the difference.  

Have you been here before? It’s an innocuous and generally harmless question with enormous upside.

The restaurant industry have used this relatively innocent question for decades in order to prime the pump for an engaging customer experience. Asking someone if they have been to your golf course, restaurant, spa – or any other hospitality or leisure venue – opens the door for conversation and questions, builds rapport and emotional connection between the customer and your staff/brand, and provides an opportunity to share your club’s best stories or things a customer should know before heading out.  

59club has crunched the numbers and, once again, the top-performing clubs never miss an opportunity to ask this question during the tee time booking call. The rest of the pack, however, fails to ask this question 64% of the time.  

On arrival at the club during checking in for golf; even the best performers struggle when it comes to discussing a visitors  previous experiences as they attempt to build a personal rapport, only achieving 68%, with the 59club industry average sat at just 50%. 

Let’s dive in.  

The most effective way to open the door for an engaging conversation and information gathering is to ask personal questions but asking a customer where they see themselves in five years or what makes them the happiest isn’t really appropriate in this instance. Asking a visitor if they have played the course before, however, is a semi-opened-ended question with a clear goal and hundreds of different avenues for additional conversation. If the customer has played the course before, it begs the question “when?” Was it a long time ago or before a recent renovation? Have there been changes to improve the club since then? Why did they take so long in between rounds? Are they from out of town and should their name and email address go into a special “feeder market” list bucket in your CRM system? Enormous amounts of information all gained from starting with one simple question.  

These types of conversation starters not only gather important information for marketing and customer service operations, but also provide an opportunity to tell positive stories or provide important general information about your club to someone who may not know. If someone is playing for the first time, they might want to hear about a featured hole, strategy on how to play the course, where to find locker room, restaurant, practice area and 1^st tee, humorous anecdotes and other positive stories.  

The message is clear, the top performing clubs need to be more consistent from managing the tee time call to greeting a visitor on arrival, far too many other clubs - that feed into the 59club industry average - are leaving easily gatherable information on the table. The golf and leisure clubs who take charge of the first impression and subsequent conversations tend to score higher in other areas as well, creating a domino effect of individual, positive experiences which lead to a better experience overall.  

Working with the data 

Delve into your Mystery Shopping Audits, and analyze how many times the team has asked this question ‘month on month’ and ‘year on year’, paying close attention to the podium performance, industry and your own competitor set average to see how you compare.  

Celebrate those within the team who have witnessed successes, reminding others of the fundamental basics to perfect their engagement techniques.  

Encourage skill-share, role-play, and time away to study, reminding the team of the learning links within the mystery shopping results, and the resources within the Mentor education platform to develop their sales process & customer service experience. 

Review successes and set targets on a regular basis as Mystery Shopping results are released...  

In today's competitive golf industry, it's crucial for golf clubs to deliver exceptional customer experiences to attract and retain players. One golf club that has successfully navigated this challenge is We-Ko-Pa Golf Club, located in Scottsdale, Arizona, which – under the leadership of General Manager Matt Barr – has seen significant growth in retail and F&B sales over the past two years. Their secret? Unbiased, actionable data collected from regular mystery shopping audits. 

The Partnership Between We-Ko-Pa Golf Club and 59club 

Barr and his team at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club gained valuable insights into the areas where they could improve their customer service and drive sales growth. According to Barr, what started out as an opportunity to identify on-course condition and maintenance, like turf health and bunkering, turned into an extremely valuable tool for nearly every customer-facing operation at the club.  

“Managers can’t be everywhere at once, so we engaged with 59club in order to make sure our on-course product was up to our standards,” said Barr. “The data we received from our initial golf visitor experience audits opened our eyes to not only the on-course product, but also our retail and F&B operations. We quickly realised we could grow in many ways.”  

Implementing Effective Sales Techniques 

Armed with the insights, Barr and his team at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club implemented new sales techniques that focused on improving customer interactions. By training staff to engage with customers more effectively and to upsell and cross-sell products and services, the club was able to increase its retail sales by double digits in a little under two years.  

"We've seen a remarkable retail sales increase since starting with 59club,” said Barr. “This growth can be directly attributed to learning and implementing effective sales processes that focus on upselling and cross-selling. By equipping our team with the right tools and techniques, we've been able to enhance the customer experience and drive significant revenue growth for our club.” 

On the F&B front, mystery shopping data allowed Barr and his team to identify areas for growth and double down on quality customer service operations. According to Barr, simple questions asked by F&B staff have led to significant sales increases, and even improved employee satisfaction.  

“Asking simple questions like ‘have you dined with us before’ or ‘would you like another beer’ not only lead to increases in F&B revenue, but also staff wages,” said Barr. “As bills increase from another round of drinks or upselling a more expensive spirit, so do tips for our servers. It’s a win-win across the board and something we might never have seen without data from 59club.”  

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction 

By making improvements in their daily processes, We-Ko-Pa Golf Club was able to enhance the overall customer experience. Satisfied customers are more likely to return to the club and recommend it to others, which will have a positive impact on future sales. The increased focus on customer service, driven by the insights gained from regular mystery shopping audits, helped the club create a more enjoyable guest experience. 

The success of We-Ko-Pa Golf Club demonstrates the significant impact that mystery shopping and data analysis can bring to the golf, leisure & hospitality industry. As the industry becomes increasingly competitive, it's essential for clubs to prioritize customer service and continually strive for improvement. By partnering with 59club, venues can gain valuable insights and support to help them boost sales and create exceptional experiences for their customers. 

Connecting Managers with industry Insight, and a global network.

Our minute surveys are used to collect immediate and diverse responses from 59club’s global network, with results analysed to identify emerging trends and then published days later.

Each fortnightly survey highlights technical, conceptual and philosophical insights from inside Golf, Leisure & Hospitality businesses from across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australia & New Zealand. The Insight, Collaboration and Community that Club Study creates will inspire curiosity, and ultimately empower Club Managers to make informed data-driven decisions.

Participants are encouraged to submit questions they would like to appear in subsequent surveys, putting Club Managers in control of the direction the study takes to give an industry perspective like no other.

Previous reports have revealed a Club Manager's typical ratio of hours spent in versus outside the office, the composition of a club's board or management group, the frequency of F&B menu changes, and emotive responses to pinpoint a manager’s stress level, to provide a broad flavour of what’s in store.

Currently Club Study is a complimentary offering as part of 59club’s commitment to support the Club Manager to achieve Customer Service Excellence by harnessing insight, collaboration and building community.

View examples of recent reports here.

Visit here to learn more and sign up!

Members are the life-blood of many clubs; failure to convert them can prove expensive in both the short and long-term. But maximizing the opportunities which present themselves often comes down to having the correct person adopting the correct policies.

Yet one of the most overlooked aspects of converting a prospect comes at that very first stage: the answering of the call. Firstly, it’s essential that the correct person is available to answer the call. Those who hesitate are lost, and so are those who are not there in the first place.

Ask yourself how many opportunities are lost if the phone goes unanswered? Or if the correct staff member is on holiday or sick? So, when you consider that on only 58% of occasions did our mystery testers get to speak to the correct person on the first attempt of calling – according to the 59club industry score – we begin to appreciate how many opportunities may be lost.

That’s effectively twice in every five calls a prospective member speaks to the wrong person, necessitating a call-back. Worse still, what if the prospect calls a competitor while waiting for your return call, and they went on to impress them so much that they signed up!?

One of the most important aspects of the initial enquiry call is the art of building a rapport with the caller. This comes naturally to an engaging staff member, but this technique is lost when the wrong person tries to deal with an enquiry.

An engaging staff member will attempt to build a rapport; asking the prospect about their golfing background, how often they play, where, and what is their handicap, all simple conversation pieces. Yet the industry are only getting 28% of the picture, while the best-performing clubs glean a much better understanding of their prospects, as they achieve 77%.

Asking what has prompted the enquiry is likely to provide you with further valuable information. They may, for example, be a member elsewhere and be unsatisfied with the condition of the course, or a lack of investment, allowing the staff member to respond with positives about the excellent course condition and raft of recent and future investments. This is designed to edge the caller towards a positive outcome, both now and then later in the sales process when they visit the club.

There are countless reasons why somebody will make the initial call; employees who fail to delve into them will find it harder to persuade the prospect to put pen to paper. The podium performers have realised this and without fail, they established what prompted the membership enquiry every single time; the industry asked the question 70% of the time.

Furthermore, establishing the caller’s primary requirements for a membership - competitive golf, the social aspect, entertaining clients, meet new people etc - leads to other opportunities that will relate to their needs, with the intention of exciting them at the thought of a membership later in the call. Again, the podium score reflects the success therein with 86%, while the industry average drops to 44%.

Effectively, taking the last three areas together, it’s clear that industry-wide we’re failing to establish the caller’s history and membership needs on every other occasion.

A further vital question is required to establish whether the caller is also contacting other clubs with the same enquiry. With relevant SWOT analysis of your competition, your staff are in an ideal position to stress your strengths over your rivals’ weaknesses, without the need to openly criticise them.

However, the importance of this approach seems to be lost on many clubs; with a podium score of just 50% and, even more disappointingly, an overall industry rating of just 14%.

Using all of the personal information gleaned, you are now in a position to make a ‘related’ promotion of the member services, club facilities and USPs, for how else is one to excite the caller? Yet, despite the obvious importance of this action, the industry comes in with a rating of just 55%, and the podium not much higher at 72% when analysing their promotion.

Now that the prospect is excited at the thought of membership, the emphasis is to encourage the individual to visit the club in order to view the facilities and discuss member benefits further.

In future issues, we will look at how the membership sales appointment should be structured.

If you would like to take a closer look at the membership sales process, visit the 59club Mentor education platform to fill any shortcomings in your member sales enquiry process.

For those of you who are new to 59Club Study; the platform connects curious Club Managers and industry personnel from around the globe, creating opportunities to explore operational decision making from a wide range of operators in different locales, under different cultural norms, as we learn from each other.

59Club Study’s goal is to build a professional network of hospitality managers, driven by data and club research, with a strict focus on collaboration and tackling tough topics together.

Each fortnightly report highlights technical, conceptual, and philosophical insights from inside Golf, Leisure & Hospitality businesses across the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Australia & New Zealand.

Managers are encouraged to submit questions they would like to appear in subsequent surveys, putting you in control of the direction the study takes, providing an industry perspective like no other.

The insight, collaboration, and community that 59Club Study creates, will inspire curiosity, and ultimately empower Club Managers to make informed data-driven decisions.

As a 59club client, you now have free access to this incredible tool.

Click here to read three of 59Club Study’s most recent reports.

Which is more important for employee retention: higher wages or schedule flexibility? Employee turnover can be costly and time-consuming, and it's essential to keep your top talent motivated and engaged. Any club manager will tell you it’s much harder to find and train a new employee, than it is to keep good staff members happy.

If you get word a few of your best employees are beginning to think about working elsewhere, what do you do?

You could pay them more, certainly, but that might not be the underlying issue for their unhappiness. Schedule flexibility could help, but you need them at the club as often as possible. After all, they’re your best staff members.

What is more important: higher wages or schedule flexibility? What would work the best? How could you possibly know? It might depend on individual needs.

Higher wages can be an attractive option for employees, as it can increase their sense of financial security and stability. Employees who feel that they are being paid fairly are more likely to be motivated and committed to their work. However, there is only so much you can offer in terms of a salary before it becomes unaffordable for your business. It's essential to consider whether you can sustain paying higher wages in the long term, especially if it means compromising on other areas of your business, such as investment in training or new equipment.

On the other hand, schedule flexibility can be another key factor in employee retention. Many employees value having the ability to adjust their work schedule to accommodate personal or family commitments, such as attending a child's school event or caring for a sick relative. Offering schedule flexibility can increase employee satisfaction, which can lead to increased productivity, engagement, and loyalty. However, it's important to ensure that schedule flexibility doesn't impact business operations or create any staffing gaps that can impact other employees' workloads or morale. Can your club operate successfully with that amount of flexibility for just one or two employees? Does it have to be available to every employee?

So, what's the answer? Which is more important: higher wages or schedule flexibility? It's challenging to determine what's more important without asking your employees directly.

By surveying your employees, you can gather unbiased feedback and gain valuable insights into their preferences and needs. You can ask staff about their thoughts on higher wages versus schedule flexibility and use this information to make more informed decisions about how to retain your top talent. All anonymously and without bias.

These are only two answers to a delicate problem faced in the club industry. Both options have their advantages, and the answer to what's more important may vary depending on the individual needs and preferences of your employees. To make an informed decision, it's essential to gather feedback from your employees and use this information to make adjustments to your retention strategies.

With 59club’s survey tools at your disposal – you really can ask whatever you like. Plus the HR survey templates make it easy to monitor employee wellbeing, engagement & satisfaction levels, ensuring that you are providing existing employees and new hires with the support they need to thrive in their roles - and there’s always something to learn from an employee exit survey.

If the reality is that ‘happy employees = happy customers,’ then it’s high time we prioritise employee well-being.

As J. Willard Marriott famously said; “Take good care of your employees, and they’ll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back”.

Running a golf club located in one of the most luxurious destinations in the world, Abu Dhabi, certainly puts a premium on excellent customer service. The city attracts a diverse range of visitors from all around the globe, from business executives to leisure travelers, all of whom expect a high level of service and experience and are accustomed to top-notch treatment wherever they go.

In a place like Abu Dhabi – and for general manager of Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, Rhian Lobo – investing in customer service operations is crucial to meet the expectations of both local and international guests.

“As a premier golf destination in the region, we understand the importance of delivering a world-class experience for our members and guests,” said Lobo. “By investing in our customer service operations, we can ensure that we meet and exceed the expectations of our customers, and maintain our position as a leader in the industry."

One of the key investments for Lobo and his team was partnering with 59club, to work on many aspects of their customer-facing operations.

"We strive to provide our members and guests with the best possible experience, and 59club has been instrumental in identifying not only areas of improvement, but also how to capitalize on things we already do well. They’ve been instrumental in helping us achieve our goals,” said Lobo.

Identifying needs and opportunities are one thing. Collecting and implementing actionable data is another. Using data collected through 59club’s survey tools, Abu Dhabi City Golf Club was not only able to identify that their customers wanted improvements to their driving range, but also used data to create a pitch to their governing board. With the help of such intel, they now have ball tracking technology on all 48 bays, something their members & guests greatly valued.

Lobo adds, "The reports from 59club has given us a fresh perspective on our operations, enabling us to focus on the areas we might have otherwise overlooked. We're thrilled with the impact it's had on our driving range, and we look forward to implementing further changes based on new reports down the line.”

In addition to their unbiased mystery shopping audits and survey data, Abu Dhabi City Golf Club has also benefited from on-site training sessions with 59club. These sessions bring the team together and provide them with the tools they need to excel in their roles.

Lobo explains, "Investing in our team is crucial to maintaining our high standards of customer service. The F&B, golf operations, membership sales and retention training sessions provided by 59club have helped us identify our team's strengths and weaknesses, enabling us to provide targeted training that has ultimately improved the customer experience."

The investment in 59club and commitment from Lobo’s team has already paid dividends. According to 59club’s data comparisons over the course of the last three years, Abu Dhabi City Golf Club’s customer service satisfaction scores have shown double digit increases in eight different categories, spanning; staff sales & upselling aptitude, customer engagement, facility management, on-course service standards, and the food and beverage operation to name a few.

“The ability to measure our investment and see our success through these reports has been absolutely incredible,” said Lobo. “It can be easy to implement a new program as a manager and simply forget about it. When you forget about it, so do your staff. With regular mystery shopper reports from 59club, we make sure we’re always focused on what matters to our customers, and we are able to reward our staff for achieving measurable success.”

Abu Dhabi City Golf Club has come a long way in their customer service journey. Starting from a Bronze Flag Designation, they have progressed to the 59club Gold Flag standard, a testament to their commitment to excellence.

Lobo concludes, "59club has been an integral part of our success, and we wouldn't be where we are today without their support. We're excited to continue working with them to provide the best possible experience for our members and guests."

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 labour 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’s global data; 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 additional or premium items when they have a personal connection to their server.

Something as simple as a friendly introduction from the server, with the attempt to involve the table in engaging conversation can be the difference between your customers ordering the least profitable items on the menu, or on their recommendation, opting for the higher ticket, higher return options, or additional courses.  

Developing rapport through the ‘friendly conversation starter’ tactic is something every server in your organisation 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 chose to 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. When it comes to a server’s willingness and ability to initiate friendly conversation starters; the podium performers score just 58%, the 59club industry average drops to 40%, showing an industry wide opportunity for growth and higher F&B margins.

Despite all the positive scenarios related to upselling, staff are just not on board. We have to focus their attention and encourage them, and give them the confidence to give upselling a go. The opportunity to sell more and increase F&B profits is easy money, yet the industry only attempts to upsell additional items on 37% of occasions. The podium venues also need to re-focus their servers, as they only achieved 56%.

Let’s do the math based on a club that see an average of 140 players per day, of which 40 of them order a meal after their round.

If the servers use friendly conversation starters to prime the table for the upsell of an additional course priced at £5 (with a 60% margin), and managed to convert just half of the 40 diners; the result is a £21,900 uplift in profit over the course of one year, just by implementing a simple conversation piece in your customer service toolkit. Win win.

And let’s not forget the opportunities to upsell simple but highly profitable snack items & drinks to the 140 golfers before they even teed off ! And that’s something we can all get more bang from our buck; with the podium set performers only attempting to upsell 30% of the time, and the industry missing even more opportunities, as they only attempt to upsell to a fifth of all golfers !

Implement friendly conversation starters today, and watch your profits sore.

59club MEA & Asia brought the Golf & Hospitality Industry together on Thursday 8th March to celebrate elite standards of customer service excellence, as their annual awards event descended on JA Resorts, Dubai.

Festivities began with a round of educational and networking opportunities both on-and-off the course, before the evening celebrations paid tribute to the best performing properties within 59club’s mystery shopper programme of 2022.

59club’s coveted Gold, Silver and Bronze Flag awards were presented to nineteen properties across the Middle East, Africa & Asia for having achieved the required standard of customer service as well as providing the finest facilities and services for their customers enjoyment, as independently adjudicated by 59club’s comprehensive benchmarking system.

Emirates Golf Club received the highest of those accolades on the night – the Ultimate Service Excellence Award for their leading performance within the Gold Flag Designations. They also saw their F&B department awarded the team of the year title, a triumph that Mark Bull, 59club MEA Director previously revealed had seen Emirates’ CX performance across the F&B department rise by 5% and the overall golf operation up by as much as 6% over the past 12 months.

Cian Hurley, Director of Golf at Emirates Golf Club said of the awards, "We are delighted to have won the 59club Ultimate Service Award here at Emirates golf club. This is a true reflection of the overall team effort that goes into reaching and attaining the level of service standard we aim for. Working alongside the team at 59club has helped us to realise this achievement, the support provided is invaluable to us."

Those properties achieving Gold Flag Designations on the night were: Abu Dhabi City GC; Al Hamra Golf Club; Dubai Creek; Dubai Hills Golf Club; Els Club, Dubai; Emirates Golf Club; Jumeirah Golf Estates; Trump International Golf Club; Yas Acres Golf & Country Club; Yas Links, Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile six Silver Flag Designations were awarded to Al Zorah Golf Club; Arabian Ranches; Bryanston Country Club; Meydan Golf; Montgomerie Golf Club, Dubai and Vattanac Golf Resort. With Aquella Golf & Country Club; Riverdale Golf Club and Thana City Country Club claiming Bronze Flag Status.
Further celebrations were realised for Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, after they took the double crown having seen both their Retail & Membership departments awarded 2022 team of the year titles.

Rhian Lobo, General Manager, "We’re thrilled to win best Membership sales team, best retail store and reach the 59club Gold Flag award. Congratulations to the entire team for providing exceptional customer experience standards throughout the facility."

Trump International Golf Club, Dubai became the my59 Ultimate Service Excellence Award heroes, an honour they have retained for the fourth consecutive year, having consistently demonstrated their commitment to regularly analyse and advance their customer service levels using a wealth of satisfaction surveys.
As proceedings unfolded, first time 59club champions Yas Acres Golf & Country Club took to the stage - having only enlisted the customer service specialists’ services the previous year, proving they are true professionals when it comes to service excellence – having been awarded Agronomy Team of the Year for their consistency on the golf course.

Saadiyat Beach Golf Club also had reason to celebrate after seeing their team claim the enviable Golf Operations Team of the year award.

Meanwhile, 59club Asia saw success from two newcomers to the 59club community: with Aquella Golf & Country Club claiming a Flag Designation and both the Retail, and F&B Team of the year accolade.

Speaking of their Bronze Flag Designation and their multiple team of the year successes in what is their first 59club Service Excellence Awards Ceremony; Brian Gibson, General manager of Aquella Golf & Country Club said; “Working with 59club Asia has helped our team achieve the service levels required and elevate Aquella G&CC to be one of the top golfing destinations in Thailand, benchmarking Aquella G&CC against the top clubs & resorts in the world allows the team to focus on the guest experience and continue to exceed customer expectations. The on-site training provided by 59club Asia has been instrumental in our success, the team members are more engaged as a result of the tailored and detailed training sessions delivered by 59club Asia associates, not only are our team consistently delivering a great experience, as individuals the 59club Asia training helps develop and shape their career, providing vital guidance and development”

Renowned Riverdale Golf Club celebrated being awarded Bronze flag designation, having worked tirelessly with their team to develop member and guest experience following the significant challenges Asia experienced during the pandemic, achieving this award s testament to the teams dedication to Excellence.

The same can be said for Thana City Country Club who also celebrated achieving Bronze flag status, Thana City was especially pleased to be recognised after investment saw them rebuild their greens 18 months ago which has been lauded in the region, as they continue to drive customer experience and focus on attaining Golf flag status.

And finally, Vattanac Golf Resort also proved that standards at the Cambodian resort are amongst the highest in Asia, after they scooped 59club’s Golf Operation Team of the year title, and their greens department won Asia’s Agronomy Team of the year award for consistently delivering a well-defined and presented golf course of the highest standard.
Of the annual hallmark event in the golf & hospitality business community, Mark Bull 59club MEA Director said “It was our pleasure to gather the Industry together at JA Resorts for a celebration of the Industry success across MEA & Asia. Congratulations to all winning clubs and managers. We are already looking forward to making the 2024 awards a bigger and better event for all."

Araya Singhsuwan 59club Asia Director, commenting on the success of the annual event; “We are immensely proud of all our nominees and winners this year, everybody has tirelessly dedicated themselves, not only to deliver above and beyond excellence, but to do better and achieve the best in both their personal and professional lives. It is inspiring, and we are very happy and proud to see their achievements. Once again, congratulations to all, and we will continue to support all of our clubs on their journey”

59CLUB MEA & ASIA ‘SERVICE EXCELLENCE’ AWARD WINNERS (in alphabetical order):

Ultimate Service Excellence Award: Emirates Golf Club;

Gold Flag Designations: Abu Dhabi City GC; Al Hamra Golf Club; Dubai Creek; Dubai Hills Golf Club; Els Club, Dubai; Emirates Golf Club; Jumeirah Golf Estates; Trump International Golf Club; Yas Acres Golf & Country Club; Yas Links, Abu Dhabi.

Silver Flag Designations: Al Zorah Golf Club; Arabian Ranches; Bryanston Country Club; Meydan Golf; Montgomerie Golf Club, Dubai and Vattanac Golf Resort.

Bronze Flag Designations: Aquella Golf & Country Club; Riverdale Golf Club and Thana City Country Club

Golf Operations Team of the Year:
Saadiyat Beach Golf Club Vattanac Golf Resort

Agronomy Team of the Year:
Yas Acres Golf & Country Club Vattanac Golf Resort

Golf Retail Team of the Year:
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club Aquella Golf & Country Club

Food & Beverage Team of the Year:
Emirates Golf Club Aquella Golf & Country Club

Golf Membership Sales Team of the Year:Abu Dhabi City Golf Club

My59 Ultimate Service Excellence Award:
Trump International Golf Club, Dubai

The industry turns its attention to The Middle East, Africa & Asia as the shortlist is revealed ahead of 59club’s annual Service Excellence Awards event - which comes to JA Resort, Dubai, UAE on the 8th of March 2023.

59club’s prestigious Service Excellence Awards recognise those outstanding teams within the industry who consistently deliver the finest customer experiences for their members and guests - spanning all aspects of the Golf and F&B operation.

Qualification is unbiased; and determined by scores achieved through a detailed and objective mystery shopping programme that spans a twelve-month period throughout 2022. The properties nominated represent a defining standard within the golf & hospitality industry, signifying the ultimate benchmark of customer service ‘excellence’.

Leading the Middle East & Africa with 4 nominations are Abu Dhabi City Golf Club and Yas Links. Abu Dhabi City see their F&B team shortlisted for an award they last collected in 2021, as well as separate nominations in the Golf Operations, Retail, and Membership Team of the year categories. 59club officials who are constantly tracking global CX standards have witnessed a 15% improvement at the venue across its entire golf & hospitality operation, delivered over a 4-year period of mystery shopping audits and subsequent 59club training & support.
59club MEA’s Ultimate Gold Flag Property; Yas Links, are no stranger to the winner’s arena – after their F&B team claimed victory at the 2022 ceremony - a title they now go on to defend, whilst sporting 3 other nominations in Agronomy, Retail, and within the my59 Ultimate Service Excellence category - an accolade that represents a venues commitment to measure and advance their customer experience using a wealth of 59club customer satisfaction survey templates.

Emirates Golf Club and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club realise nominations in no less than three award categories, with Saadiyat returning to defend their 2022 Retail Team of the year title, also nominated within the Golf Operations and F&B realms. Meanwhile, Emirates is in contention for the highly prized my59 Ultimate Service Excellence award, and their Golf Operations Team are hoping to take home the title they achieved back in 2021. Their hopes of victory don’t stop there, as Emirates are also a contender for Food and Beverage Team of the Year - a nomination that reinforces 59club’s ‘measure , train, support, reward’ mantra, after the club invested in F&B training from 59club in summer 2022 - which Mark Bull, Director of 59club MEA adds “has seen Emirates’ CX performance across the F&B department rise by 5% and the overall golf operation up by as much as 6%”.

A newcomer to the Dubai golf scene back in December 2021 - and simultaneously beginning their journey with the customer service specialists are Yas Acres Golf & Country Club, who find themselves in the running for a double dose of accolades, having been nominated for both Golf Operations and Agronomy Team of the Year.

Also featuring double nominations are Trump International Golf Club who are hoping to take the triple-crown by retaining their my59 Ultimate Service Excellence award, a title they have held for an impressive two years running. While The Els Club, Dubai sees their membership team return to defend their title against Jumeirah Golf Estates; who are also in the running for the my59 award.

Finally, Al Zorah Golf Club and Meydan, The Track are each nominated for awards that include Membership Sales Team and Retail Team of the year, respectively.

Meanwhile, 59club Asia has announced their nominees, with Aquella Golf & Country Club and Vattanac Golf Resort both newcomers to the 59club community, and these first-time nominees are listed in no less than 4 of the main award titles; which include Golf Operations, Retail, F&B and Agronomy Team of the year.

Thana City Country Club - a 59club Gold Flag bearing property rose to fame in the 2021 awards event having driven their service levels from silver status to gold in a 2-year period - are also in contention for all four Team of the year titles, of which they are returning champions in both the F&B & Retail categories.

And finally, Riverdale Golf Club - a 59club Bronze Flag property - are also vying for the regions four main award titles, whilst hoping to retain or better their flag designation.

59club’s most prized accolades of the awards ceremony, the Bronze, Silver & Golf Flag Designations will be presented on the night to the properties who consistently deliver an outstanding customer experience as well as providing the finest facilities for their guests enjoyment.

Looking ahead to the Service Excellence Awards, Mark Bull Director 59club MEA said; “It is fantastic to be hosting our 4th Service Excellence Awards and joining forces with the 59club Asia team. We are looking forward to welcoming industry colleagues from 3 different continents to the event at JA Resort, a fantastic location and destination to bring everyone together and celebrate the achievements of some superb individuals and teams. Thank you also to our title sponsor, Luxury Carts Group, who’s vision and development is fully aligned with our own ambition, both regionally and internationally, good luck to all nominees on the night.”

Araya Singhsuwan 59club Asia Director of Operations said; “We at 59club Asia are delighted to join the MEA Service Excellence Awards in what is its 4th staging, and showcase some of our facilities to the MEA region. Significant excitement has been building over the past few months since we started the countdown to the event. This is an incredible opportunity for industry leaders to get together, network, share best practices and celebrate individual and collective successes. All of us in the Asian region are looking forward to a great event at JA Resort and wish all nominees the best of luck on the evening, where all their hard work and dedication to excellence will be realized.”

59CLUB MEA & ASIA ‘SERVICE EXCELLENCE’ AWARD NOMINATIONS (in alphabetical order):

Golf Operations Team of the Year:
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club; Emirates Golf Club; Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and Yas Acres Golf & Country Club.
Aquella; Riverdale Golf Club; Thana City and Vattanac.

Agronomy Team of the Year:
Els Club, Dubai; Trump International Golf Club; Yas Acres Golf & Country Club and Yas Links, Abu Dhabi.
Aquella; Riverdale Golf Club; Thana City and Vattanac.

Golf Retail Team of the Year:
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club; Meydan, The Track; Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and Yas Links, Abu Dhabi.
Aquella; Riverdale Golf Club; Thana City and Vattanac.

Food & Beverage Team of the Year:
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club; Al Hamra Golf Club; Emirates Golf Club and Yas Links, Abu Dhabi.
Aquella; Riverdale Golf Club; Thana City and Vattanac.

Golf Membership Sales Team of the Year:
Abu Dhabi City Golf Club; Al Zorah Golf Club; Els Club, Dubai and Jumeirah Golf Estates

My59 Ultimate Service Excellence Award:
Emirates Golf Club; Jumeirah Golf Estates; Trump International Golf Club and Yas Links, Abu Dhabi

EVENT PARTNERS

The industry’s best performing properties and leaders were announced as 59club unveiled their Eminent Collection – signifying the benchmark of excellence within the Global Golf & Hospitality landscape.

An exclusive event hosted aboard the Sunborn London; a floating super-yacht hotel in Royal Victoria Dock, marked the special occasion for those having achieved the highest long-serving standards of customer service excellence. With a previous soiree delivered days before at one of Dubai’s leading restaurants; Carine at Emirates, as 59club’s first inductees were welcomed.

Simon Wordsworth CEO of 59club said; “having amassed over 12 years of non-subjective performance data spanning all aspects of customer service, 59club has an unparalleled vision over those within the Golf & Hospitality Business who have proven their excellence, time after time, year after year. In honour of those years of dedication, the Eminent Collection was born to represent an international benchmark of excellence, which recognises the finest individuals & properties who are leading the industry in the customer experience realms. It is the only badge of honour that is an unbiased testament to having created a customer-centric culture, that puts the customer and their needs first, whilst regularly seeking objective affirmation that those needs are exceeded”.

Eligibility into the Collection is based solely on achievements across the 59club Service Excellence Awards, with individual and team accolades, along with property flag designations, all contributing towards the Eminent Benchmark of Excellence; measuring performances over a minimum of 5 years.

Simon added, “There is no debate to be had, you are either in or not, if in it is crystal clear why, if out then likewise you know what you must do. There is no self-assessment, no bias, no cloudy subjective entries – if you are in the Eminent Collection, you are there because you put yourself, your team, your venue up for independent non-subjective scrutiny of your customer service performance. The venues and individuals are proven to be amongst the best operators in the business – that is what the Eminent Collection is there to show. That is exactly why a brand like Club Car, who are all about customer experience and vehicles of the highest quality has chosen to support us in highlighting these achievements.”

Twelve Properties from within 59club’s international network achieved the Benchmark of Excellence. Four were from the UAE, one from Europe and seven from the UK.

2022’s induction roll also included twenty-two individuals. Three are from the UAE, one from the USA, one from Europe, and seventeen from the UK.

The Belfry Hotel & Resort
The Celtic Manor Resort
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
Emirates Golf Club
Forest of Arden
Foxhills Club & Resort
Gleneagles
Golf Son Muntaner
The Grove
Rockliffe Hall
Trump International Golf Club Dubai
Yas Links Abu Dhabi

Andrew Whitelaw GM/COO, Aronimink Golf Club
Anna Darnell Resort Director, The Grove
Barney Coleman Club Manager, Emirates Golf Club
Bernat Llobera Area Golf Director, Arabella Golf Mallorca
Chris May CEO Dubai Golf
Gary Silcock General Manager, Murrayshall
Stuart Collier Director of Golf, Stoke Park

Brad Gould Director of Golf, The Grove
Chris Reeve Director of Golf, The Belfry
Fraser Liston Director of Golf, Forest of Arden
Sean Graham Head of Golf Operations, Foxhills
Stephen Hindle Golf Manager, Worsley Park
Stephen Hubner Club Manager, Jumeirah Golf Estates

Angus Macleod Director of Golf Courses & Estates, The Belfry
Craig Haldane Golf Courses Manager, Gleneagles
Jim Mckenzie MBE Director of Golf Courses & Estates, Celtic Manor
Jonathan Wyer Golf Course Manager, Rockliffe Hall
Phillip Chiverton Golf Course & Estates Manager, The Grove
Rob Rowson Golf Course Estate Manager, Forest of Arden

Jacques Hobson Food & Beverage Outlets Manager, The Belfry

Simon Howell Golf Operations Manager, Forest of Arden
Tom Hughes Head of Golf Retail & Operations, The Belfry

𝟱𝟵𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮, and their division serving the UK joins them in this promise 8 years earlier than planned.

As the market-leading performance-management specialist continues to expand its operation around the world, they had originally set sights on a global goal of becoming carbon neutral across all territories by the end of 2030, however 59club UK and its Global Headquarters have brought forward their plan by 8 years.

General Manager of 59club UK, Will Hewitt describes the move as; “Essential, if we are to achieve our goal of being a responsible employer. We could wait, it would be easy to do so and with much less business expense, but we feel that action is needed now, and we are willing to act.

“Our plans have scrutinised every single activity and expense that our company undertakes, from our Mystery Shopping, Training Services, our Awards Events and program, right through to the servers which host our software and the power used for every aspect of our employees work.

“We are confident that within the UK we can achieve the goal of eradicating our carbon footprint within the next 12 months. In addition, we want to go further and will also factor in the activities that our staff undertake away from work where we can support them.

“As part of the plans we will also develop a tree planting project here in the UK, delivered in partnership with our clients, to compensate any areas of our business that happen to tilt the balance”.

59club has 6 territorial divisions around the globe; UK & Ireland, Asia, USA, Middle East and Africa, Western Europe and Southern Europe, with two new openings set for 2022 in Canada and Australia. The hope is that the other offices will also be in a position to accelerate their neutrality plans, with emphasis placed on the new divisions serving Canada and Australia to open in a carbon neutral position from day one.

59club CEO Simon Wordsworth added, “We have long been regarded as an industry leader championing customer service and driving our affiliate venues towards delivering the greatest customer experiences, and now we’d like to take that position of trust and use it for the greater good, with the hope that others will follow in our footsteps.

“Attitude to climate change is very different across the regions that we operate, and we have to respect those cultural differences, whilst not losing sight that we have a duty to preserve the planet for the next generation. Working together to change behavior is the only real way forward, and for those fortunate enough to be in decision making positions, it’s up to us to create the environment to change attitudes faster, 59club are doing that. There is a significant cost to these actions, this cost is often used as a reason to push the deadline off into the distance. We firmly believe that companies should take action now, should use a “green” supply chain – we will be doing so and this feels like an opportunity not a cost in the medium term.”

The project is being led by 59club Director Andy Etherington, who has already delivered numerous work and lifestyle changes across the company over the past 2 years including dietary changes, increased use of locally sourced food, recycling and composting and the use of renewable energy. Earlier in the year 59club chose Kinsey to supply uniforms globally through their new brand, BRK, which is made of ‘100 per cent renewable source materials’. The latest move will see Etherington fulfil the switch over of all company vehicles in the UK to electric models.

59club will share further details and landmark moments of their journey towards becoming green on their website and via their social media platforms.

The Asian Golf industry tuned in to celebrate with their peers and colleagues, as 59club Asia announced the winners of their highly coveted Service Excellence Awards, during the regions second annual awards event.

Watch Streaming took place across 59club social media channels and the host; 59club Asia’s Director of Operations; Araya Singhsuwan, also invited the main award sponsors - Asian Tour Destinations; an invaluable network of premiere golf venues, and Beyond Green Co, Ltd; the official Club Car and parts supplier for Thailand, Lao and Cambodia – to co-host proceedings, as 59club’s best service providers were recognised across the region.

Amongst the highly sought-after individual award titles, it was Thana City Country Club who kicked off the celebrations with Dararat Sukrung crowned 'Golf Retail Manager of the Year’.

Thai Country Club had lots to celebrate after securing a trio of individual wins, with Chavalit Surangsee, claiming ‘Golf Manager of the Year’, Niphon Siangfung awarded Green Keeper of the year, and, Pitchayapak Chamchakrachang adding the ‘Food & Beverage Team of the Year’ accolade to the collection.

As proceedings unfolded, Thana City Country Club claimed a second victory, this time in the Team stakes, earning the property the enviable title 'Golf Operations Team of the Year'. Leading the Thana City team to victory, Mr. Pongtorn Rungseang, Golf Operations Team Manager said, “This achievement is hugely motivational for my team and also for me personally, and supported by the work we do with 59club Asia, we will continue to achieve the highest levels of service delivery for our members and guest”.

Always a highlight of proceedings; 59club’s Industry Benchmark of excellence, it’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Flag Designations, which recognise member clubs’ and resorts that provide excellent facilities for golfers to enjoy, as well as having achieved the required standard of customer service throughout the year.

This year 59club Asia went on to present six flag designations, which saw Mr. Kiattisak Ketsiri from Riverdale Golf Club of the MBK Group, lead his team to proudly earn a Bronze Flag Award in the Golf Resort category for the first time, after only a year working with 59club Asia.

Talking of their success; Mr. Kiattisak of Riverdale Golf Club stated that “59club Asia’s Mystery Shopping Audit program has helped the team to monitor their performance, exceptionally well, which made the entire team feel more complete with their service delivery and development”.

There were more celebrations when Cambodia’s Angkor Golf Resort retained their Bronze Flag Award status, also within the Golf Resort Category, one of the most iconic clubs from Singapore, Sentosa Golf Club led by Mr. Andy Johnston, General Manager of the club retained their Bronze Flag status for the second time, whilst further improving the overall experience at the club.

Another highlight to this year’s industry’s Oscars saw newcomer; Laguna Golf Phuket earn Silver Flag status in the Golf Resort Category, in only their first year of working with 59club Asia. Mr. Darren Michael Robson, the properties Director of Golf, commented; “the team has never been prouder to receive such a highly regarded industry award, and that it is a great recognition of the hard work from the whole golf team at Laguna Golf Phuket”.

Thai Country Club proved again that they continue to be an industry leader, securing their 3rd consecutive Gold Flag Award within the Private Club category. Their Director of Golf, Mr. Chavalit said; “the team take great pride in delivering excellent service to every golfer. The team are always very open to improve and dedicate themselves to exceed the expectations of their golfers each and every day”.

And finally, Thana City Country Club showed significant improvement in their service standards going from Silver Flag status last year, to achieving the prestigious Gold Flag Award within Golf Resort Club category in this year ceremony.

Commenting on Thana City’s success, Mr. Surapan, Executive General Manager said “We are very pleased to receive this prestigious Flag award. This time is even better as we increased our status to Gold, we feel that this accolade is very honourable, and we made the right decision to engage 59club Asia’s services in order to support the club’s service development.”

All awards presented in 59club Asia’s Service Excellence Awards are determined by scores collected from its impartial mystery shopping audits, which evaluate the experience afforded to visiting golfers and prospective members, in accordance with objective benchmarking criteria. They represent all areas of the business: sales, service, operations, retail, golf course condition and presentation, food and beverage and management, with honours intended to recognise & reward the industries finest for having achieved the highest standards of service and sales etiquette throughout the year.

Araya Singhsuwan, 59club Asia Director of Operations said; “It’s a privilege to work with such prestigious properties across the Asian region, and I am excited to continue supporting and rewarding those individuals, teams and managers who strive to maintain the highest standards of customer service and sales excellence”.

Award Winners

59club Asia’s 2nd Annual Service Excellence Awards; Individual, Team and Flag Awards sponsored by Asian Tour Destination and Beyond Green Company Limited

Individual & Team Winners

Food & Beverage Team of The Year: Thai Country Club (represent by Miss Pichayapak Chamkrachang, F&B Manager)
Golf Operations Team of the Year: Thana City Country Club (represent by Mr. Pongtorn Rungseang, Golf Operations Team Manager)
Golf Retail Manager of the Year: Miss Dararat Sukrung (from Thana City Country Club)
Greenkeeper of the Year: Mr. Niphon Siangfoong (from Thai Country Club)
Golf Manager of the Year: Mr. Chavalit Surangsee (from Thai Country Club)

Flag Designations

Bronze Flag Winners (Golf Resort):
- Angkor Golf Resort (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
- Riverdale Golf Club (Nonthaburi, Thailand),
Bronze Flag Winners (Private Club):
- Sentosa Golf Club (Sentosa, Singapore)
Silver Flag Winners (Golf Resort)
- Laguna Golf Phuket (Phuket, Thailand)
Gold Flag Winners (Golf Resort)
- Thana City Country Club (Samutprakarn, Thailand)
Gold Flag Winners (Private Club)
- Thai Country Club (Chachoengsao, Thailand)

 
A big thank you to our award sponsors & industry partners; we trust you all enjoy our virtual celebration!

Most of us focus on the outcomes almost exclusively. We, by nature, make the results a default goal. We think the results are the things that needed to change, when in fact, the process behind the results is what requires development and change.

In other words, we would say, let’s make the process the default action, whilst only checking on the goal occasionally to see if we’re moving in the right direction, because the key to sustainable achievements are the habits that proceed those goals and you can continue to keep moving forward, towards the desired outcome, rather than keep looking back to where you started.

Achieving goals only change our lives for the moment, it is not an ultimate solution we all are looking for. For example, if your revenue does not meet expectations and you set a goal for your team to increase the revenue by 3 % in the next 60 days, you perhaps could get your team motivated and achieve that 3% increase in 60 days…for one month. But, if you do not change the selling habits or ways of working that led to a less effective sales process in the first place, soon enough your revenue will again not meet expectations. So, in reality you do not need higher revenue, what you need is better and more effective selling habits of your team, or more effective sales etiquette from your team members, and then you will see that your revenue will meet expectations and, in many cases, exceed them.

Similarly, doing one push up a day does not transform your body overnight, but it does set the tone to greater fitness focus for which can be developed, similarly, to meditate for one minute does not give you an immediate sense of calm, but it does cast a vote for being a meditator.

Once you create good habits that lead you toward your goal regularly, you soon begin to adopt that identity in many aspects of your life, both professionally and personally, and then before you realise it, you are not pursuing behavioral change anymore, it becomes who you are.

There are a lot that one can do to unleash their full potential; please visit us at www.59clubasia.com or www.succession.digital for a great quality tools to develop fresh ideas and new perceptions.

'Hard Skills training’ the basic teaching of how to do the job has always, and will always be the foundation and more often the priority order of training at most businesses and organisations. Having strong hard skills enables individuals and teams to work smoothly within their roles, however, hard skills training alone may not bear fruits that you want to see transfer into revenues. You may find yourself wondering why you do not see the results that you want to see or notice very little change in your operational performance and revenue generation.

By merely focusing training on hard skill, team members will only develop the tools for getting the basic job done, however, to have the job done well, geared to impress customers, teams will also need support and training to develop their soft skills; their etiquette; communication and engagement and their ability to build a relationship with both customers and colleagues. The personal touch, is a strong fundamental of personal growth and development. In this newsletter, we are going to introduce one important skill set that every individual should master; ‘Emotions’.

The concept of emotional mastery was not introduced until the 1960s with the Schachter-Singer experiment and was furthered by psychiatrist Allen Beck who formed the foundation of modern-day cognitive-behavioral therapy.

In the world of business, the ability to influence the right ‘Emotions’ when interacting with your customers is a critical skill within all hospitality roles. Each individual has to maintain their emotional state as it plays a big part in their decision-making process, which in turn shapes the emotions which then influences others.

Despite this importance, we all know the challenge of the arrangement of ‘Soft skills training’ as it requires every individual to be open-minded to the training before participating, which we know is not always an easy ask, understanding the ‘why’ is critical along with the positive impact this training will have.

At 59club Asia we offer the perfect tools for individuals within any organisations, companies, or industries to sign-up for their own learning experience, so everyone can learn, develop and unleash their full potential. We can guarantee improved results.

Our ‘Mentor’ platform will expand the teams existing skills and educate new staff to perform well within their role, developing both operational processes, sales etiquette & customer service levels.
Visit www.59clubasia.com/virtual-education for more info.

And for promising individuals within your organization our ‘Succession’ program will support your management team to grow.
Visit www.succession.digital for more info.

Contact Araya at araya@59clubasia.com today or visit www.59clubasia.com for further information of how our performance management solutions and global data is elevating Sales Performance and the Customer Experience across the Hotel, Golf, Leisure, Spa, F&B & Events Industries.

As we all are moving past the new year and January is over, the global pandemic is with us longer than we all expected. The number one challenge that businesses face is the 'financial challenge', which then causes us all to look at managing costs, even more effectively, of course, this course of action will ensure businesses survive and thrive, but there are of course knock on implications. In this issue, we will focus on how golf operations can be more effectively managed while facing big challenges that are caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many businesses are going through cost management, which may include redundancy and salary reductions. Majority of companies will be operating with reduced manning, which then highlights the need for employees to be multitasking and possibly take on more responsibility to ensure operations still operate at the high level of member and guest expectations.

The first solution here is the 'focus' to Focus on Tasks that Really Matter and make a positive impact to your business. The business leader should ensure that individuals' functions are precise as in 'Who is doing what, when and how'. Enforcing the clarity of tasks given to team members will ensure that individuals understand what matters most, whilst enhancing the delivery to what matters.

Secondly Track Progress, as all strategies and tasks are set, it is crucial to track progress to see if the strategy works, and to see if the manning allocated to the plan is effective. If not, then the team can create new strategies to make work more effectively and sustainably, ultimately making a more efficient operation.

Lastly the Relationship of the Leader with Team Members, it is crucial to pay attention to the employee relationship and the management of it. As we know, each and every individual has a different mindset and with the process of information; therefore, each person deals with problems and stress differently. Especially in this challenging time, businesses need a strong team to keep the operations healthy and effective. If the team leader knows his or her team members on a deeper level, understands their behavior and mindset and understands what drives each individual within the team, it will be much easier to manage and influence the results of work and overall business performance.

These three simple steps are the main key points to help you maintain and elevate the level of your operations during this crucial time. We hope to see things return to normal as soon as possible. Meanwhile, be positive and do the right thing! Stay safe everyone!

59club Asia has many more incredible solutions for services and sales improvement that are proven to work and measured through our audit platforms. Learn more about us at www.59clubasia.com or send your enquiry today at info@59clubasia.com.

59club; the leading sales & service analysts and training provider, have today announced its exciting new personal development program; ‘Succession’. www.succession.digital
The initiative is open to all managers, their deputies, and other rising stars within their business, whether they work with 59club or not. It is designed to support you to reach your full potential within your current role, whilst expanding learning opportunities, career progression and personal growth. What’s more, annual membership is priced at just £59 per annum per person. The key contract holder at any 59club client venue will receive access to Succession at no cost throughout 2021.

59club CEO Simon Wordsworth said; “59club’s mantra is to ‘Measure-Train-Support’, and Succession delivers on the latter two core elements. By making it affordable and open to all managers/prospective managers, it allows us to engage with the forward thinkers in our industry, people that want to learn and improve”.

Taking on many forms, in its simplest guise Succession contains 3 core elements; ‘In the ether’ acts as a hub that connects individuals with the goal of developing fresh ideas and new perceptions. Learning is supported by an extensive library furnished with video, audio, and documents, plus access to online monthly panels and live webinars hosted by experts from differing industries. These learning vehicles centred around relevant topic matter, are designed to expand an individual’s performance and their ability to make an impact. 59club has worked with a number of contributors to develop unique e-learning courses that are creative, interactive, and truly relevant to either the manager or the team under them. This area of the platform will grow significantly over the coming months.

To give a flavour of what’s to come; a small soft launch pre-Christmas saw a number of 59club associates join England Manager, Gareth Southgate as he led a seminar around ‘leadership styles & changing cultures’. An earlier panel were also invited to join Harry Redknapp as he discussed his 34 years experiences managing at all levels of professional football, with Succession aiming to take much of its inspiration from other sports & leading individuals from outside the world of golf. When Succession launches on Monday, January 18th, it will host a really insightful piece based on “leading teams” with England Cricket Captain, Joe Root just before he flew to Sri Lanka.

Succession’s second element ‘On the road’; will include a number of live events throughout the year. The first ‘learn and play’ event, subject to COVID-19 measures being relaxed will be hosted in April, at England’s National Football Training Centre, St George’s Park, conceived around a morning of education of the highest quality, a tour of the venue, and in the afternoon, a walking football tournament with training from LMA ambassador managers.

Finally, but by no means least, the ‘On the course’ activities will see business leaders and golf loving sports personalities quizzed around their life lessons & achievements, in a regular spot called ‘Buggy Banter’ and ‘Mower Mayhem’ – supported by 59club partners; Club Car and Toro of course!!
Wordsworth added; “Succession aims to build upon the talents and qualifications that managers already possess, by providing a vault of additional information, learning resources and unique opportunities to further enhance those prerequisite skills.

“We’re looking to expand the horizons of those in managerial positions, assisting them to thrive within their existing role, whilst supporting them and their deputies to succeed throughout their chosen career paths.

We have built Succession with your time in mind, so you consume it at your pace, when and wherever you wish. One of the best examples of this ‘time focus’ is the ‘tombola’ carousel where each week managers will be able to access a 30-minute staff training session of bitesize learning. As a manger, you want to learn and should do, but you simply have no time – Succession will help.

We’re not going to sit there and teach you how to analyse a P&L or complete a VAT return, we'll leave that to other bodies. Succession is here to top up, add the finishing touches to you as an individual”.

Succession is a credit to the collaboration between 59club and its long-term major partners Club Car, Golf Genius and Toro, plus 3dIFS and CGI Insurance. For more information either visit www.succession.digital or reach out to your regional 59club Manager today.

Here Comes The Holiday Season; Seize Those Limitless Incremental Revenues

After the launch of the “Rao Thieu Duaykan” or "We Travel Together" and “Kon La Khrueng” or “Let’s Go Halves” economic boosting campaigns by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which were aimed at stimulating domestic spending through tourism activities in Thailand, many hospitality businesses have already started to generate great incremental revenues from the domestic market. However, the best opportunities are yet to come, as we are approaching the festive season starting with Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year and the Songkran Holiday. As business owners and management teams, you should absolutely not wait until 2021 to reactivate your customer service and sales boosting programmes, because now is the best time to revitalise your business sales strategies, delivered through customer service enhancements, to make the most out of this golden revenue period.

The limitless revenue opportunities are out there, we all know that there isn’t a magical spell to make it happen, you just need to apply some simple and effective practices to your operating procedures, and your team will make the magic happen. Despite the current global Covid-19 pandemic situation, businesses in Thailand are still very fortunate to remain open and the guests are still walking in through their doors, there remains significant opportunities to generate higher revenues.

In order to generate higher revenues, all your staff need to do is to practice the industry leading upselling strategies without putting off guests, not as easy as it sounds, we know. In other words, your staff members should learn the best built-in upselling skills while delivering excellent services to guests, whilst being able to read each guest and then pitch the upsell to trigger each individual guest to spend, we cannot use a cookie cutter to the upselling process.

Given a simple scenario at a theoretical hospitality business with 200 customers visiting a restaurant per day, that equates to approximately 6,000 customers per month, huge incremental revenue opportunities. As per this scenario, if only 50 percent of the 6,000 customers, who visit your restaurant or bar are being upsold by your staff on just one coffee at 80 THB per cup.

If your staff are able to deliver the upsell of a coffee to 3,000 customers after each meal or at the right moment and able to convert only 30% of those 3,000 customers. This simply means that your staff are able to generate 72,000 THB of incremental revenue each month for your restaurant on top of everything else that the customers already purchased, which will accumulate to 864,000 THB per year that can be combined with other items that your staff may be able to upsell. The opportunities are very real, with the correct method and confidence to deliver.

Certainly, not every customer will decide to buy after being upsold to, but your staff can increase the chance of sales by asking every customer, in the right way. The key practice is how and when you should ask your customer without putting them off nor effecting their experience. A successful upsell, delivered through an operational processes requires proper procedure planning and training. It is critical to measure the actual daily upsell results which will be key to ensuring the results from training are delivered into the cash register.

The training would result in little, if the staff members do not follow the proven to succeed procedures, at 59club Asia; we deliver a complete globally leading training process to support the entire customer service journey in a very structured form “Measure the process through customer service, train staff members on the skills needed as per the measurement results. Support your management and the teams by delivering comprehensive results from the upselling successes, or not, then further train using our very customisable training curriculum, then measure again to keep a track on the progress”, our tools ensure your staff provide every customer with the best service, while knowing how to strategically upsell, that will deliver incremental revenues for your business.

We are here to support your business structure and help you to achieve all of your service and financial goals today! What are you waiting for? Send enquiry today to capture your limitless opportunities at info@59clubasia.com or visit www.59clubasia.com for more info about our services.

As we are entering the fourth quarter of the year, with continued uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic situation, which is without question impacting the economy and our daily lives, we are faced with no real indication of when the circumstances will improve, domestically and internationally.

According to Thailand's GDP annual growth rate report, Thailand's gross domestic product shrank by 12.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, following a revised 2.0% contraction in quarter one and compared with market consensus of a 13.3% plunge. The numbers represent the worst economic downturn since 1998, as both demand and supply took a hit from the pandemic crisis. Furthermore, on the production side, the output contracted significantly, especially the hospitality sector, including accommodation, F&B, sports and golf courses contracted by 50.2 %. In the first half of 2020, Thailand's economy shrank by 6.9%, yet forecasted to contract by around 8% at the end of 2020. (http://bit.ly/gdp-bank-of-thailand)
All this being said, there are opportunities in many areas for development and continued winning for those taking a positive, proactive approach. We are all facing a crucial time that requires re-evaluation as to what course of action your businesses will need to take to survive and thrive, especially those in the hospitality sector. Apart from cutting costs, what can you do to push the revenues and sales? Will you consider adding more value to your products and services?
Ultimately the straightforward solution to many operational challenges is to generate incremental revenues through sales, however, this is somewhat easier said than done. The great news is, it is very possible to achieve, the question is 'How to promote sales?'
Businesses like golf courses, restaurants and hotels have great advantages over other business sectors because they are hospitality focused businesses; having the first-hand opportunity to provide excellent services to customers is the biggest advantage. However, connecting excellent services, with genuinely successful upselling practices that generate incremental revenues can be quite a challenge.
At 59club Asia, the hospitality training experts, we believe that both excellent services and genuine upselling make a great combination. We would like to share the two easy techniques in the F&B sector that are proven to stimulate successful upsell at least 70% of the time.

Firstly, service timing is a crucial part of your F&B services, to ensure that guest receive an unrivaled experience, based on individual operating parameters, all geared to driving satisfaction and repeat business. When guests are being seated at their dining table, ensure a staff member immediately presents a food & beverage menu and always subsequently takes the drinks order first, before leaving the table, this creates a welcoming environment, whilst also driving revenues. Why are these steps so important? Because the sooner drinks are being served, the longer time your guests will have to consume those drinks before the first course arrives. This is a precious opportunity; as this offers the opportunity to the staff member to take another beverage order or upsell a bottle of wine to accompany the meal, etc., all precious moments to engage with guests prior to the meal being served, ensuring the delivery of a great hospitality experience. This practice is an upselling through process method that will assure a generation of incremental revenue most of the time. Guests will not feel any pressure from this upselling by your staff. A simple one but missed on countless occasions.

Secondly, you must ensure that your staff are knowledgeable of all menu items in your restaurants. It is essential, as often guests do not know what to order and may need recommendations or advice. If staff are knowledgeable about the menu and ingredients, they can be creative in how they recommend each dish to customers, therefore nothing can stop them from upselling the most profitable dish to customers. Keep in mind that the most expensive item on the menu is not necessarily the most profitable one. Your staff should know exactly what to upsell to generate the highest incremental revenues. If your restaurant is delivering excellent services and your staff are knowledgeable and creative about how they recommend each menu, this will ensure higher revenue generation for your business.

These are two simple techniques, industry proven to be successful and yield positive results more often than not Considering these two techniques do not cost anything, only training, practice and attention from staff members. How often do you think you have lost opportunities to upsell one more cup of coffee, a signature dessert or another glass of wine in a single day, think how much lost revenue this amounts to over a week, month or year? Food for thought….
59club Asia has many more incredible solutions for services and sales improvement that are proven to work and measured through our audit platforms. Learn more about us at www.59clubasia.com or send your enquiry today at info@59clubasia.com.

Asia is a dream destination for golfers, renowned for its abundant natural resources, a great variety of high-quality golf courses featuring challenging and signature designs by world-famous golfers and golf course architects such as Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Sir Nick Faldo, and Robert Trent Jones Jr. Couple this with rich cultures, amazing culinary experiences and warm hospitality makes Asia a must-visit golfing destination.

Asia is also the birthplace of many world-class professional golfers that have won numerous tournaments around the world tours. With a high number of golfers flowing throughout the Asian region, many golf courses in South East Asia continually seek to improve their service standards and product offering, ranging from infrastructure development to enhancing service standards to exceed customers’ expectations.

With this existing opportunity 59club Asia, the global leading Mystery Shopper Audits and Customer Satisfaction Survey programmes, has expanded its network with Asian Tour Destinations to further enhance the growth of the golf industry in the Asian region.

Asian Tour Destinations is an exclusive network of world-class golfing properties which have a stamp of tournament quality and is a hallmark of distinction where their identity is closely aligned with the Asian Tour. Every Asian Tour Destination around the region boasts a range of international-class golf courses and facilities with services to club members, guests and to Asian Tour professionals. Asian Tour members will also be granted access to play and practice at each venue facilitating for the members at each club to enjoy direct engagement with the region’s best golfers.

This innovative partnership will undoubtedly help grow the game of golf and ultimately enhance the growth of the golf industry in the Asian region. 59club Asia will provide their expertise in delivering their intelligence Mystery Shopping Audit programme as part of the partnership. The Asian Tour Destination venues will receive invaluable objective feedbacks, from the mystery guests’ perspective that can be utilised to further enhance their members and guests experiences.

59club Asia offers ground-breaking Mystery Shopper Audits, Customer Satisfaction Surveys and Staff Training and is an ‘All-in-One’ solution for the golf clubs and businesses who seek to uplift their facilities standards along with enhancing their service, sales and product offering, ultimately enhancing customer’s experiences. We are operating in many of the world’s leading golf destinations such as Asia, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, and the USA for over a decade, enjoying many success stories of improving guest experiences and driving revenues. We have helped golf clubs and businesses succeed in their goals, improve staff performance, enhance the customer’s journey, improve repeat business and increase incremental revenues which ultimately increase overall profitability.

The golf industry in the Asian region has developed and grown rapidly in the past ten years, it is undeniable that the golf industry has become very competitive these days. The golf business can’t be left to chance, 59club Asia will work with you to improve your performance and best the competition.

A spa treatment is a reward considered as a soothing, rejuvenating and typically elegant way to pamper oneself. Due to the current stress created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a spa day would be very much appreciated more than usual. Since wellness and spa services are not only about massages or body treatments, they offer self-confidence, calmness and an escape from our hectic lives.

Wellness and Spa industry is also like other industries in the current hyper-digital world relying
significantly on their online presence, since over 90% of consumers seek out and put a ton of trust in online reviews. Online reviews hold tremendous power considering that customer reviews are a powerful marketing tool and a source of unstructured feedback. On the contrary, customer reviews on the online platforms are generally subjective and obscure management team to detect accurate defects. 59club Asia, Asia’s leading sales & service analysts and training provider, is delighted to offer Wellness and Spa industry a global standard solution for 'sales & service' etiquette improvements.

Given that subjective criteria restrict you from identifying your actual strengths and weaknesses. Our granular and tailored-made mystery shopping audits offer a highly detailed insight of the service level being delivered daily to customers at your venue in conjunction with non-biased and comprehensively objective mystery shopping audit results. Furthermore, our products identify true strengths and weaknesses within the services & sales area and exceptionally highlight opportunities for development through measuring your opportunity and losses against upselling skills of staff members. The results can be utilised to plan KPI’s and customise training programme s for staff members and departments.

59club Asia is the Mystery Shopping Audit and Customers Satisfaction Survey market leading provider. We deliver our services to hospitality businesses such as Hotels, Spa, Sport Clubs or Leisure Clubs, Fine Dining and Golf Clubs in the Asian region. Our clients benefit from a wealth of benchmarking tools allowing them to improve and maintain sales and service etiquette, increasing customer satisfaction, revenue as well as profits. On the other hand, staff performance and high standards set by their companies will be thoroughly supervised.

Visit www.59clubasia.com to find out more about 59club Asia Spa Mystery Shopping Audits and other products or contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries.

In Thailand, where has long been called “the kitchen of the world” from its abundant natural food resources and highly-skilled chefs and cooks. The food industry contributed roughly 23% of the country’s GDP including local consumption and exports. The restaurant business plays a big part in Thai social life and is highly competitive due to the expansion of chain restaurants and the opening of new local restaurants in the market, all looking to take or increase market share and customer loyalty.

Currently, the restaurant business is dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and operating under the ‘New Normal’. To revitalise consumer confidence, restaurants must comply with a set of strict rules, such as social-distancing policies, regular cleaning and sanitising of table surfaces, and strict hygiene for kitchens and kitchen staff. Whilst safety is extremely important, adopting safe and healthy practices can be one of the keys to turning things back in your favour and gaining an advantage over your competition.

However, restaurants must not lose their focus on maintaining the high-quality services all guests expect despite the ‘New Normal’. Service excellence remains a key driver for returning customers and customer retention. In addition, the service level being delivered will directly impact the restaurant’s reputation and popularity. In brief, if the restaurants can deliver superb services, whilst offering great cuisine, continue building great relationships with customers during their visit; the restaurants already win before the battle for business commences. There will be a worry-free feeling about potential negative reviews on social media or bad comments on any online platform.

Delivering great service also means the restaurant staff can upsell easily which will result in increasing incremental revenues and profit. These are the keys to the survival of the business in the long run.

It is undeniable that service excellence is extremely important for any hospitality business including restaurants. 59club Asia is certain that you agree, we delighted to offer a global standard solution for 'sales & service' etiquette improvements. Our services include Mystery Shopper Audits, Customer Service Analysis, Visitor Surveys, and Staff Training. If you are looking to elevate your restaurant's service standards or want to move from ‘Good’ to ‘Great’ or “great to incredible”, why not try our services now? You can be part of many of our proven success stories. We know your business is important to you, don’t leave it to chance.

Find out more about 59club Asia Fine Dinging Mystery Shopper Audits today or contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries.

Many golf courses in South East Asia seek for an opportunity to host an international or a significant local tournament to gain a marketing benefit and status of being ‘home’ of a prestigious golf tournament. It is good for brand image and a brilliant marketing tool to draw golfers to visit the course, attract new members and drive F&B revenues through casual dinner and events. However, any such status comes with a reputation to uphold.

As golfers, when we watch a golf tournament on TV and see highlight footage of a prestigious condition golf course, we naturally aspire to visit these golf courses. Most golfers wouldn’t know how much work is carried out by dedicated teams behind the scenes the golf course maintenance team and the operational departments put in to get the course presentation and facilities ready to showcase what they see on the tournament days. Once the golf course has presented its tournament condition to the public, it would create an expectation of visitors for the top-notch condition, when they visit the course. How will the golf course management know if the golf course will be in the “Tournament Ready Condition” every day?

59club Asia the Industry leading Mystery Shopper Audits & Customer Satisfaction Surveys Provider, which operates at world’s leading golf tour destinations within Asia, the UK, Europe, Middle East & Africa and the USA, has intelligent tools that can measure golf course condition consistency on any given day by real customers, who visit your golf course.

The most widely used tool in the hospitality business that 59club Asia has tailored specifically for golf courses is the bespoke mystery shopping audits. The audits will be carried out by a well-trained tester, in the most objective non-biased way, the results from the audit will present the golf club management with a granular report covering the overall golf experience at your club, measured objectively from a real golfer perspective. The report that the golf course management receives from a test visit will highlight golf course condition through cleanliness and presentation in all areas such as tee boxes, tee markers, tee signage, course furniture, fairways, greens, bunkers, cart path edging, tee to green edging, non-playing areas, and holes, basically covering every touchpoint. For customers, it doesn’t always matter if the golf course is looking lush in every single area, but the golf course is expected to be clean, tidy, and well presented in all areas.

How will the 59club Asia detailed reports help your golf business?

1. Our Mystery Shopper Audit programme is designed to cover all aspects from ‘a customer’s experience’. You will receive a detailed report at every touchpoint.

2. The report includes all hardware (presentation of the golf course), operations, services being delivered, and software such as staff performance that you will be able to identify your ‘strengths and weaknesses’ in each area. Invaluable information!

3. Tracking Individual Staff Member’s Performance: able to track staff performance objectively over a set timeline. The detailed report includes the name of the staff and department that you can use to track performance or set KPI’s for your team by department or individual, which can bear the result of higher customer retention, more repeat business and ultimately lead to higher profits.

4. As the report is objective and highlights the areas of strengths and opportunities to improve, our industry-leading reports can be utilised to plan your training needs objectively and monitor progress over time.

Even if your golf course has never hosted a golf tournament, we are sure you have hosted a corporate event, therefore you should always focus on being “Tournament Ready” to enhance your customers’ golf experience, this will deliver happy customers and drive repeat business. It doesn’t matter if you are a three-star or a five-star golf course. Customer satisfaction is from the quality that represents value for money along with an enjoyable experience. If you are a three-star course that can provide a great playing experience and service,you will surely guarantee that customers loyalty.

Find out more about 59club Asia Golf Mystery Shopper Audits today or contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries.

59club Asia, Asia’s leading hotel mystery shopping provider, launches recruitment programme to engage and train high-performance hotel mystery auditors to perform audits at many leading hotels in Asia.

As 59club Asia gears up the auditor recruitment programme across Asia, following the major contract signing with Absolute Hotel Services to provide mystery shopping audits to all hotel brands under the AHS management portfolio. The recruitment drive has received a great response from the outset from many keen to become mystery shoppers throughout Asia. The goal for 59club Asia is to recruit and train all auditors to be able to provide the most objective and granular detailed audit for each and every hotel.

As a 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopping Auditor, you will automatically receive a complimentary hospitality experience at one of our venues. You can even bring your special someone along or enjoy a getaway by yourself and soak up a first class hospitality experience. You will not only get to experience a complimentary stay at a hotel or resort, you will also be able to relax at by the swimming pool, enjoy fine dining in a luxurious hotel restaurant or have private in-room dining while watching your favorite movies on the comfortable hotel bed.

If you have a discriminating eye for detail, regarding and can evaluate customer service fair and objective manner, our Hotel Mystery Shopping Audit position will be the right job for you. Although this is not a salary-based job, the Hotel Mystery Shopping Audit can be a fun and rewarding experience that can be tailored to fit around your schedule. You can choose to stay close to your home and evaluate local accommodation in your area or travel out of town to explore a new destinations that you wish to visit, of course depending on our hotel assignments you choose to accept. We will reimburse your expenses during your stay, including Room Charge, Breakfast, Room Service, Food & Beverages, and Hotel Shuttle fee (if applicable). Any other costs outside of the hotel audit, will be at your own cost.

We have hotels in many great destinations throughout Thailand, along with other exciting countries through Asia, namely Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali and India, awaiting for our auditors to evaluate. Sign up today at https://www.59clubasia.com/become-a-mystery-tester/ or send us an e-mail at info@59clubasia.com
59club Asia is the Mystery Shopping Audit and Customers Satisfaction Survey market-leading provider. We deliver bespoke mystery shopping audit programmes to hospitality businesses such as Hotels, Sports Clubs or Leisure clubs, Spa, Fine Dining, and Golf Clubs in the Asian region.

59club Asia has opened an office in Bangkok in 2018 and now delivers globally leading Customer Service Analysis and Training Pioneering Member & Visitor Surveys, Mystery Shopper Audits & Staff Training within your business to the Asian region. We use market-leading software and assessment criteria that provide the resources to improve and maintain 'sales & service' etiquette, increasing customer satisfaction, revenue & profits in the process to assist the Golf, Leisure, Spa, Events, F&B and Hotel Industries to succeed.

Visit www.59clubasia.com to find out more about 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopper Audits or become our team today via https://www.59clubasia.com/become-a-mystery-tester/

During the third phase of easing the Covid-19 restrictions, hotels in Thailand are gradually reopening and resuming their business after temporary closures. Absolute Hotel Services, one of the fastest growing hospitality management companies in Asia with over 60 hotels operating and under development has recently signed a contract with 59club Asia who will be providing hotels under their management with valuable management tools to measure, improve and maintain their standards of customer service, increasing visitor and member retention in turn.

Absolute Hotel Services, headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand with regional offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong, India and now Europe with more expansions in the pipeline, provides a unique range of hospitality services and consultancy as well as hotel management services for the luxury to economy segments through its brands U Hotels & Resorts, Eastin Grand Hotels & Resorts, Eastin Hotels, Resorts & Residences, Eastin Easy, Travelodge and Vienna House.

Mr. Jonathan Wigley, Owner, Founder and CEO of the Absolute Hotel Services Group stated that “Within our group we have been doing mystery audits as part of our annual hotel process for the past 10 years and we worked with an external partner for this. The reason we switched to 59club Asia is very much the flexibility in the mystery audit programme and that we were able to work closely with the 59club Asia organization to develop the programme that works for us. It is also great value for money, I have to say. Third point is we are able to get some comparisons of our audits with other hotel groups which we’ve never had before, we found that’s a great tool and very worthwhile for us. I think once again with the Mystery Shopper Audits, it is viewing our hotels from a customer perspective. It will allow 59club Asia auditors to see our hotels through the eyes of the current consumer, which are obviously very concerned about safety measures and security during their stays with us. It is an integral part in us ensuring that things we have implemented in our hotels to deal with concerns of the Coronavirus from a guest perspective and I regard it is an absolutely paramount part of our check and balance process within our hotels.”

Ms. Araya Singhsuwan, Director of Operations of 59club Asia, stated with excitement about the contract signing with AHS, “59club Asia team is honored to deliver our products to Absolute Hotel Services, which are a renowned management group and operate highly reputable hospitality brands throughout Asia. Our granular and tailored-made Hotel Mystery Shopping Audits will ensure that the hotels under Absolute Hotel Services management with their brand specific standards and procedures will be individualized especially during the post-Covid19 reopening. Having the opportunity to audit the hotel brands under AHS management will allow 59club Asia to work with hotels from within the luxury to economy segments, which will highlight the flexible auditing features of our Hotel Mystery Shopper Audit programmes. It is a very significant first step of 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopper programme in Asia and a game changer for the industry.”

59club Asia delivers globally leading Customer Service Analysis, pioneering Member & Visitor Surveys, Mystery Shopping Audits and Staff Training within your business. Our clients benefit from a wealth of benchmarking tools that are used to train staff, set KPI’s, monitor performance, advance overall standards and compare the facility to make service level comparisons across the industry.

Contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries or to find out more about 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopper Audits today.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused widespread economic disruption in Thailand and increased the number of people who are out of work and struggling to put food on the table. To alleviate the plight of the less fortunate, "Pantries of Happiness" or "Pantries of Sharing" has been launched to supply those in need and encourage those who can afford to give. The idea behind the "Pantries of Happiness" is simple and inspiring – "Give what you can to spread little happiness in everyday life, take what you need to get through this situation together". Hence this concept has spread throughout the country and there are over 50 locations in Bangkok.

59club Asia is well aware of this unfavourable situation and are delighted to facilitate the Thai community in their hour of need to get through this together. Therefore, we put together a care package of essential everyday items to help support the great work that Pantries of Happiness do in and around Bangkok. On 12 June 2020, the 59club Asia team has implemented the contribution from our charity programme in conjunction with our Golf Networking Event, 59club Asia 2 Ball Club Championship to fill up "Pantries of Happiness" in locations around Bangkok with healthy products, groceries and goods for everyday use.

59club Asia, Asia’s leading sales & service analysts and training provider, successfully hosted our first golf networking event in Asia, called the 59club Asia 2 Ball Club Championship, on 11 October 2019 at Thai Country Club. A unique format of 2 Ball was aiming to create the fun golf networking tournament attended by golf club managers and industry professionals from within Asia. This event has formed an excellent opportunity to receive products & services, and new technologies update from the experts in each area. Subsequently, the contribution for our charity programme was sponsored by Thai Country Club and Fenix Xcell.

59club Asia is the Mystery Shopping Audit and Customers Satisfaction Survey market leading provider. We deliver bespoke mystery shopping audit programme to hospitality businesses such as Golf Clubs, Hotels, Sport Clubs or Leisure clubs, Spa and Fine Dining in the Asian region. 59club Asia has opened an office in Bangkok in 2018 and now deliver globally leading Customer Service Analysis and Training Pioneering Member & Visitor Surveys, Mystery Shopper Audits & Staff Training within your business to the Asian region. We use market leading software and assessment criteria that provides the resources to improve and maintain 'sales & service' etiquette, in turn increasing customer satisfaction, revenue & profits in the process to assist the Golf, Leisure, Spa, Events, F&B & Hotel Industries to succeed.

59club & 59club Asia is also the only company working within the golfing industry that recognises, rewards and promotes venues striving for and achieving improved customer service levels as part of their annual Service Excellence Awards. That is 59club’s acclaimed awards recognition, famously known as the ‘Oscars’ of the industry.

Visit www.59clubasia.com to find out more about 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopper Audits today or contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries.

Following a highly successful launch in Europe and the Middle East, 59club Asia, Asia’s leading sales & service analysts and training provider, have today released a revolutionary new hotel mystery shopper audit tool, this new to market product delivers industry first technology along with the ability to have the audits tailored to be Brand Specific, whilst retaining the core value of objectivity.

The hotel auditing software features 59club Asia’s acclaimed benchmarking programmes, covering the entire guest journey from making a reservation to check-out, along with the unique ability to measure sales strategies and increase repeat business. 59club Asia provides a must have tool for hotels to enhance the overall guest experience, the product has been developed to work with single properties or larger hotels and management groups.

As the products can be tailored to be brand specific, Hotels and Corporate Groups can take advantage of the unique audits that will allow onsite management or corporate teams to uncovering any potential none brand alignment, ensuring that the hotel delivers its brand promise to its guests and loyalty programme members. Additionally, larger hotel groups can benchmark against other properties within the group and or other hotels in a chosen competitor set. Each audit is comprehensively detailed and delivered by a highly trained auditor, carried out with the utmost objectiveness to ensure a factual none subjective impartial audit is conducted, covering all aspects that represent ‘the customer’s experience.’

As the audit report is objective and highlights the areas of strength and opportunity to improve, the results can be utilised to plan your training requirements objectively and track progress over time, measured from future audits. The Hotel management also can track individual departments and or staff member’s performance objectively over a set period of time.

Clients are also able to take advantage of the 59club Asia training programmes which offer offline in person training, along with online virtual mentor training that can be tailored to specific requirements derived from individual audits. The training is aimed at improving overall hotel and staff performance, expanding their existing knowledge, educate and on-board new staff, upskill relief staff and providing personal development pathways for all aspiring individuals.

Araya Singhsuwan, 59club Asia Director of Operations said, “We are very excited about our latest product created exclusively for the hospitality industry. There is no better time to measure guest experience at your hotel than now, especially during the current COVID-19 situation, when things are running as ‘the New Normal.’ Our detailed hotel mystery shopper audits with the unique Brand Specific features will help you measure your hotels standard operating procedures and brand specific deliverables directly from a guest perspective. The granular audit results will without question assist operators to continue to improve and further develop operations. We also proudly bring to the industry another first, by providing self-managed audit software that hotels can use to independently monitor and advance service levels, utilising the innovative ‘my59’ software engineered by 59club Global HQ, based in the United Kingdom. This allows you to send out online surveys using pre-set templates within the my59 software or create your own survey, this can be automated to send upon check-out, or at a specific time. This feature significantly helps hotels to track their own performance based on actual guest feedback and improve its guest experience and service excellence.”

Moreover, the 59club Asia audit results can be benchmarked against global industry standards, along with hotel groups and brands. 59club Asia operates with the most stringent confidentiality within the industry, ensuring total privacy of any audit and its results. Participating Hotels and management Groups are also eligible to be included in the annual Service Excellence Awards, that is 59club’s acclaimed awards recognition, famously known as the ‘Oscars’ of the industry.

Visit www.59clubasia.com to find out more about 59club Asia Hotel Mystery Shopper Audits today or contact our team at info@59clubasia.com for all enquiries.

END

59club the leading sales & service analysts and training provider, have today released my59 Mentor, their intelligent virtual learning experience, safeguarding clients triumphant return to golf.

The new virtual platform features 59club’s acclaimed sales & service training programs - from membership sales and retention strategies, to perfecting corporate sales enquiries and advancing the overall guest experience - across golf & hospitality.

Venues can take advantage of the virtual mentor experience to expand their existing knowledge, educate new staff, upskill relief staff and providing personal development pathways for all aspiring individuals. Additional white papers, videography and supplementary contributor content from the likes of the infamous Gregg Patterson, are also accessible within the platform, available now 24/7 at staff member’s convenience.

The platform also acts as the perfect vehicle for venues to store and communicate all in-house company policies and training manuals direct with their team, also providing the technology to build online training courses, verify learning outcomes and track liability acceptances within one user-friendly, easily accessible and white-labelled virtual platform.
Simon Wordsworth 59club CEO said: “We recognised the need for organisations to have control over their online learning experience, so we built a platform that our partners can manage without any knowledge of coding. My59 Mentor has been developed with simplicity in mind; its clean, intuitive design makes the platform a user-friendly experience for admins and students across all devices.

“During this difficult time, we understand the challenge of motivating staff and the need to enhance personal development, and for this reason education has to remain a priority. Our entire educational content is waiting to be discovered within the platform, what better way to engage staff and build momentum, ensuring they are on top of their game and raring to go.

“There isn’t a single golf club, restaurant or hospitality venue on the planet that will, in the short term, continue to operate as usual. Each club or venue will have acute and significant challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic – problems my59 Mentor can alleviate.”

Intelligent push notifications will link directly to a venue’s mystery shopping and survey performance data, directing the member of staff to the relevant lesson within the platform, as My59 Mentor instinctively acts to upskill staff and address any shortcomings.

Venues can build their own in-house digital education programmes and customise the appearance of the platform. Host staff handbooks and support files to communicate knowledge & company policy direct to the team, while collating all existing digital and paper content into one media library. The platform also provides an efficient way for managers to communicate with their staff around their initial COVID-19 policies and procedures, and phased protocol thereafter.

Within my59 Mentor there is an integrated ‘Quiz’ function which tests knowledge both before and after courses to evaluate progress. Upon completion, individuals can download certificates to authenticate their achievement. This process will naturally lend itself to organise and communicate new COVID-19 operating procedures efficiently, demonstrating that all staff members throughout the operation have read and gained a clear understanding of any new policies as they come into force.
Visit www.59clubuk.com to preview the my59 Mentor platform today or contact Bruce Porter on bruce@59club.com for all enquiries.

59club Asia is delighted to announce the winners of its inaugural Service Excellence awards supported by Golfbreaks.com.

Data has been captured from mystery service audits and benchmarked across all golf venues that 59club Asia works with throughout the region during 2019. The awards recognise the most successful venues across the region in sales performance, staff attitude, internal processes and facility standards.

Gold, Silver & Bronze service excellence flags are also awarded to venues that have delivered the most consistent golf experiences throughout 2019, rewarding the overall team effort across each element of the 59club mystery shopper auditing report.

Thai Country Club managed to scoop an unprecedented total of five awards, including the Golf Sale Team of the Year, Leading Individual Group Golf Sales performance by Miss Wibullak Chulakasyena, F&B Manager of the Year by Miss Pichayapak Chamkrachang, and Green Keeper of the Year by Mr. Brian Distel.

On receiving the awards, John Blanch, General Manager at Thai Country Club said “All of us at Thai Country Club are very delighted to receive the Silver Flag Awards from 59club Asia. From day one our entire team were enthusiastic and motivated to engage with 59club Asia. The Mystery Shopping Auditing programme provided us with invaluable data that we have used to improve our performance. It encouraged our team to be even more active and focused to ensure improvement as every part of the customer journey is measured. We have seen a proven improvement of 10.4 % in average score throughout the entire operations in 2019. We have also seen a solid improvement in the ‘tee-time reservation’ at 8.9% in average score, plus positive changes in all other areas. It has been a very positive experience for all of us and has enable us to set new measurable goals. In my 30 years of golf course management this is the most important innovation that I have witnessed. Thai Country Club, eagerly looks forward to continue our development as well as our partnership with 59club Asia”

Angkor Golf Resort was equally outstanding to be impressively recognised with four awards in total, including Golf Manager of the Year and Golf Retail Manager of the year by Mr. David Baron, and Golf operations team of the Year headed by Mr. Socheat Mey.

David Baron said “We are delighted with these Awards which are a credit to our full team and the continued support we receive from 59club Asia. The analytics, training and guest feedback we receive is second to none. The data provided enables us to highlight specific areas for improvement and take the necessary steps to enhance our guest experience. However, the journey doesn’t stop here. We look forward to raising the bar further and continuing our journey with 59club Asia”

Huge congratulations to the team at Sentosa Golf Club, who joined 59club Asia later in the year, they were impressively able to achieving their status as Bronze Flag Members Club 2020. Not only securing this prestigious award, the Sentosa Golf Club team have proven their service excellence within only 4 months of working with 59club Asia improving their overall experience percentage score by almost 5%, this is a huge achievement for such a small amount of time and really shows their commitment to deliver the best of the best when it comes to their member and guest experience

Andrew Johnston, General Manager and Director of Agronomy at Sentosa Golf Club: “At Sentosa Golf Club we are proud to be recognised for our commitment to customer service and the ability to provide excellent facilities for our members and guests. We naturally instil a culture at the club which allows and encourages our entire team to be better than they were yesterday, ensuring we are ready to welcome anyone 365 days of the year with the highest standards possible. The 59club Asia service has also helped us identify some areas of the business that need improving, and receiving a Service Excellence Award simply reiterates to us that our commitment to excellent customer service across all aspects of club life here at Sentosa continues to be acknowledged.”

Thana City Country Club who tirelessly work on developing their team and services, made the most improvement throughout the year utilising the Mystery Shopping Audit programme and attaining Silver Flag Resort Club.

Thana City management team proudly stated that “Thana City Country Club and our team are thrilled to be recognised and awarded the Silver Flag Award from 59club Asia. Our engagement with 59club Asia and the Mystery Shopper Audit programme in 2019 added a huge amount of value to our operations, really developing our member and guest experience at the club. Although we knew many of our strength and weaknesses, working with 59club Asia really gave us a deeper understanding of what our members and guests thought of our facility in terms of hardware and service levels.
We developed clear opportunities for the improvements of our operations and the development of our colleagues, setting individual and team targets, that were targeted and achievable. Throughout the year we achieved improvements of 8.1 % across all department, which is a significant development.
The whole team were engaged from day 1, we definitely will continue working with 59club Asia and we are excited to see how much further we can improve our team to enhance our guest experience at the club”

59club Asia’s team expressed, “We are thrilled to be part of our client’s success stories. Through our proven statistics, we are very proud to see their consistent solid improvements, to see the teams overcome their own challenges and further develop their operations based on our mystery shopper audits throughout the year, most importantly, it is such an honour for us to be part of the process to support and further develop the industry. All our award winners are very well deserved, so they should celebrate. 59club Asia will continue to fulfill our missions and goals; to support, encourage and motivate all of the golf clubs’ teams to strive for continued excellence and to continue doing what they do well”

Full list of Winners and Nominees:

Leading Individual Group Golf Sales Performance, Winner: Miss Wibullak Chulakasyena, Thai Country Club
Nominees: Chan Naren Rith, Angkor Golf Resort, and Nicole Thew, Sentosa Golf Club

Golf Sales Team of the Year, Winner: Thai Country Club
Nominees: Angkor Golf Resort, Sentosa Golf Club

Golf Retail Manager of the Year, Winner: David Baron, Angkor Golf Resort
Nominees: Rungdao Pooprasert, Thai Country Club and Kamolnath Moohammad, Thana City Country Club

Golf Manager of the Year, Winner: David Baron, Angkor Golf Resort
Nominees: Chavalit Surangsee, Thai Country Club, and Pongtorn Rungseang, Thana City Country Club

Golf Operations Team of the Year, Winner: Angkor Golf Resort
Nominees: Thai Country Club, Thana City Country Club

Food and Beverage Manager of the Year, Winner: Miss Pichayapak Chamkrachang, Thai Country Club
Nominees: Bunnal Ros, Angkor Golf Resort and Monthon Wongsamang, Thana City Country Club

Greenkeeper of the Year, Winner: Brian Distel, Thai Country Club
Nominees: Rodney Mckeown, Sentosa Golf Club and Mana Sungpuk, Thana City Country Club

Silver Flag Winners:
• Thai Country Club (Private Club)
• Thana City Country Club (Resort Club)

Bronze Flag Winners:
• Sentosa Golf Club (Private Club)
• Angkor Golf Resort (Resort Club)

About 59club Asia:

59club Asia is the Mystery Shopping Audit and Customers Satisfaction Survey market leading provider. We deliver bespoke mystery shopping audit programme to hospitality businesses such as Golf Clubs, Hotels, Sport Clubs or Leisure clubs, Spa and Fine Dining in the Asian region. Our programmes include Mystery Shopper Audits, Customer Satisfaction Surveys and Training Services which provide invaluable information for the manager or business owner to empower their team performance and to elevate their sales & services standards. Our missions and goals are to support, encourage and motivate all of every individual to strive for continued excellence service standard

For further information contact:
Araya Singhsuwan: araya@59clubasia.com +66 (0) 98 280 4055
General Enquiry: info@59clubasia.com +66 (0) 94 639 9514

Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club will welcome 59club clients from across Europe on the 12-13th March 2020. An extension to the ceremony will see The Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa host the awards to recognise excellence across Asia, The Middle East & Africa on the 20th April 2020, as the Service ‘Excellence’ Awards are split for the first time.

The Ceremonies will bring the industry together to honour great individuals, clubs and group achievements across all 59club spectra, with revellers invited to attend their choice of local or international awards, with many expressing the desire to celebrate and network across both events.

Whilst proceedings may have diversified, the principals remain the same, as 59club stand to recognise the leading Golf and Leisure venues that consistently achieve ‘service excellence’ across all areas of the business – sales, service, operations, retail, facility, food & beverage and management. With winners recognised by the genuine scores collected from the independent visitor panel who evaluate the experience afforded to both visitors and prospective customers.

The climax of the night for many is when the 59club’s Industry Benchmark awards are announced; the Gold, Silver and Bronze Flag Awards. The awards are bestowed on the finest member clubs and commercial venues that not only achieve the required standard of service as part of the mystery test audit criteria, but also provide excellent facilities for customers to enjoy.

59club will also bestow accolades upon venues for their commitment to engage, analyse and enrich their member and guest experience, utilising a collateral of survey tools across the my59 software platform.

An Educational Day will precede the evening Awards Ceremony in true 59club style; with the promise of inspirational content for those looking to start 2020 on the best foot. Further to last year’s success 59club will continue to include a Golf Day.

59club’s driving force very quickly grabbed the industry’s attention, and saw the event hailed the ‘Industry Oscars’ in its early days. Now in its 10th year, amid huge expansion plans across the globe which have already signified openings of local 59club offices to accommodate growth in Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the USA; the 2020 line up is set to once again deliver a spectacle of glory, equally fitting the calibre of nominees, winners and all those present at the awards for their commitment to delivering ‘service excellence’.

Simon Wordsworth, 59club CEO said: “59club is fully committed to assisting the industry to advance. The awards for us is about bringing everyone together and paying tribute to what we have achieved collectively."

“What started out as a simple idea to develop people and process in the early days, has grown into a global pioneering brand that has taken every experience across the hospitality industry and made staff, managers, venues and groups accountable for the service and sales etiquette they deploy. That 59club seal of approval means everything to the staff on the ground, the managers leading their team and the people at the very top - who all revel over the quantifiable effects that come with achieving best in class standards.”

“A special thanks goes to our award sponsors; 3DIFS, CGI Insurance, Club Car, Golf Genius, Golfbreaks.com, Gunners Cocktails, Kennet Leasing, Tacit and Toro who have been instrumental in creating the 2020 Awards, these are set to be the best yet!”

59club Asia has extended its influence over the continent’s customer service revolution, with the addition of the five-star, MBK-owned Riverdale Golf Club to its growing client portfolio. It becomes the third top-tier golf venue in Bangkok to appoint 59club Asia, following successful partnerships with Thai Country Club and Thana City Country Club, as the appetite to incorporate the brand’s renowned Service Excellence Standards grows.

On their engagement with 59club Asia, Mr. Kiattisak Ketsiri, General manager of Riverdale Golf Club, expressed his excitement at working with the leading customer service benchmarking and training provider. He said: “I am confident that our collaboration with 59club Asia will enhance Riverdale Golf Club’s ability to deliver the very best golf course condition and level of service in keeping with our club slogan; ‘The Perfect Challenge’. The technologies provided by 59club Asia will serve as valuable tools to ensure that we are consistently moving in the right direction. It is the reason why we decided to work with Araya and the team.”

59club Asia is the market leader providing golf, leisure and hospitality venues with valuable management tools to improve and maintain elevated standards of customer service and sales performance within their operations. Customer service data and analysis generated from Mystery Shopper Audits, Member & Visitor Surveys and Staff Training will highlight countless opportunities for golf venues to improve, pinpointing what is required of club staff and their needs in terms of training and support.

Araya Singhsuwan, Operations Manager, 59club Asia, said: “Riverdale Golf Club demonstrates high potential to deliver an even higher level of excellent when it comes to customer experiences. With our invaluable data to hand, the golf club with have all of the intel required to make impactful changes to its systems and operations. Ultimately, the club will be provided with the ability to improve service in order to grow revenue, which is 59club Asia’s ultimate goal for our partners.”

59club Asia’s software and assessment criteria work for all golf clubs, regardless of their size or status. Based in Bangkok, it is leading the service industry revolution across Asia, delivering venues with the tools and data-driven insights required to set themselves apart from the competition.

Concept has partnered with 59club to provide its golf, leisure & spa clients with new service analysis intelligence to measure customer satisfaction levels within their businesses via its high-end operations software suites

Concept users can now benefit from 59club’s expertise, mechanism and freedom to independently deliver customer satisfaction surveys using their industry specific benchmarking assessment criteria, flexible survey templates and automated software.

The new partnership enables the auto-generating functions to remain switched on for mutual affiliated clients – meaning that each time member and guest data is entered into their operations software, 59club will auto-invite the customer to complete the venues bespoke satisfaction survey based on their recent encounter - for example after having joined the club, paid to play, visited the spa or F&B outlet or having relinquished their club membership. The functionality can even track a customer’s experience at significant landmarks during their journey, auto-generating a series of questionnaires, in sequence at set intervals as programmed by the venue, measuring a new member’s experience over a set timeframe as a guide.

With a wealth of survey templates that cover all areas of the hospitality industry and as a result of the two software giant’s new pairing, club staff can now save valuable time delivering surveys, avoiding additional data entry, and elements of human error or resistance are eradicated.

The new interface will go live at one of the most prestigious properties in The UK; The Belfry - with other leading Golf Groups such as Dubai Golf and premier clubs and resorts that includes the likes of Old Thorns, Celtic Manor, Stoke Park, Ramside Hall and Dalmahoy also set to win as a result of the new pairing, with concept looking to roll-out the update to all of its clients very soon.

Chris Reeve, Director of Golf at the Belfry Hotel & Resort, said: “The 59club surveys have been a huge success for us and we are just about to introduce a link between our EPOS [Concept] system which will talk directly to 59club’s software [my59] and provide a survey to anyone that plays a round of golf at The Belfry with a few key questions. This is going to open new doors for us and gives us even more insight into what our customers are looking for and allows us to retain our number one position as the best golf resort in the UK”

The new partnership has been forged to assist venues to improve and maintain sales and service quality, in addition to comparing their internal customer satisfaction levels against 59club’s benchmark; the industry average and the best performing venues globally. Ultimately venues stand to capture more consumer insights than ever before.

Simon Wordsworth, 59club CEO, said: “Our recent partnership with Concept is hugely exciting for 59club. Linking our customer satisfaction survey software with the complete enterprise solution for the world’s leading resorts couldn’t be a better match. Both companies have a focus on being in control; whether that’s assisting clients managing memberships, reservations, POS or business intelligence.

“The addition of ‘real-time’ customer service analysis sees the essential day to day operation of golf, leisure & Spa venues worldwide get a whole lot smarter. As 59club continues to grow with new operations in America, Asia and Europe, I’m looking forward to seeing our collaboration with Concept continue to advance service excellence standards across the industry globally”.

Concept, a Shiji Group Brand, offers its users with leisure software for spas, clubs, resorts, and golf courses. The Concept Golf product is a complete enterprise solution for the world’s leading golf resorts and venues and caters for all software needs for golf operations.

Malcolm Rennie, Commercial Manager of Concept, said: “This new relationship and integration with 59club is so exciting for us. The cross-over between our mutual clients is staggering and we were delighted to see so many of Concept’s customers being recognised at 59club’s annual awards ceremony. We can’t wait to rollout this integration to new and existing clients and see the positive results.”
For more information on 59club, visit: www.59club.com
For more information on Concept, visit www.concept.shijigroup.com

Notes to Editors:

About 59club

59club was established in 2007 and is now the market leader in providing bespoke mystery shopper performance measurement programs for the Golf, Leisure, Spa, Events, F&B and Hotel Industries.

Specifically designed to elevate sales and service standards, 59club provides ‘Mystery Shopper Audits’, ‘Customer Satisfaction Surveys’, and ‘Training Services’, empowering venue managers to analyse their entire visitor and member experience, enabling them to set targets, monitor performance and ultimately make informed decisions to advance.

The founder of the company, Simon Wordsworth, has a wealth of experience having worked in the sector for many years at one of the worlds' most renowned Golf and Leisure resorts. At the heart of our operations is an established and dedicated team of professionals who all bring a vast amount of experience from the Golf, Leisure & Events industry, most of which who worked at Senior Management or Directorship level. This knowledge allows for a true understanding of your business needs and the difference customer service excellence can make to your reputation.

About Concept, a Shiji Group Brand

With high-profile clients in nearly 70 countries worldwide and software available in 15 different languages and a global support network to match, Concept, A Shiji Brand, is a global leisure software, development and consultancy company specialising in supplying spas, clubs, resorts, hotels and golf courses with high-end software suites to manage operations.

In 2018, Concept joined the Shiji Group who provide software solutions and services for the hospitality, food service, retail and entertainment industries, ranging from hotel management solutions to food and beverage and retail systems, payment gateways, data management, online distribution and more. Shiji Group today comprises 3,000 employees in 70+ subsidiaries and brands, serving over 60,000 hotels, 200,000 restaurants and 400,000 retail outlets.

For media queries please contact:

Scott Peddie
Director of PR & Communications – Performance54
E: scott.peddie@performance54.com

For further information on Concept please contact:

Teresa Correia
Sales & Marketing Manager – Concept
E: teresa.correia@shijigroup.com

59club Asia opens its new office in Bangkok, signaling an increase in customer service standards and sales performance levels across the region, with Golf & Leisure club providers set to take advantage of the force that is the 59club ‘effect’.

59club - the industry leading Service & Sales Analysts – currently operate across the UK, Europe & the UAE, and have now opened new offices in Bangkok to meet the ever-growing demand for their performance management tools and training services around the Globe.

59club are delighted to welcome Araya Singhsuwan who will run the 59club Asia Operation following a successful playing career and having worked and developed a very detailed understanding of golf and its operation. Araya has now turned her considerable skills and focus to the commercial and service world of Golf working with 59club Asia. Araya will lead the business with a solid foundation from which she and her colleagues at 59club will further develop and raise the service culture across the industry, improving the customer experience for the hundreds of thousands of golfers that enjoy playing within Thailand and across the region.

Over the past 10 years, 59club has taken the industry by storm, leading venues have quickly aligned their sales & service principals to the industry benchmark. Whilst an annual Awards Ceremony, regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the golf industry, honors the front runners, who reap the rewards associated with achieving 59club’s Customer Service ‘excellence’ seal of approval.

The 59club ‘effect’ is destined to make a huge impact in Asia, as some of the very best golf venues vie to advance their member and guest experience. Calling on their industry leading analytical tools and training services, 59club’s mystery shopper audits, customer satisfaction surveys and their interactive member communication apps are set to assist the Asian market to performance manage staff to achieve elevated levels of service and sales etiquette.

Venues, for the first time can benchmark their golf visitor experience, ability to manage a group golf day, their prospective member enquiry procedure and deliver surveys that measure new member satisfaction levels and club life alongside each visitor experience within golf, leisure & spa. Complete with the ability to compare performance levels against chosen local and global competitors, industry standards and the best performing venues, 59clubs powerful data generates real and current information of the highest quality and value.

The results highlight countless opportunities for venues to improve their operation, in turn increasing member and guest satisfaction, plus revenue & profits in the process.

59club is endorsed and supported by governing bodies such as The Professional Golfers Association & England Golf, 59club are also a chosen partner of the Golf Club Managers Association (GCMA), European Tour Properties, and are partners with many leading golf suppliers including Toro & Club Car.

59club are proud to work with leading hotel chains and resorts such as Gleneagles, The Belfry, Celtic Manor, The Grove, The Dukes St Andrews, Emirates Golf Club, Yas Links, Monte Rei, Macdonald Hotels, RBH and Marriott Golf, plus many members focused private clubs including, Roehampton, Stoke Park and Foxhills to name just a few...

Those wanting to take advantage of 59club’s services will be able to meet the team at the Asia Pacific Golf Summit, Bangkoktaking place 1st - 4th November. Whilst, later in the month Simon Wordsworth, 59Club CEO will be a key note speaker at the PGA Members International Conference, Laguna Phuket between 11th - 14th November.