The humble Member Survey
It can be a difficult thing to open yourself up for feedback from your peers, friends or family. You might be a little afraid of what they think, right? The truth can hurt…
How about asking for feedback from the Members at your Golf Club? No doubt there will be positive and negative feedback. Everyone has different tastes, different priorities and different expectations. And reading some of the feedback might be painful, but as a leader of your Club, I’d encourage you to lean into it as the process will make you a better leader and will only benefit your Club, your Team and your Members.
At Lonsdale Links, we initially surveyed our Members when developing a new strategic plan 4 years ago and have continued to survey Members on an annual basis since then. To boost engagement with the survey, we offer the chance to win a free dinner in our restaurant for those that complete it. We also do the same process with our Green Fee database and offer a promotional green fee voucher during our off-peak season. We receive great feedback from the green fee database for this incentive.
The structure follows a simple 1-10 score for each department – Course, Practice Facilities, Golf Ops, Hospitality, Administration, Executive Committee & Communication, with open text boxes after each department score for individual comments.
We know that we’re not the finished product at Lonsdale Links and we welcome opportunities to improve. How do we know where we are coming up short if we don’t give Members a platform to be heard? And yes, there has been some feedback that has been hard to read. But we have certainly improved and this is borne out in the year on year results.
Survey results are shared with the Members in the following format:
1. Department Scores
2. Common Issues
3. Key Learnings and Upcoming Actions
4. Clearing up misconceptions
5. Variety of Member Comments (made anonymous)
Acknowledging what the common issues are will help Members feel like their views are being heard. Not all issues will be quick win opportunities. Some will require significant capital investment to resolve and that should be acknowledged too. You are helping to set reasonable expectations.
Establishing the learnings with your Team and the corresponding action plan is the big opportunity here. In the Member’s eyes, you and the Team are now problem-solvers!
The survey inevitably throws up some comments that are just not true. Clearing up these misconceptions is another great opportunity to ensure that Members have a correct handle on the information.
Providing anonymous quotes of some of the Member comments can help give Members an insight into how other Members might think about certain issues. Ensure that you have a balanced representation of comments – good, bad, and constructive.
The humble Member Survey is a vital tool on the road to improvement for any Board or Golf Club Leader.