Golf Anyone?

Today’s post comes courtesy of Brian Johnson, COO of Strategic Profits, golf enthusiast and single-digit handicapper.

So when is it ok to piss-off your customers?

I can hear all of you now; “What do you mean? the customer is King!” or “The customer is always right”. Well, I have an answer for that in a moment. golfer

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the Phoenix airport just a day after playing golf at the TPC (Tournament Players Club) in Scottsdale Arizona. And, I am reflecting on a run-in I had with staff there while I was playing…

Before I start, understand that this is a course that any great golfer would love to play. They sometimes charge over $350.00 per round to play and it is part of the club that the PGA professional golfers own. In fact, this is one of the PGA tour stops (Tiger Woods had a hole-in-one here a few years ago).

So, picture this; for weeks now I have been all excited to fly out here to play this course. I have been talking to everyone about going. I get here, check into the hotel, pay hundreds of dollars for my cart and greens fee, buy my TPC hat and all proud to wear it, buy brand new fresh balls new glove, get some drinks, head to the driving range, meet my friends that I am playing with, and get all jacked up to tee off in 15 minutes. AAAHHHHHHH

“We now invite Mr. Brian Johnson and guests to the first tee”… comes over the loud speakers while we are getting warmed up on the driving range. All excited I say “let’s go guys, time to have some fun” We jump on the carts and speed up to the first tee where the starter is awaiting for us. He greets us and gives us some background on the day and welcomes us to the first tee. Things are great. The weather is beautiful. I am hanging with good friends, and we shake hands and say have a good time guys. The day begins.

Jon Walker tees off and puts it in the middle, Aaron from InfusionSoft hits a great one in the faraway and I put one on the left side. And we are off…

We get no further than the third tee where we were met by a ranger waiting for us. In a militant voice he says; “OK guys, you need to move it along, there are two holes in front of you and you have to rush through and catch up.”

WOW. What the heck just happened?

I was no longer excited, and the guests I was with were just as mystified as I was. The day was going well so I simply responded with an friendly; “OK, no problem” and we do our best to keep things going.

As a side note, we are all avid golfers and no slouches. We were only a 3-some and playing at a pretty quick speed. If you know golf, you know that you want to be courteous to people behind you and not hold them up. However there was not anyone behind us, we were not holding anyone up AND there was space in-between the group in front of us when we started to play in the first place.

It was just their “rule” that you should play at the speed that they (the non customer) feels you should play. It’s a lot like going to a fine restaurant and placing your order. Then they bring your appetizers and then immediately 5 minutes later bring you the main course. Then 5 minutes later come to you and say “Listen you can’t be here all night and we need the table for someone else, you should be able to eat in 15 minutes” How irate would you be?

Fast forward to two holes later. We now have gone through each hole putting without even taking the flag stick out of the hole, did not get a drink when the snack cart came around so we could try to catch up (which during summer in Arizona is not the best idea), ran back and forth to the cart and made up some time while we DID NOT enjoy the golf.

So we get to the tee at the 6th hole and the same ranger is there and says “let’s go guys, you need to hustle” at which point I was at a boiling point and said to him “Listen, we are not holding anyone up, no one has complained about us and there was already space between us when we started” His response was; “If you don’t like it you will be missing golf and I will move you into position where I think you should be”.

My response (in a manner that is unlike my collected self) was “@%#! THIS!” I just spent hundreds of dollars to play here, traveled across the country and have been looking forward to this for a while. Needless to say, I did not enjoy any more of the day and my opinion of the place went in the tank. I can’t even remember most of the golf I played. I felt violated, ripped off, scorned, and totally deflated. The guests I was with were even more upset than I was.

This Ranger does not know me at all, my golf experience or golf etiquette and still he is dismissing me? That’s crazy and customers should never be treated like that.

Right?

Ok, on the flip side I put my business founder hat on. I am thinking that they do this with the intention of taking care of all customers and not just one. Should they piss off one client in the spirit of keeping the other clients happy? Keep in mind we were NOT a hindrance to anyone and the Ranger was “Just following the rules put in place for all customers.” You have to have some rules or policies in place to handle situations where some clients will hurt others.

Right?

I can say that even here at Strategic Profits I am very protective of our company and anyone trying to take advantage (in my view) will have a hard time with me. Notice I said “in my view?” The client might not feel that way. But if I break the rules for one client it might snowball into many clients and now I have hurt the company as a whole, which in turn hurts all clients.

Right?

So the big question is; if the customer is always right… are they always right for YOUR company? This is a question that Spike Humer at Jay Abraham’s office brought up to me when I was telling him this story, and one that I want you to think about today.

It’s truly an interesting dilemma that company owners and founders need to deal with on a consistent basis. What you do, how you handle or not handle or how effective you resolve issues like this can make or break the company you founded.

I am interested in hearing what you would do if you were the owner, manager or founder of this golf club. Please post a comment and let me know. I will tell you what we would have done after we hear from you. Also, I look forward to us helping you with more of these types of issues so that you can avoid costly pitfalls in your company’s future success.

Post a comment, and let us know how YOU feel about this.

To Higher Profits,

Brian Johnson

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Comments:

http://www.jacquelynlynn.com Jacquelyn Lynn

The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer. And customers should always be treated with courtesy and respect, even when they are wrong.

This was clearly a training opportunity for the golf course. The ranger involved — and all employees — should have been reminded of the basics in customer service, and you as the customer should have received an apology and some compensation.

Savvy companies empower their employees to be flexible and make judgment calls so that they can do things that will delight, not offend, the customers–even if a particular customer isn’t right.
HB

Dear Brian – oh have you hit a hot spot !

No customer should have to tolerate poor customer service whether at such a prestigious location or a local store.

I’m the Queen of ‘positive complaining’ when on the receiving end or poor service (and first to recognise and reward good service). To me it’s about basic courtesy and value to the customer – it makes or breaks a business!

Learnt in my early career in a service passionate company to ‘start with the Head not the feet’ when complaining because the Head (CEO or MD) does care and also has authority to put the situation right.

If I was MD dealing with your issue – you’d receive a personal response from one of my senior team to apologise and listen to your complaint in full (to help you feel better and collect full info), a promise to fully investigate and feedback and without question to offer a repeat day (or other upgrade on your original booking) for you and your guests, fully expensed and at your convenience – (perhaps voucher style).

Internally the matter would be investigated and the problem solved appropriately – this could be by refreshing corporate values, changing rules, retraining, putting spotlight on customer service delivery at all stages and by all staff (get them involved for good ideas) – it might also involve discipline if ‘rogue employee’ was threatening business by poor service.

Whatever, the internal issues – you would get feedback and action to ensure you felt happy and truly valued by the solution and it’s delivery to you.

Why would I seemingly overcompensate to you ?

Easy – it’s good for business.

No customer deserves such disappointment and I want you to tell the world what a great organisation you dealt with.

How many people now know about the atrociously bad service from that organisation and will use word of mouth ‘de-recommendation’when relaying it to friends/family etc .

Who’d want to book with them having read about your experience.?
Fabio G

Brian

I’m firmly convinced that a customer is “not always right”, but as a business owner, maniacal on customer care, I always strive to make sure that the customer feels as he/she is always right, and that goes through educating the customer, that is, letting them know beforehand that there are certain rules to follow, certainly not after they are engaged in my business, therefore harassing them which will result in their saying farewell to me.
Where I live, every clothing shop has a “No Food or Drinks” sign outside the store, if I don’t like it I don’t enter, yet, knowing it gives me assurance that they are serious and I won’t bring food or drink into the store.
The management at the golf club is surely at fault for not instructing their staff first, and then not educating their customers for their best interest. It’s all about the “great” experience that the customer has in doing business with you.
Fabio G

Besides, what a great marketing strategy that is, if I were the owner of a golf club I would make as a rule that my establishment is “fast-paced”. Certainly it is not for everyone, but at the end of the day I would in that case challenge the future customer to become better somewhere else, then take the challenge of testing himself on my course, and paying top dollars for it … and keep coming back …

I have an idea for my business … thanks a lot for that Brian
Stan

To me it looks like another typical example of a society and education system where people have never learned to think for themselves.

Everything they do is fixed by the rules. If it is not in the book they have no answers. Where is the adaptability and critical thinking?

Management is at fault here for not educating staff why customers want to come to the golf course and ensuring they will have a great experience.

The trouble is the demand is far higher than the spots available so they can get away with maximizing their profit without caring for the customer.
http://DigitalArtistU.com Nathan Segal

Like you, it’s highly likely I’d never visit again, but before I made that decision, I would demand a meeting with the head honcho and let them know about the negative experience. I would also demand a refund or ask them what they would do about fixing the problem and give them the chance to do so. If they chose to address the problem and resolve it, great. If not, I’d let them know exactly how I feel and that I’d let all my friends know about my experience. No one wants to reward someone who treats us badly and I think you’ve done a great service by making this post.

The phrase, “The customer is always right” is true to a point, though there comes a time to fire the client, but that’s another story.

Nathan
http://www.fuel-water-energy.com Freddy Escobar

I fully agree with Stan and I also emphasize the management responsibilty for not educating correctly the staff in direct contact with customers.

Of course, there exist rules to be followed, but there should also be flexibility and good criteria from people in charge of customer care. This good criteria only comes from a fully understanding of what our business is about and what are our customer expectations.

I believe well educated/trained people is the bottom line for a sustainable business in the long term.
http://www.insuranceleads.com Eric

My question is will you go back? I wouldn’t. The rules are just a little too rigid for my liking. Now they not only upset you but everyone who reads this will think twice before going to that golf course.

I know that not everyone is a “fit”, but a business owner should work to protect their reputation. We struggle with this issue every day. There are customers who do take advantage, but we found it is best to be reasonable.

If we have a client who is not happy and can’t be satisfied we give them what they want (in most cases) and dismiss them in a polite way. This way there is no hard feelings and we have eliminated a drain on our resources.
http://smallbizbee.com Matt | Small Biz Bee

My two cents…they were probably right, as you state they have a policy and they were trying to uphold it. If they “bend” the policy for you, where do they draw the line with other customers.

With that said, their delievery of this message was HORRIBLE, and that’s where they screwed up.

Most rational people can understand a business following a set policy, even if it doesn’t make perfect sense for their situation, but nobody will understand being treated rudely.

The truth is the customer is not always right, that’s the facts, but a business is NEVER right in treating the customer poorly, or devaluing them when delivering the message. It’s too bad, they cast a pall on your experience, and surely have done this with others, when all it takes is better communication to allievate the bad feelings.

Matt
http://www.valleysentinel.com Denise Rousset

Whether or not they were “right”or “wrong” doesn’t change anything. The question is damage control.

If I were the founder or owner, or CEO, I would have had a ratings survey in place for everyone who passes through, whether it is for a golf outing or a drink in the bar. People aren’t always inclined to fill them out if things are ok, but trust me, the message will be loud and clear if a customer isn’t happy. In that case, a free round or some kind of conciliatory gift or credit would be necessary.

If there is a wrong done, and a customer isn’t happy it’s far less expensive to offer them something to make up for it, than to hire consultants to repair a damaged reputation…(work travels fast. Look at this blog post!)

The company should have a ratings card, questionnaire or whatever, in place so that they can be on top of these things and make the changes that need to be made in order to safeguard their client base.

Golf courses I deal with are all feeling the pinch of this economy. Rubbing existing clients the wrong way is the path to ruin. If customers can afford to fly across the country, pay over $300 for a round of golf and bring guests, it’s just as easy for them to fly someplace else next time. Nobody wants to lose customers.

The right thing for you to do would be to write a kind note to customer service or higher up, and suggest that they take a closer look at their policies, or to employee training with regards to the fact that policies can help the flow of business, but that the customers are human beings and there should be allowances for variations in situations.
Susan

My first Marketing prof. said – the average person has about 200 people in their immediate sphere of influence. If you do something right, maybe 10% of them will hear about it. If you do something wrong, all 200 will hear. They’ll make sure of it.

Unfortunately for TPC (Tournament Players Club) in Scottsdale Arizona your sphere of influence is significantly bigger than 200 and your circle likely includes a lot of the types of elite customers this club would like to continue to attract. But now we ALL know that if you want to have an enjoyable, stress free, high end golf day that you’ll remember in a positive way, DON’T GO to TPC. If you want to pay a lot of money for a day out, to be abused by low level staff and stressed in a way that you’ll think about EVERY time you play golf for the rest of your life – go to TPC.

I don’t think this issue was about the customer being right or sticking with the rules. Seems to me the business of golf is about having some fun, getting a chance to spend some quality time with people you enjoy and de-stressing. This club should have added – have a great experience that only a few people will ever get to enjoy.

So after reading your story, my question to the owners/managers of this golf club would be – “What kind of experience do you want your customers to have at TPC? and “How do you want your business to be remembered?” and a third question – “What are you going to do for Brian, John and Aaron to turn around a truly disastrous customer experience that several thousand people all over North America (or further) now know about?”.

How sad that one low level employee, taking care of his postage stamp sized patch of grass that he’s surrounded by electrified barbed wire fence, managed to make somebody else’s day as sad as his…
http://www.golfersgel.com Kyle

In any business it’s about your customers experience so I agree with Susan’s post.

I’m not sure how I’d handle your experience at the TPC but I know I’d forward a link for this blog to someone that cares.

Maybe it’s time for a “Ranger Retraining Class”. You know being in the hot Arizona sun all day and spending hours of time alone can challenge anyone’s people skills especially if they’re envious of someone elses good time. I’d hate like heck to think I made someones day by allowing them to ruin mine.

Oh, the question about the customer being right?? I’d say that depends on the intent of management. The rightness of the customer is proportionate to the scarcity of the intended result so as fewer rounds are played a customers value increases. Hey Ranger get with the program!!
http://www.getclientsblueprint.com james

Great post.
Max Yeo

It a matter of how we react to the situation we are in… Stephen Covey’s 10% Event 90% Reaction Story.
Maybe you should try to understand the perspective where the ranger is coming from? It could have ended up in a more pleasant experience.

Just curious, did you ask him why you have to catch up or why is he rushing you off when you can play at a more relaxed pace as it was not crowded and that you are not lagging behind?

I learned it the bad way too, one’s emotion is hard to control, especially, under the intense heat and exhausted condition.

My partner does what I called “Jedi mind trick” some times, especially when she’s interacting with the service people. Basically, she just gave them some “attention”, talk about the weather, about them, etc. And it almost always turns out with extra freebies and better services, simply because she have made them enjoy interacting with her.

That poor guy could be less educated, less than fortunate background, past experience, under the hot sun getting a “low” salary for that, he must have been frustrated, and who knows how many bad customers he got to face, that hardened his attitude.

And the one thing that he may not understand is that he is shaping the Customer’s Experience, as a representative of the company. I am sure the company’s owner would not have wished for this to happened… But how would the company owner knows about it?

The ranger could just tell his direct management “its another bad customer…”. So what would his direct management thinks, especially if he knows the ranger well…?

Unless, there is a better channel for customer to feedback.
Those agony may never reach the management levels. And the angry customer will just go away, and maybe start to dissuade people from doing business with this company.

Likewise, in our online world, many support helpdesk is in this situation. The lack of feedback to higher management for the customer…

Here comes my story…

My very bad experience with an online marketing Guru’s Customer Service… In less than one year, I bought thousands dollars worth of products from this Guru.

But it all came to a STOP one day, when I didn’t receive a product that cost me a few hundreds dollars. I live in Singapore, the product was rejected & shipped back by the custom officers due to lack of detailed information about the product and no contact was available.

Maybe the fulfillment house in US screwed it up or whatever happens… The Customer Service had literally ignored or put it nicely, “overlooked” my first ticket, finally willing to see to my subsequent persistent ticketS.

They verified my order, asked me for the shipping address again, and say that they will ship the product to me. Because Singapore was so far from US, I gave them a month allowance to ship it to me… Each time…

End of the month, it never arrive… The whole customer service process starts all over again… And the important part is that every time I ask for the tracking ID, this question seems to be invisible to them, they just reply me with something else…

The back and forth emails continues for more than 1 WHOLE year. Same scenario every time, “the product is sent”, asked for tracking ID, no reply on the tracking ID…

They are kind enough or should I say creative enough to ask me for an alternative address. I asked them to check on my previous purchases which was shipped to this same valid address. Why has all the previous purchases arrived and not for this. I wonder…

I believed in them so strongly that I was still requesting for the product over a year. In the end, I ask them to either ship me or refund, since they had so much problem in shipping it to me… Same thing, no reply on those “sensitive” issue…

Because this person was a BIG TIME GURU, and that I had enormous respect for him and the quality work he has done, and because I know that he wasn’t even aware of this incident. I never complained about him openly…

I believe no one will even believe what a bad experience
I had with this well respected guru. I still trust his work, but I never bought from him again. Maybe until one day, where I have the confidence in his OPERATIONS or the fact that I can afford to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars in failed delivery.

The point I want to bring across is that if only this multi-millionaire guru knew about it, he would not have let me suffer this…

In fact, he would have send it to me and that I continue to be a happy customer, whom he could have made another few thousands dollars for the subsequent products.

This days, I feel that some operations has gotten so big that they lost the personal interaction with the guru. Or that there are so much going on for the guru to that he wasn’t even aware that his “outsourced/hired” resources was failing some of his “could be big” customers.

If only, the support system that the gurus used so commonly, has some sort of direct rating feedback (like the one in hostgator, where you can rate the support service) to him. The owner of the company could never know how badly was the experience of some customer, especially when his operations has earned him millions of income per year…

“If only, the owner knew…”
http://www.tpc.com/scottsdale Tiffany Nelson

Brian,
I am the Director of Marketing here at TPC Scottsdale and first and foremost, would like to apologize for the way that you were treated and your experience here at TPC Scottsdale. That is NOT what we want anyone’s experience to be or even feel like.
I do wish you would have come in to the golf shop and let someone know how upset you were. I didn’t see anyting in your blog about this, but if you did, again, I’m sorry that it wasn’t handled better.
As was metioned, we do have a pace of play policy that we have taught the Course Advisors to follow and being a Sunday morning – it was packed out there with every tee time full until 10:30. I am, by no means, making an excuse for the Course Advisor, but being full that morning, we pay very detailed information on pace of play.
We do know who the Course Advisor was at that time and we will be talking to him.
We would also like to talk to you about the situation and try to rectify it. We don’t want this to be your impression or anyone else’s of TPC Scottsdale.
I will have my General Manager follow up with you directly and again, I’m truly sorry for the Course Advisors actions/ tone and for your overall experience.
Sincerely,
TPC Scottsdale
Donna

How funny that my friends and I had a simular situation while golfing in ST Croix golfing to begin with is not cheap and this was the only course to play we had not even made it 1/2 way when we were warned to hurry and we did not see anyone behind or infront of us by the 2nd warning we were purturbed but ignored them then they kicked us off the green, because a tournament was comming we were not warned of this and we left the green and I complained to the girl who gave us the tee time that we did not appreciate being kicked off the course and that she should have warned us, and we could have reschedualed our golf game, however she made it up to us by giving us free golf, for are remaining stay which was 3or 4 days no hard feelings and I will golf there again.
http://dave-whittle.com Dave Whittle

Hello Sam,

Am I missing something here? What do you mean “was he British?”

I would be extremely p……….d off by this jobsworth myself and it would screw my game up as well.

However, this happened in Arizona I believe and the last time I checked it was in the USA.

Yes, I am what you guys call a “Brit”.

I would be interested to see what your reply is.

Regards,

Dave
http://www.bloggingwithchris.com Cthris Peterson

Hey !
I am sorry to hear about the incidence. However, if one wants to think about this incidence as owner, then it might sound rude or crude to you but the truth is that the problem of being human beings. Human beings, who might be working with others, would never have same destination. So you would never know at what level of work this way of behavior got enforced. There can be few sugestions from my side, though.
1. Clarity in basic terms of behavior with customers.

2. Significant work on attitude & thinking at appointment level.

3. Openness & continuous attention to complaints

4. Reaffirmations at important events of company by higher authority.

I sincerely hope, it helps.