Reputation Management: Proactively Keep Your Facility Positive Online
January 06, 2017
by John Hakim, Owner of Greenskeeper.org
Greenskeeper.org, a website of over 70,000 members of which 70% are avid golfers, is dedicated to helping golfers decide where to play.
Data shows, that positive authentic reviews produce 10x more page views for golf courses than negative or neutral reviews. Revealing that golfers predominately seek out trusted positive reviews instead of negative reviews so they can make a quick decision about where to play.
The #1 priority for today’s consumer after health and money is their TIME. Much like with any other purchase, golfers don’t want to invest a day golfing without researching online reviews or asking friends/family their opinion first. It’s no coincidence that when a wholesaler does a mass e-mail about a facility deal, Greenskeeper.org sees a significant spike in website activity for that course.
The days of the “knee-jerk” marketing response are gone. Consumers are seeking robust information before making purchases large and small.
Need more evidence? Amazon is a prime example of acting on this key insight. They went all-in on becoming a review platform at conception, knowing how influential online reviews are to purchasing decisions.
The evidence was already documented over ten years ago, in 2006, McKinesy & Company released a report called “The Consumer Decision Journey.” It revealed that two-thirds of the touch points in the buying cycle involved consumer driven information, such as online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family. With the vast increase in web information today, just imagine what that percentage has risen to. So as a golf course operator what can you do to be more proactive at cultivating positive reviews for your golf course? Here are some suggestions…
1. Play offense, rather than defense – Stop looking at online reviews as primarily “Damage Control.” Opportunity lies in the positive reviews, not in mitigating the negative. Come to grips with this truth and put a game-plan in place for cultivating positive reviews and engaging reviewers.
2. Know your core customer – I tell this to all facilities before engaging in marketing activities. The most successful marketing is reverse engineered to expertly target a specific audience, in this case, avid golfers. Avid golfers are the influencers in the golf industry. This was made evident by the National Golf Foundation in 2012 in a report titled “Golf’s Pyramid of Influence,” which revealed that while avid golfers only account for 28% of all golfers, they generate 77% of rounds played and 71% of money spent on golf. Your marketing goal should not be reach as many golfers as possible but rather focused on reaching the avid influential golfers. Not only do they bring more revenue, in today’s information-cluttered world consumers pay less attention to marketing and more to opinions they trust.
3. Monitor reviews to track influencers – Platforms like Greenskeeper.org, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Golf Advisor and others have top reviewers that influence large numbers of golfers. Seek out and follow the golfers posting highly-viewed, well-liked, detailed and authentic reviews about your facility and nearby facilities.
4. Engage avid golfers by responding to reviews – Not engaging the avid golfers is like reaching a green in regulation and then picking up. Don’t fall into the trap of responding to a negative review with free golf to smooth things over, rather engage the negative review in a manner that does not encourage it to happen again. Your gratitude to the golfer for highlighting issues that need to be assessed is enough. On the flip side, engage and possibly offer small tokens of your gratitude to authentic positive reviewers. These are the true influencers who you should be cultivating into advocates of your facility.
5. Join Greenskeeper.org so you can engage avid Southern California golfers – There are close to 50,000 registered Southern California golfers on this website and you can engage with them all directly through a direct messenger capability. Maybe take it a step further and invite a small group of avid influencer golfers to play your course when it’s in very good playing condition through the GK Review Guru program. 20+ Southern California golf course have already utilized the GK Review Guru program over the last 6 months. It’s free for golf courses and it greatly enhances positive exposure.
For more information contact John Hakim at [email protected].
John is the owner founder of Greenskeeper.org launched in 2002. John is a pioneer and expert in the golf course industry in regards to reputation management and social networking. He has done many speaking engagements on the topic and is a co-author with Zeb Welborn of the book “The Social Golf Course.” John has a passion for creating more avid golfers and a healthier golf course industry. John resides in Westlake Village CA, is happily married with two daughters, and is an avid golfer.
Greenskeeper.org is a golf social network online for 10+ Years. “Know Before You Go” ®