By Rob Carey
Charles Sheppard’s first goal at Toftrees Golf Resort was to coax customers back to the course by altering a dated reputation
When Charles Sheppard came to Toftrees Golf Resort in spring 2014 after spending 13 years in the hyper-competitive Orlando market, it wasn’t a small adjustment for him. The Marriott Golf veteran knew instinctively that every course in central Florida must continually promote a distinct image in the marketplace to capture its share of golfers. But in central Pennsylvania, Sheppard’s first challenge was that his facility’s reputation was dated and didn’t reflect the value Toftrees provided to daily-fee players and members alike.
According to Sheppard, the course opened in 1968 as one of the few premier resort layouts in the state, but shifted to an upscale daily-fee mindset in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It then went private until 2010, when Marriott Golf assumed management of the course. So by 2014, “many people in the region thought either that we were still private or that we weren’t worth it, when they could play elsewhere for $10 to $25 less,” he notes.
As a result, Sheppard’s primary focus from week one at Toftrees was “to get the word out that we offer a quality of experience that’s a cut above the other courses around here at a price that’s still competitive.” Through the use of print ads locally plus in Harrisburg (90 minutes away) and Pittsburgh (140 minutes away), as well as email blasts and social media campaigns, “we started putting the rate out there to reinforce that we were open to the public,” Sheppard says. And to entice players who were on the fence about paying more to play, the ads noted that advance bookings done through the Toftrees website earn a discount of up to 15 percent. This drove demand while allowing Sheppard to gather customer information and also better analyze the tee sheet and shift pricing on the fly to get business into underutilized days and times.
Sheppard aggressively pursues group outings too, which “wasn’t done here before because Penn State is the major employer here and has its own course. But now we get a lot of those outings, simply because they want variety.” Donating free rounds of golf to non-golf charity events helps raise awareness, too. And for in-house meeting groups that don’t have time to play 18 holes, Sheppard coordinates 90-minute clinics where groups of 10 people move through each instructional station, with some time left over for hitting balls and enjoying refreshments.
Two initiatives designed to help Toftrees land more golf business now and well into the future are the overhauled junior camp and the annual “family golf festival.” By changing the junior program from a weekly two-hour event in summer to an all-day camp over one week that includes activities other than golf, Sheppard more than doubled program revenue. And by hosting a one-day festival for families to take mini-lessons, compete in putting and marshmallow long-drive competitions, play nine holes for free and even use the resort’s pool, Toftrees attracted more than 40 families plus local television and newspaper coverage. “All of that is outreach to people who probably have never been on property before,” he says.
For the daily-fee market, the goal of these multiple changes was “simply to get them here to see how nice it is, and put a rate sheet in their hand.” And on the membership side, “we have to get young families to join. The average age of members is climbing, here and everywhere else.” With annual rounds going from 19,000 in 2014 to 22,000 in 2015, it seems that Sheppard’s initial changes have hit the mark.
Even with greater visibility and some tangible results coming from it, Sheppard felt that the club’s three membership categories were not structured to handle the desired growth. As a result, he created a few more categories: a 35-and-under “young professionals” tier and a senior tier that granted weekend access in addition to weekdays. Besides trying to bring in younger guests who would stay on as members after age 35, “we didn’t want to lose nearly $1,000 from a member who became a senior and chose to downgrade to weekday-only because it was the only alternative to regular membership,” Sheppard notes. Meanwhile, a new set of forward tees in the 4,200-yard range will make it more likely that members’ spouses, children and even parents will join them on the course. The sum of these efforts: Toftrees membership rose from 195 to 205 members in the past several months, and will likely be capped within three years at 225 so that total annual rounds peak at approximately 25,000.
Lastly, to ensure course conditioning and customer service are at a level that will sustain the new momentum generated at Toftrees, Sheppard referred back to the Marriott management handbook. “When I first arrived, I saw elements of a team that wasn’t fully engaged,” he recalls. “So I put it on myself: ‘What are we doing to make them want to be engaged?’”
The answer was to invest himself more fully with each department. For instance, the 15-person grounds crew had to conduct a months-long turf-growing and replacement program along with revamped mowing patterns so that many landing areas could be widened at minimal cost. But Sheppard sensed that the crew felt separated from the rest of the golf operation, so he scheduled monthly luncheons to personally update them on all golf-related initiatives and performance figures, answer HR-related questions, and celebrate successes.
“Focusing on teambuilding made such a big difference,” he says. “It’s the principle that managers must take care of their associates so that those associates can take care of customers. The scores on our employee-engagement surveys have gone up a lot in the past two years.”
And, perhaps more importantly, “scores” among customers have been increasing as well.
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.