Winning with experience one customer at a time
The world’s greatest golfers will gather soon in Augusta, Georgia, for the 80th annual Masters golf tournament, an event with has many similarities to the retail industry and one that serves as a source of inspiration as we look to grow the PGA TOUR Superstore.
Around every turn on the picturesque course, golfers are faced with new challenges and opportunities that require them to balance the risks and rewards of their decision-making against their ability to execute shots all while striving to prevail over a field of unmerciful competitors.
The scenario has much in common with the retail industry and The PGA TOUR Superstore in particular with one notable exception. The Augusta National Golf Club course does not change appreciably from year to year whereas the retail industry is being reshaped by digital forces and the continued growth of e-commerce. This change has created new opportunities for all types of retailers as consumers and technology continue to push the envelope on evolving the retail experience. We experience this situation first hand every day online at Pgatoursuperstore.com and in our 26 stores. The increasingly tech savvy marketplace has made PGA TOUR Superstore more cerebral and proactive in identifying and utilizing more tools to deliver a successful omni-channel strategy.
However, a bigger part of the puzzle for us is providing an unrivaled customer experience. We want consumers to buy whenever they want, wherever they are. Today’s golfer can go online and book a golf lesson or schedule a custom fitting session. But we want to take it a step further and allow our customers to pick up online orders in the store and to eventually give them a fully connected shopping experience by having all of their personalized information in one easy-to-access location including lesson videos, custom fitting specs, purchase history, personalized playing tips from our PGA Pros and more. Our ultimate goal is to inspire golfers by helping them play better and the key to that is providing them with all of the information they need accessible at their fingertips. Regardless of where they shop, we want to blend our channels together and provide a seamless, fun experience.
This approach is essential to building our brand and business model because of the high expectations associated with The PGA TOUR, the most recognizable brand in golf. It’s what distinguishes our brand from other golf retailers while also empowering us to be the industry benchmark and set the bar high to deliver the best experience. Our expectation is to deliver the best brand names in equipment, apparel and accessories but add to that, the best service and the best experience to complete the total package. Other retailers offer similar brands but don’t offer the customer service. Our culture and the people we employ at PGA TOUR Superstore are screened for aptitude but we hire for attitude. The culture we have is unique. We distinguish ourselves with knowledgeable associates on the sales floor who we view as an investment rather than an expense. It is our true competitive advantage and when executed properly it is a key brand differentiator.
Everything we do is focused on delivering a PGA TOUR-like experience from the selection of goods and customer service to having the same interactive tools as the pros. Millions of golf fans go to PGA TOUR events every year and are inspired and want to have fun. The same can be said when those folks visit our stores. Last year we taught 40,000 golf lessons in our stores and had more than 3,000 kids come to our free game improvement clinics. On Saturdays we have closest-to-the-pin and putting contests and when a PGA TOUR event is played at Pebble Beach or another top level course, our customers can visit our stores and play those same courses on our simulators. People love to come and hang out in our stores and use our simulators or practice their putting. They’ll talk to our pros or club fitters to see if something can be done with their clubs or grips. We’ve built a brand they trust.
This approach is essential to serve a core customer we define as the avid golfer. They are at the center of everything we do in terms of marketing and merchandising. For example, we know 70% to 80% of our customers customize their golf clubs when they make a purchase. Whether it’s as simple as adding a favorite grip or as extensive as selecting a custom shaft option, they want customization. We make sure we can deliver that and we do so by having the best golf fitting professionals and club-makers in our stores.
Balance is also important to growing our business just as it is for a golfer to be an effective ball striker. We don’t believe in growing and expanding just for the sake of opening a new state-of-the-art store but we are always exploring and researching new markets and looking for opportunities to expand in existing markets. Outside research and data allows us to identify where there’s golf retail and what is being spent. The combination of data and the existing store make up we have allows us to understand which markets we should be in as well as what the mix of products will be.
For example, our stores offer different products in different regions. What you find in Palm Springs may vary from Dallas or Naples or Myrtle Beach. We look at golf rounds, and obtain good intelligence and visibility when we go into these markets and we’ve had some good success. For example this year we’ll enter a new market in Minnetonka MN. We know it’s a top 10 market and in terms of golfers they are among the top five in per capita as far as number of golf rounds played. We will open a 41,000 square foot interactive retail space this spring. The timing and location is ideal given we will be in the backyard to this year’s 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
One of our secret weapons as we look to grow is the involvement of our chairman and controlling owner Arthur Blank, the retired co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta United MLS franchise. Arthur is one of great entrepreneurs of the retail industry and a sports and golf enthusiast who recognized a great opportunity with PGA TOUR Superstore. We benefit from Arthur’s active involvement and the many strategic viewpoints he is able to offer from experience running one of the greatest retailers of all-time. He understands the importance of customer service and creating a unique selling culture. Our associates do not work on a commission base and we are essentially mirroring many of the great strategies that are still successful at Home Depot, namely focusing on building relationships with customers as opposed to executing transactions.
To that end, every day we focus on inspiring golfers – and tennis players – who want to play better and have more fun. We have an active and supportive role to provide them with whatever they need - service, lessons, custom fittings and equipment – to make their golf experience fantastic. For us to be an industry leader, we are focused on more than adding new stores or generating more impressive financials than our competitors. We focus our attention on taking care of the customer one by one. Every athlete is different and has different needs, and we strive to treat each person as such. We will never waver from this approach. Every individual customer experience defines and redefines our brand. We are only as good as the last customer we serve. It is this opportunity that drives us each and every day.