Is a prompt answer too much to ask?

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drdel

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Bit of a rant.

So I'm due to play at my mates course beginning of next week - 100 miles from me.

Since I managed to tweak my knee I'll need to use a buggy .

So for convenience, as I'm was out and about on appointments today, I emailed the club well before 09:00 this morning asking them to reserve a buggy and, because I'd not be able to play the 18 holes without it and I'd be making a 200 mile round trip, could they reply and confirm.

6 hours and no response - I think its a bit of a poor show - how about you ?
 
drdel said:
Bit of a rant.

So I'm due to play at my mates course beginning of next week - 100 miles from me.

Since I managed to tweak my knee I'll need to use a buggy .

So for convenience, as I'm was out and about on appointments today, I emailed the club well before 09:00 this morning asking them to reserve a buggy and, because I'd not be able to play the 18 holes without it and I'd be making a 200 mile round trip, could they reply and confirm.

6 hours and no response - I think its a bit of a poor show - how about you ?
Click to expand...


many golf clubs are still behind the times with email, and 6 hours would be a prompt response for any business.
Im echoing too the quickest way is to ring them. :D
 
Running a golf club is a pretty full on business and most clubs usually do it with just a couple of people in the office. I'm sure their inbox is pretty rammed with stuff and a buggy request (particularly one for a few days away) is probably going to be low priority in their eyes.

As the others have said, if you need to know promptly, get on the dog and bone :thup:
 
Emailing a club will generally go to the secretary or office staff, who most likely do not deal with buggy bookings. Call the club, and get put through to the pro shop, or bar and make your reservation that way.
 
Yes you are all right, of course I could have rung but as I said I was wall to wall with appointments so it was more convenient for me to email -that way I could grab a squint later when free yet get in early with my request.

What's funny is that I did squeeze in a phone call and the very young sounding voice in the Pro-shop at the other end said we don't usually check the "pro-shop" emails !! - why's this funny -well because their "Sales and marketing manager" lists his strengths as including "...social media marketing, online marketing and business development."

And its true I get loads of emails from them offering me deals but obviously they ain't thought about the return traffic
!
 
Got a reply today - apparently they only check this (Proshop@XXXXXX.co.uk) email address every Saturday.

Even though it is listed in their contact information for visitors - I'm not sure of this logic or how visitors are supposed to know :mmm:
 
drdel said:
Got a reply today - apparently they only check this (Proshop@XXXXXX.co.uk) email address every Saturday.

Even though it is listed in their contact information for visitors - I'm not sure of this logic or how visitors are supposed to know :mmm:
Click to expand...

Any club that puts an email address as contact should either check it regularly or recommend phoning for issues that require a quicker answer. I'd be with you on your annoyance with this one and have been there myself.
 
I work in a Pro Shop and we monitor email. A number of people will book tee times or enquire about Golf days this way. As mentioned: why give out your email address if you don't monitor it, its almost like saying "We only answer the phone on Saturdays"
 
Listen pal , If i was making a 200 mile trip knowing I got injury problems. I ring them to make sure a buggy is booked for me , sorry for being blunt but you only got yourself to blame
 
JCW said:
Listen pal , If i was making a 200 mile trip knowing I got injury problems. I ring them to make sure a buggy is booked for me , sorry for being blunt but you only got yourself to blame
Click to expand...
I agree. Call really shouldn't take more than a minute.

Having said that, no point in club having email if they don't check inbox
 
Last edited:
JCW said:
Listen pal , If i was making a 200 mile trip knowing I got injury problems. I ring them to make sure a buggy is booked for me , sorry for being blunt but you only got yourself to blame
Click to expand...

Wow! Easy up there fella - I'm not your pal and from your post unlikely ever to be.

If you read the OP you'd see there was a very good professional reason for emailing, of course I'd have phoned if, at the time that was the best solution for me. Your profession and work situation may well be different but when I say 'wall to wall' appointments that's really what its is so get of your high horse, you need to believe the circumstances described because you're not in a position to know all the facts.

I use voice recognition software to email and it was much quicker for me to dictate and email than phone and it enabled the ProShop concerned to fit the reply around their immediate workload. Plus there's a record of the request which I have found is often very wise because, it seems, people forget to do what they've promised so 'ringing' does not 'make' sure as I've discovered before.

The simple point I'm try to ram home is that we know golf clubs say they are under financial pressures but if they want the business that is out there they need to realise that that means giving a service which includes making easy to contact them by a variety of means and responding promptly when contact is made.
 
JCW said:
Listen pal , If i was making a 200 mile trip knowing I got injury problems. I ring them to make sure a buggy is booked for me , sorry for being blunt but you only got yourself to blame
Click to expand...

He only has himself to blame for the pro shop not replying to an email? Eh? Could he call? Yes. Should he call? Probably. Should he receive a reply to an email within a few hours of sending it from a business that offers it as a medium of communication, again of course he should.
 
drdel said:
Wow! Easy up there fella - I'm not your pal and from your post unlikely ever to be.

If you read the OP you'd see there was a very good professional reason for emailing, of course I'd have phoned if, at the time that was the best solution for me. Your profession and work situation may well be different but when I say 'wall to wall' appointments that's really what its is so get of your high horse, you need to believe the circumstances described because you're not in a position to know all the facts.

I use voice recognition software to email and it was much quicker for me to dictate and email than phone and it enabled the ProShop concerned to fit the reply around their immediate workload. Plus there's a record of the request which I have found is often very wise because, it seems, people forget to do what they've promised so 'ringing' does not 'make' sure as I've discovered before.

The simple point I'm try to ram home is that we know golf clubs say they are under financial pressures but if they want the business that is out there they need to realise that that means giving a service which includes making easy to contact them by a variety of means and responding promptly when contact is made.
Click to expand...

I guess the middle ground is prob the best way here

The Pro Shop should look at e mails a bit quicker but they do get hundreds in on a daily basis maybe more - so whilst we all expect prompt replies - in life we know thats not always going to happen - they could have had issues with internet there or with their PC - lots of reasons

So whilst you did have a busy day with wall to wall - if the buggy was that important then surely you could have found the 5 mins to phone them ?
 
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