Just feel like a grumble...

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Red_Eyes

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Joined
May 28, 2008
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Birmingham-ish
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Six-eight weeks ago I have emailed five local clubs regarding membership. Not one replied. I gave them 4 weeks and requested membership details, requirements, special offers and T&C's. This time one replied. All clubs showed available for membership on the EGU website.

Dissappointed.

A recent news article on Central TV stated clubs were actively recruiting. maybe thats just Warwickshire.

Grumble over. :)
 
Perhaps they arnt very e-friendly yet, a pen to paper letter might get you more luck, saying that if they havent replied at all, do you want to be a member there?
 
Can you put your finger on any reason why they wouldn't even acknowledge your application?

Drop in in person for some lunch and make some enquiries as to how you would go about obtaining a membership application form?
 
That dont sound good mate, I would do what Homer suggested and also copy in the clubs to your email.
 
Perhaps they arnt very e-friendly yet, a pen to paper letter might get you more luck, saying that if they havent replied at all, do you want to be a member there?
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Brendy - It seems most places I know are run by the - shall I say - 'older' generation and most don't seem to be E friendly yet.

BTW I dont mean this to be an ignorant comment - its just what I seen from a few clubs I have been to.

My Pro is not that old and She is just about able to price match on the internet.
 
I agree, when I joined my current club I emailed a few others and they were simply not used to dealing with email requests and enquiries. They were more than helpful if I phoned or dropped in but they did not seem to have grasped the idea of email as an acceptable means of communication.
 
I think Brendy might have it right. In my experience letters never fail, emails are often just ignored.
When I was re-building an old car, I never got more than 10% replies from emails, yet a letter asking for a written quote was really effective. As someone who has to reply to both, I see to the letters first; it takes more effort from the sender, therefore I take it more seriously.

Incidentaly.....where are you looking? (area).....if it's Birmingham-ish, I'll know it probably.....

PM if you want, I'll offer some straight opinions.
 
Hi Red_Eyes

very interested to read your comments - cold you drop me an email (michael_harris@ipcmedia.com) as I'd like to know a bit more. This could be a strong story to incorporate in a feature about club membership in GM on this year
 
Not sure if this was just coincidence(sp) or not but...

Few months ago I went to a club, spoke to Pro and played a round with a view to joining. The Pro was fantastic and couldn't do enough to keep me interested. After the round he invited me back to play the course again. (first round was on winter mats)

When I queiried the membership prices, he told me the joining fee had been slashed and for a year the cost was a shade under £700.

I had heard of some clubs discounting for certain age groups. 21-29 years as an example. I asked him if the club did the same and they did. Funny though because as soon as I mentioned that, he suddenly didn't seem to interested to get me joined up.

On the day I couldn't obtain a membership application form and the Pro said he would get me one sent out in the post. I am still waiting.

I applied on the website and within a week, one came. I sent off the application form and added a note to the comments section, expressing my wishes to advantage of the slashed membership fee and reduced rate because of my age. Maybe I shot myself in the foot, but I have still not recieved a phone call or letter inviting me in for a chat atleast.

I spoke to someone, weeks later who told me they had a friend who joined on a full membership with no problems. took him a couple of weeks from the day he shown interest to the day he played his first round.

Like I said, coincidence??? or preference???
 
I think if you go to any gold club you will find the office is usually manned by a single member of staff, or sometimes two, one full and one part time.
The main reason for the likes of email etc not filtering thorugh to these staff is that noone else there uses computers so everything they do use, is either self taught or comes from previous employment.
Its not like a larger office where new members of staff are given an induction and training on all of the company facilities, Id go so far as to guess that they maybe get a day to a week with the outgoing member of staff who doesnt have time to show all of the functions of a working club office. Given time, I believe emails will be the second largest method of contact after the good old telephone. Our office sends emails to us regularly now and seems to be working happily with the computers, we even have a server which connects the proshop, handicap system and main office together which I guess is more fortunate than some clubs.
 
This lack of response to emails is indicative of the poor level of customer service we receive in so many different places these days. My wife's American and she can't believe the poor customer service that we seem happy to put up with, whether in shops or wherever.

I don't accept the argument that golf club offices are run by just one person or are run by the older generation...neither of those is an excuse for ignoring people who are trying to get in touch with you. If clubs can't handle email communication, then why do they put email addresses on their websites anyway? And why do they hire people who can't handle what is a pretty basic computer function?

I would have thought that in these days when the economy's not looking too clever and people are cutting back on non-essential spending*, clubs would be recruiting every golfer they could get their hands on, reduced fees or not. If that means spending half an hour learning to use email, so be it!

(*Not that I would class golf as non essential spending!)
 
I guess I will resort to 'normal' post. I ventured with email due to the fact I have only sent 2 letters this year and one of those never arrived, and costs the club only time to reply.

All the clubs I emailed have very proffesional websites so I believed they would have an effective email system.

I don't go with the age thing as the secretary of our local judo association is very efficient with email despite her age (I don't mean to sound patronising). Ironically it was my letter to her that never arrived.

I am wanting to visit clubs but being an 'outsider' ie no friends in the clubs I am reluctant to go but that is my problem.




-Red-
 
spot on Muttleee!

i had the same problem myself when trying to contact a couple of clubs local to me, to not even acknowledge my messages was in my book just plain ignorant!!

if they aren't taking on new members for whatever reason a polite KB would be the least they could have done.

i wouldn't join the clubs in question now if they offered to pay my fees for me.
 
I always feel that dropping in for a chat with the secretary / manager is the best way forward. It gives you a chance to see a bit of the club, and see if you like it, while giving them a chance to talk to you.

You can often blag a free round too. I did when I joined my club. I dropped in to chat about membership, got asked if I had played the course before, answered no, and was offered free green fees for me and a mate to try the course for size.

No surprise that that was the club I joined. It is also the best in the area.
 
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