Ramside Hall bills itself as 'A Resort for Every Occasion’. Over the past 10 years the award-winning hotel and 36-hole resort in Durham has invested over £30m with the development of a high-end spa, treehouses and improvements to the Cathedral Course.
A significant point of difference is The Pin, a new entertainment centre which incorporates a 43-bay Toptracer driving range, six-lane bowling alley, interactive games and a huge sports bar with curve-round screens and food.
There is even more to come, with a new floodlit short-game area now taking shape, and the focus is equally on providing members and guests with impeccable levels of service as well as offering an experience that will encourage plenty of repeat custom.
PGA Professional Phil Redpath has 15 years of experience and he has been at Ramside since 2019.
Here, he outlines some more ways in which the resort strives to provide modern hospitality for members and visitors alike in a spirit of continual improvement.
Driving repeat business
Visitors will always be contacted after their experience and we tend to tie this in with the hotel.
You can easily send an email after a visit to ask if they enjoyed their visit. A short survey can gather that information as quickly as possible and you can offer little giveaways if you take the time to reply. Or you can be put into a draw.
A good one is to offer a 10 per cent reduction on their trip next year, it doesn’t have to be a massive discount but a little incentive can be very useful.
Pictured: PGA Pro Phil Redpath
Making it easy for golfers to stay on site
People like the family-run aspect of Ramside and the fact that you will get more of a personalised experience than you would at a big chain. We are very aware that Newcastle is just a seven-minute train away and that we're very close to Durham and the sports bar will help to keep visitors on site but that means that you have to give people options.
My advice to any golf club is to find a really good computer system which allows you to control the process from start to finish so, from the moment that they book, to when they arrive at the club and then the aftercare as well.
Ensuring members and visitors alike are looked after by your team
You need to make sure that staff are knowledgeable and well-trained, which is just an industry standard now. If you go into any pro shop at any golf club, they're all well-informed. We have worked with Eddie Bullock Golf Consulting and part of his role is to recommend which direction we go in.
We have members and visitors so there has to be that personal touch with the members where everyone's a little bit more accessible in terms of management staff. There has to be that personal relationship between management and members but you have to make visitors feel like they are members on the day.
Utilising tech at your range
We've had Toptracer for three and a half years and our revenue has gone up massively. From my perspective as a pro, it's brilliant for customer retention. I can get my clients to download the app and I can set them some homework. Let's say, you come for a lesson and we want to work on the height that you hit your shots. Then I can point out the data and and what numbers we're looking for when you use your 7-iron.
That saves on your phone and next time you come to the range, you can load that all up and you can effectively do the same practice session.
At the back end, we get access to the data of other Toptracer ranges in terms of how much they are they charging per ball and so on.
Recently, we started setting pricing by time rather than number of balls. We have an app called Sweetspot and, if you book for half an hour, you basically get unlimited balls. You have to coach people into the thinking that you're not paying for balls, you're paying for time.
But it's worked out really well because if you want to come to the range at 7pm, at least you know you're getting on then rather waiting around until someone's finished.
The pricing is dynamic so we've got peak times and off-peak times but, if you've got 15 minutes before your tee time, it'll only charge you for that 15 minutes.
Being even more professional
It's definitely now more professionalised in terms of what's expected of you from a coaching standpoint and that is helped by CPD courses. There's no longer just one guy locally who excels, everyone has a launch monitor and everyone has some form of high-end coaching programme.
The expectations are now different and YouTube has been a big part of that. Around the golf club everyone's more together, everyone is dressed better and there is more cohesion with the equipment brands with things like ambassador contracts.
• Read Part 1 of Phil’s practical advice here
