So here we go. Well, thank you for joining. This is Alison George and Alison, you have like a lot of different titles, but I'm going to try to cross off a couple of them. So everybody is, is up to speed. Uh, obviously you're golf course owner and that means a lot to me. I, I.

Certainly we have founders on this show and we have technologists on this show, but I think we have to have owners and operators on the show to kind of validate the technology, right? So first and foremost, you're a golf course operator. You're also, I believe, a national board member of the NGCOA, maybe for 10 years or something like that. Yeah, it has been a while. Yes. And you're certainly a speaker. I met you kind of on the speaking circuit. We were speaking at similar places.

I think you do some consulting and I would suspect, but we'll get into it. I would suspect as an operator, you're more busy than ever because demand is up. And so it seems like you're probably more focused on the golf course than a lot of other things today. Yes. So welcome to the show. The golf course, just for in case anybody doesn't know, it's Toad Valley. Correct, yes.

And is Des Moines the right city in Des Moines, Iowa? Yeah, technically Pleasant Hill, but I am a suburb of Des Moines, about 15 minutes from downtown Des Moines. Okay, great. Why don't you, and I think I saw on your email signature, another golf course. Maybe we can start there and just share with us why there's another golf course out there. Yes, so back to my titles, I'm officially the Wizard of Fun. So I took over, I'm a third generation.

took over my family's course when I was 26, and I did not want to be introduced as a general manager. And so I changed it to Wizard of Fun. And then about three years ago, I had an interesting opportunity. I've always kind of dabbled in wanting to, you know, have some sort of a management company, whether it be just through virtual consultation and...

You know helping with marketing and things like that. I'm a extremely organized person It's kind of came naturally to me over the years But I have a lot of people that kind of request of like how do you do all of that? and so I had this weird opportunity to come up and Manage another golf course. It's about 30 minutes south of my own and so I took over that golf course three years ago

Well, that's great. And have you deployed many of the same strategies there? I have, yeah. That's actually what's been really cool for me because, you know, I grew up on the golf course. I've literally done every job there was. You know, I paid for my college because I picked up garbage and my parents would give me the can money. Yes. And so, I mean, I've done every job there is, both glamorous and unglamorous. And so I'm extremely familiar with my family's course.

And I've always kind of hesitated to say like, you know, does this stuff work elsewhere? And I mean, it 100% does. So I have implemented slowly, you know, some similar type marketing strategies at this other golf course. And you know, the same thing is happening there. So we, you know, have turned around, added about 500,000 in a one year period, just from, you know, doing marketing strategies. Wow.

Well, that's awesome. I mean, it's great to be validated, right? Like, oh yes, this definitely works elsewhere. I wanna touch on websites in just a moment, but I did wanna mention Flight Zone, and which Flight Zone, I believe, is a brand that you came up with, but essentially that's your version of putting in a full top tracer facility at your family's golf course. And I'm just interested to know in how that's going.

I think there's a lot of us in the industry that are rooting for you. So I hope it's going well, but share with us how that's going so far. It was a pretty major capital investment into the golf course. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have ever done it had I not put in indoor simulators. I actually got rid of my pro shop three years ago and remodeled it and put into simulators instead.

And I use Golfzon simulators. The main reason I picked Golfzon was because I am a golf course. And so I was kind of leaning in to the fact that I'm a golf course. I didn't want to offer, you know, they have some cool things out there. You know, they've got like zombie dodge ball and I think they've got like shooting ranges and you know, different things like that, which I did contemplate.

But I liked the Golfzon technology. They've got this moving swing plates, which really emulates a natural golf course where you have different lies. He had out of sand traps, hit out of rough. And I also wanted to kind of separate myself from the golfer who chooses to put a simulator in his garage, which is likely significantly less expensive. And so that was also kind of why we went with the golf zone simulators. That's great.

So I was fortunate enough, I actually signed the loan to remodel the clubhouse and buy these two simulators. I did it two days before the country shut down in 2020. And so when the country shut down, I also quickly called my banker and I was like, nevermind.

Um, and, uh, you know, so we spent, you know, whatever, six to eight weeks, you know, being pretty afraid. Um, you know, we lost, you know, 200 events. I'm sure, you know, everybody in the golf industry kind of knows that, um, uh, once everyone kind of June late May hit, everyone was like, oh, uh, apparently the only thing we're going to be able to do is play golf. So, um, it, it didn't take me long to realize that I needed to go ahead and continue with that program. And so, um, I resigned, um, alone in, um, in the middle of August.

By then I actually had amazing financing because you know, the government was trying to help us and so I got incredible financing and all of it was you know, very fortunate. I also got ahead of all of the delays of construction delays you know, that we face nowadays. That's right. And so we started.

We started our remodel at the beginning of October and we opened on December 15th. So it was very quick. You could never do that now. And it paid for itself in three months. So my Pro Shop made more money in three months than it had it in three years. Yeah. And so this was just the regular indoor simulators. I am curious to know when you say you got rid of the Pro Shop,

You know, I've seen others do that. What does that mean to the cash drawer? Where do the cash drawers go when you say you get rid of the Pro Shop? Um, so, um, I'm fortunate enough. My clubhouse is kind of designed, um, where it is very natural to check in at the snack bar. Okay. Um, and so, um, our snack bar is kind of an L shaped. And so one part of the L is like the main check-in area where.

you are checking in golfers. And then the other section is more of the actual snack bar. But it was just kind of an intelligent design. I had done it a long time ago kind of by accident. And mostly because I was trying to design something so that only one person could operate in the shoulder seasons. Got it. Just trying to be.

you know, checking out how I only wanted one per, I have to pay one staff member. Okay. And so, so before we go to Flight Zone, I did, I did want to also say, thinking back to titles, you know, one of the things that got my attention when I first met you was that you were also a school teacher. And I never want to not say that out loud when we talk about you. Cause I think that that's honestly one of the most important jobs anyone can have. And so I always want to acknowledge the fact that you were a school teacher.

And that is, I think, served you well. It's helped you be a good communicator. And I think it's also helped you, you can empathize with people. You can understand where different people are coming from from different reasons. And I think that that's, you know, helped you as well. All that said, then you say, okay, it's time to put in Flight Zone. And I don't want to spend a ton of time on that. I know it was a bunch of work. There obviously is some technology involved with Flight Zone. I think you went with Top Tracer.

Just maybe touch on how technical did that get? Are there very specific people that have to install that or maybe you can touch on that a little bit? Yeah, sure. So like I said, the main reason I wanted, I felt comfortable doing it was because of my simulators. They were so successful, but they also were very slower in the warmer months. And so I was like, okay, I should have probably put in 10 of those. So I started.

kind of researching a little bit and found per bay, I thought I could do the top tracer less expensive than I could the indoor simulators. And so that's kind of where all of that went to. So we built a 6,000 square foot building. It's basically a giant Morton building. We have 10 heated bays and top tracers extremely easy to work with.

Where indoor simulators, sometimes if you're not a technical person, it can be a little overwhelming because things can go wrong. It's a computer and sometimes it just doesn't work right. Where the top tracer is a lot more simplistic. And so, you know, we have, but there's like, there's

good technology there. So the main thing is to high speed cameras. So it does. It's all top tracers who tells you how many cameras you need because it's all based on how wide you know, you're you're doing so we have 10 bays. And so and then each bay has its top tracer unit, which is kind of like a giant iPad, honestly, and then it's inside of a metal casing.

And they have it all bolted down. It's it's really intelligently designed, you know for theft and you know things like that. Yes And then I went I'm a I'm a tech loving girl. Yes, you are and so I wanted I wanted like the full top golf experience. I'm also a huge top golf fan and so I went even a step further and I got the automatic ball dispensers and

Just like you see at Topgolf, I bought that through Range Servant. They were at the time, they're the only ones that actually, you know, integrate with Top Tracer. And so it's just a really cool experience because, you know, you wave your club and the ball comes out. Yes. And so I'm all about, I love that. That's why I went with Golfzon, automatic tee. I just, I really like that. And then, so, and in each bay, there's a heater above.

the bay. And then we also have heaters inside. And it's very similar to a top golf that would be in Columbus, Ohio, where I am right. I mean, top golf center built for weather. I think actually the first top golf I ever went to was in Chicago. And it was in the winter was the first time I ever experienced top golf. So I'm sure it's it's it's similar to that. I am interested. You have about 30 inches of snow, I think right now. Yes. In Des Moines.

Will people still, I mean, is it open? Is Flight Zone open when there's that much snow? Yeah, so it is currently closed. But up until I got 30 inches of snow, which I just got it last week. Right. Mostly I haven't reopened it because my superintendent's on vacation. You got it. And so our plan is to flat, we have rollers and our plan is to flatten the snow and turn it into hard pack.

And then I've got yellow golf balls that I'm planning to hit on top of the snow. Um, I don't, we, um, I'm just waiting for him to get back to help me with that. And we've also, it's not only 30 inches of snow. It's also negative degrees. So, um, is the, does the, I don't know what you call it. Is it the caucus business or the caucus? I mean, do you pick up revenue because of the whole caucus season, so to speak in Iowa? Um, uh, you know, I don't.

I don't know. This would have been the first time that we would have been open. And the caucus has happened last week. I'm sure they hate our stay after that experience. I just figured maybe, what I was thinking was the month leading up to it. Yeah, yeah. There's so many caravans of people that are in Iowa, that maybe there's a bump that comes from the caucus season. I don't know. It's so hard for, I mean, I'm not tracking, they come from the caucus. So I don't know. I just know that when we opened on Black Friday,

And for basically whatever it was about six to seven weeks, Monday through Thursday, it was decently busy. It's 20, 30 degrees. But then Friday, Saturday, Sunday packed all day. Got it. And I just see that. And if I could open it, I mean, I have people calling. Sure, I'm sure you do. And so I'm like,

Hey, I love your spirit, man. So like, I got to get rid of these 10 foot high drifts first. So I did just read this morning that the bills, you know, have five feet of snow in their football and they're, you know, paying people to like basically take buckets of snow off, you know, that's right. That's right. Well, okay, so let's so so anyway,

Best of luck with Flight Zone. I think it's awesome. It is already. In the first two months, I've more than made what my loans. I foresee it. I've never been unafraid of something as much as I am unafraid of this. I think it's really needed in our community. And I'm pretty excited about it. And from a technology standpoint, I made sure that my networking was the same.

so that I can access everything from my main clubhouse. And then we're using the same golf management software out there that we do inside the clubhouse. So let's talk about that because that's a big reason why we have you on the show. None of this is paid. I, you know, we're new. So I wanna always kind of say that out loud that none of this is paid advertisement, but.

I think what you choose to use for golf management software matters. I, listen, I think everybody's choice matters, but you have an elevated presence in the industry. You are genuinely an operator, right? You are a Kathy Harbin or a Del Ratcliffe or, you know, I mean, like the stuff that you guys pick to use, I think matters. And so- I use it every day. Exactly. That's right. So walk us, you know, this is a little bit like when we talk to a tour pro.

of what's in the bag, right? And they say, well, I use these irons and I use it. Well, that's what this is, but this is more, what's your technology suite, if you will. I'm curious to know. So maybe we start with point of sale tee sheet and we kind of go from there. Yeah, so I use Club Caddie. And the biggest reason I switched to, I was one of their first customers. So I've been along on the ride as they have developed. I've also do,

You know, I do a lot of help with them, you know, just ways to improve the product. You're essentially almost like a consultant for them, right? You're the phone line is open, so to speak. Yes, yes. They they they ask me, you know, hey, what do you think about this? Or, you know, what do you, you know, how would you rank this feature? You know, things like that. Got it. And they have been absolutely phenomenal. You know, when we first started, it was I called it a little clunky.

Um, but they have a new update every month. Um, and they're just really dialing it in tight. It is also, um, owned by a golf manager or a golf operator, um, which I think makes a huge difference. Um, he also has a technology background. Um, and so that's huge. So essentially what they did was kind of made a, um, phase one of everything that a golf course would need. So, you know, there's a tee sheet. There's.

a module, they call it activities for, you can do lessons, simulators, you know, pickleball courts, you know, whatever, whatever the thing is that you would need to do scheduling. Okay, can I jump in? Sorry, sorry to interrupt, but this is, this is kind of the way I look at it. So the minute you start talking about reservations, and I think more people in golf could think this way, but I say, okay, that's booking engine, right? Like I'm interested in what's the user experience like.

And so what I actually did was raise all of my rates by $5 and then kept my online rate the same. That's what I did originally. And this was five or six years ago. And that was huge. And I got to where I had almost an 80% online booking rate. And then but when I switched to this dollar convenience fee, my booking rate, you know, dropped significantly. And what was dumb is they were still having to spend more money calling the clubhouse.

but they just absolutely hated that dollar convenience. It was more about, it's actually wasn't about the money, which you had already proven out. It's not about the money. It was more about principle or more about, whatever word we wanna use there. And you have to, it's kind of, in society right now, this tipping thing and everything, you have to be kind of careful. I know personally, I absolutely hate fuel surcharges, primarily because they never actually go away when the fuel cost goes down.

Right. And I would rather you just raise my price. I don't want to see the fuel surcharge on my on my invoice. And and I wouldn't it wouldn't bother me if I saw it go down when the fuel prices go down. And I think the convenience fee is kind of something similar. You know, it's just a weird little thing you have to do with people. And I think other areas of the country, you know, they probably tolerate it. It's not a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's I think it's I think it's fair. So let's keep going. So you are.

your booking engine Club Caddie. Do you press Club Caddie on UI? Are there things you'd like to see be enhanced when it comes to the UI of the booking experience for the golfer? Yeah, you know, I don't honestly have to press them a whole lot. They kind of press themselves. So, I mean, I...

I can't say enough good things over what I've seen change in the last couple of years. It's getting easier and easier, more and more flexibility to how I price things, putting me more in charge of my tee sheet. There's tons of flexibility in how I charge for memberships, different types of memberships. So I make sure my staff is charging the correct thing. So they just added a newer heat map.

to be able to watch that dynamic pricing. I think if I were to be predicting, I think they're probably gonna eventually have some sort of a dynamic pricing module that will be accessible. And so they don't need a lot of motivation. They're doing a really great job. Well, that's good. I think for what it's worth, I believe you'll see a Sagacity integration at Club Caddie. It might even be live,

my understanding is that that would be coming. Yeah, no, they are very open to all those types of suggestions. Yes, great. Okay, so now I also remember when I first met you, you were like the only person in golf I knew that you just built your own website. You were like, I'm not gonna use anybody's platform. I'm just gonna build my own WordPress website. Is that still the case today? Or, okay. Yeah. And so...

I almost am nervous to ask, does that mean you built your own app too? Or did you use a company for an app? No, I use Gallus. I've been with them for probably 10 years. They're, they have a fantastic product that also continues to get better and better. Okay. So you're, I mean, this is, and this is honestly for, this is not planned. We did not exchange notes before this call happened, but

It's that you're very happy with Club Caddie. You're very happy with Gallus is what it sounds like to me. Okay. Um, uh, what other technology do you think now? Look, I, you're a big Google person, right? I mean, a lot of your organization stuff comes from Google sheets and you really, and so that's tech. We shouldn't discount that. Like, like I think that matters as well, but what other technology do you feel like is critical to your success that maybe we

We wouldn't think of. I would say the other two main things. First of all, before I discovered Club Caddie, I used USchedule, which I think they should at least be acknowledged because they have a terrific product. Because Club Caddie also did that, that's the only reason I left them. It's wonderful for scheduling simulators and those types of things and lessons.

They have a really great product. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I just didn't need to use them anymore because I switched to Club Caddie. Then from just like an operational standpoint, I could not live without Asana. Interesting. Yeah. So Asana is task management if people don't know. And so my goodness. So I have one of the things that I am, why I'm able to do what I'm doing

I do is I have a bunch of college kids that the thing that's nice about Asana is, you know, that they have an hour here, an hour there, they can hop in and help me. And so they're the ones who do all so I create most of the content, a handful of them, most of the content I've created because I've done it. I'm using the same content I've used for 10 years. Right. I actually this winter have been using

a chat GPT to go in and like update my content. So I just put in exactly what I used to write and I'm like, hey, you know, make this funny, make this sound normal, whatever. And it changes the copy for me. And I'm like, this is fantastic. I loaded up my voice so that it still sounds like me, which is, so that's awesome. Anyway, so I need to sign up. And just for people that are listening, that means you're probably using chat GPT 4.0.

you're paying about 20 or $25 a month. And that allowed you to do some customization just for people that maybe are interested. We do that here as well. And I'm sure either one of us are happy to help people with that, but go on. Yeah. And so how I use Asana is basically it helps my staff navigate my Google Drive because over time, I've been doing this for 15 or 20 years. I have a lot in my Google Drive.

And so I use Asana. I have like an admin portion, task lists, I guess. I use my marketing. I divide everything up by the month. And then I put subtasks of what has to be done with each type of event. So we have an extremely intense calendar of events. And I would forget what I was doing if it weren't for Asana.

So I have, so every like every event that comes in, it's like a checklist. So we make sure that it's put into Club Caddie, that the deposit has been paid, that the thank you note has been written. So all of those types of tasks that just make us look really like we're on top of our game, like a well oiled machine, that is all attributed to Asana.

I heard you also mentioned Club Caddie there. Do you have an integration between Asana and Club Caddie? No, so when I say Club Caddie, so every time an event comes in, it kind of goes through a checklist. And so because not everything is in Club Caddie, the checklist isn't only exclusive to Club Caddie. Club Caddie is just a part of the checklist. So when an event comes in, we're tracking just to make sure.

you know, did we send the deposit link? That's all through Club Caddie. Club Caddie has a bidding process and a link you can pay to get deposits or prepay for events, golf outings, those types of things. But then because we also want to, you know, here's the link to the contract. Here's the link to, you know, the thank yous. You know, just.

all those different types of things that, you know, we can't, we don't have a tracker inside a Club Caddie for that. Okay. Nor do I think that's really, that's not really Club Caddie's job. Right. So let me ask, so when you send outbound email, is that actually using Club Caddie or are you doing that? Just know we, you know, we're using constant contact or something like that. So in Club Caddie, you can track the communication.

with whether or not you've reached out or not. And that's their event module. I think eventually the event module will be built out enough that you'll be able to send the emails right in there so that it will be all right within Club Caddie. But not today. Just not today. And so what are you using for email today? We use Google. I do Google workspace. That's what I do for everything for my emails.

And the big reason that I do that is because when I have staff leave, it's really easy for me to add emails. And if I have a staff person leave, then I just direct all of their emails to me. Yes. And it and Google Workspace makes that a lot easier. But I'm talking promotional emails. Oh, promotional emails are all sent through Club Caddie. Okay. All right. Good. Thank you. All right. That's helpful. Yeah.

content is in Google Drive though. And I do that just because if I ever switch email services, I have the content, I don't lose it with that service. And so I actually have, it's kind of hard to describe without a visual, but I have a folder called emails and it has every email I have ever written. Right. And I...

So my weekly content I title, I work off of a week. So like my first newsletter is newsletter number one, then newsletter number two. And by the time I get to December, I'm on newsletter 52. Right, right. And then I have other promotional emails. And so I title those off of what the promotion is. This is easy for searching content. But then also that's what I was telling you inside of Asana, when I put the task inside of Asana.

I put a direct link to that email. Sure. And so then I have these college kids who can hop in and they are the ones who actually put that stuff in to my email software. Into Club Caddie, right? Yes. Yeah, okay. And then what about text? And again, I don't mean like...

I don't mean text for real communication. I mean marketing tech. What's what about marketing for? Yeah, so I am actually not a huge believer in marketing texts. Okay. As a consumer, I absolutely hate them. Got it. And so that means you don't do it at all? Or you do it a little? I do club caddy. It has a reminder text, which I am a believer in those like I like that my doctor's office, you know, tells me I like that when my dog gets haircut, you know, she said, I get a text.

I absolutely every single marketing I have ever opted into, they drive me crazy and I opt out like within a couple weeks. Right. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. And I have I have used them before it's probably been five or six years ago. I don't even remember the name of the company. But I just I didn't like it. So I use Gallus also has push notifications.

I like, I think that's less intrusive because that's somebody who's raised their hand and said, hey, you can notify me when you have something going on. And can the golfer book a tee time through your gallus app? Yes. Okay. And so I'm curious to know, we're going to get into in a second here, we'll get into like worst decisions, best decisions. But I am curious to know perfect golfer in your mind, meaning how the golfer books, when they play, what they pay, right? Is the perfect golfer

for Allison George, someone that books their tee time through your app or is it, or, or what do you think? The app, the, so how gallus works is that, um, my website is kind of framed inside of the app. So they think they're in the app, but they're actually on the website. Okay. So I'll just say perfect golfer is somebody who books online, who books regardless. You don't care which way. Um, uh, and perfect golfer plays how many rounds?

Let's not even say a year, let's go. How many rounds in a month where you guys are bookable, how many rounds in a month is a perfect golf for playing? Well, I mean, I don't know, a hundred. Okay, so you would like for them to be there every single minute of every single day, if that's possible and just keep playing. It depends on if we're talking about a season pass holder or a daily feed. Well, and that was gonna be my next question. That was gonna be my next question is...

does Club Caddie or whomever your technology provider is, do they provide opportunities for you to dial in annual memberships or season passes so that they remain profitable and we go back to that shared value thing. So that they kind of remain fair for both, the operator and the consumer. Are you using technology to help with that? It definitely may, definitely do. They allow you to run reports to

you know, you'd be able to and there's always you're always gonna have outliers. You know, I'm constantly my my daughter, I we use Gallus for our loyalty point system. And there's there's probably five golfers who just like literally take advantage of us. Most of them are using it how it's intended, you know, as like a little perk. Yep. And, and it makes my daughter just like livid. And I'm like, you know,

You can't focus on those five outliers because in long and if you look at reporting we're winning You know right right and that's all I really care about so, you know, the problem is those five outliers You know the reason they're taking advantage of us because they play every day, right? And so, you know, you know them very well and you can't be mad at him for playing every day in my in my consulting business I've built a calculator that kind of takes into account. What's the average rate on a Saturday, right?

And then how many rounds would this person get? And there is a break even. And in any time you do a program like that, there are gonna be some people that quote unquote win and the operator loses. I think it's about what share of the people, you know, win or lose. I think that that's what matters there. Okay. You definitely have to track all that stuff. So, you know, to me, the important part of the software is whether or not you're able to track and how easy is it to...

read and interpret. So I'm glad you brought that up because this is one of my kind of pet peeves. I don't think we're in a good place as an industry when it comes to this, but you could prove me wrong. Do you have analytics reporting? Do you use the reporting, et cetera, where you really know how well your booking engine performs? And what I mean by like, I'm talking conversion rate, you know, how many people came to the booking engine and did we actually sell a round of golf to them?

And was it by the way, three rounds or was it one round? How are you when it comes to really knowing how your booking engine performs? I would say we could get better. Some of it is a staff training because we can, the booker, it's easy for me to track the person who booked the outing or booked the golf, the tee time. It's a little more difficult to track golfers two, three and four. Yes. And

As an industry, I personally think we should actually set a department standard. Because I get asked, NGF will send emails for me to fill out. And to me, I gladly can share that information. I just don't know if it's actually usable from one golf course to the next.

So it would be nice if there was some sort of industry standard of like, these are the departments, this is what qualifies as green fees. Right. And so that would be, I think as an industry, I think that would be more helpful to be able to see like, am I hitting industry standards? Because, you know, when I look at mine, you know, I look like I'm doing really, really well.

compared to industry standards, but I also don't know what industry standards are. Well, I was gonna say, I don't think anybody has established what is good or what is great. I'm a fan of Jim Collins, the author. I don't think anybody has established what is good or great when it comes to booking engine conversion rate, right? I think people know what is a good email open rate. I think people know what a good email click-through rate is. I don't think people know.

what good and great look like when it comes to booking engine conversion and honest to goodness, I think that might be the most important. As more rounds start to go through online, if we don't know how we're converting, we're missing something there. And I actually think as we know more about that number, that will push developers, I like to call them technologists, but that will push developers to build better UIs.

that keep the golfer engaged during the booking process and really get the golfer to buy rounds of golf from us versus whatever else they might do. So I do think we can get better there. Just to kind of give a shout out to GolfBack, that was something that I actually really liked about them is they had these attachments that you could do.

you know, either it wasn't really a coupon, but it would be like an add on that when you booked online, you know, you could I gave like discounts on beer and, you know, like a 10% off a hat, you know, things like that. And then so that they are at least trying that the where I struggle is, it's not simple to my staff member.

who is 18 and doesn't, so it's a little more difficult, I guess, in practice. And that's the part where, you know, we just really need to simplify it. I've been kind of on a quest lately to simplify my technology because I almost got to where I felt like I was doing too much for the user. And it got where...

when I'm trying to train staff, you know, I'd be like, okay, and now we have to do this to get this and right, you know, and it was, it got to be where it was overwhelming. And, you know, it's hard to get. I prefer seniors for staff. And so in order to do that, I need, I need them, it needed to be easier training process. Got it.

So let's talk as we wrap this up, I will share with you. We've had one golf management software owner operator, you know, someone that owns his own firm on, and it's amazing to me, they have unbelievable service ratings. I mean, unbelievable, right? And hopefully you'll tune in when we start to push these episodes live. How important is service among, not just Club Caddie, among everyone, Gallus, maybe even Asana,

But how important is service and will, and will service actually cause an operator like Allison George, will service cause someone to make a change? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I'll use Facebook as a prime example. About five years ago, I was flagged as not a real person and I can't do Facebook ads anymore. And I have tried to appeal and you cannot.

So I have a Facebook data center like 10 minutes from my house. I'm already to go knock on their door. And I absolutely hate them. And I used to be a big proponent as Facebook ads. And you know, it's, it's, I guess, irritating. We'll just say irritating. Right, right. And so I like easily accessible.

I like having a quick chat. I like having it where it is easy for the person behind the counter to access service. I think service is very important. And if I'm stuck and I have to wait multiple days, it's just infuriating to me because I've set aside time where I am programming X, Y, and Z. If I can't get it programmed in that, I need that answer like within the hour.

Right. Okay. And so safe to assume today, and I don't know, when's the last time you made a real technology change? Um, in uh, 21. Okay. So it's been a few years. So safe to say the, the, the services platforms, et cetera, that you use today, you feel like their service levels are, are acceptable. And maybe you would even say some go beyond acceptable. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. But you

are always accessible. And I like to experiment to know if it's me because they're familiar with me because I've been with them a long time. And so I'll have my daughter send a helpful email and she'll get the same. Is your daughter married? No. Well, you need to get her to use a different last name because I think anytime that we see George- Her email doesn't is-

It doesn't show where last time. Okay, okay. Uh, you know, I don't know if you know this, there's another, uh, George family in central Ohio that, that long, long run of operators. And so.

Yeah, there's a couple of really important George families in golf operations. My maiden name is Brady. So my golf course technically is the Brady family. The Brady family. Yeah, you could have had a lot of fun with that. I would be remiss. I do want to mention at least one other, you know, not golf piece of technology that I think is extremely important. I use 7SHIFTS. It is a scheduling platform. It's how my

people clock in and out. It's how I do tip pooling. And it is how we communicate with staff. And also we have training or not training, we have checklists of what they're supposed to do at every shift. Right. And I would be remiss to not at least say, I think they have been instrumental to our daily operation. I think that's.

I appreciate you saying that out loud, right? Because that's part of what we're trying to do here is help people learn. Is 7SHIFTS integrated with Club Caddie? And if not, would you like it to be? I mean, always. I would always like everything to be integrated. Club Caddie does have shift pooling. It does have the clocking in and out. And I don't use it because I...

I like to use one thing that does everything. And so Club Caddie does not have the task lists and the employment scheduling. And so that's why I choose to stay with 7SHIFTS. So I'll just kind of quickly explain why I like it so much. One is that my staff can put in their availability. And so this makes scheduling so convenient and it allows me to hire 30 year olds.

that was previously was difficult for me to hire that person because I couldn't be as flexible. But you know, sometimes they're like, I can work two weekends a month. And you know, I can work three nights a week, but it changes every week because of my son's, you know, softball game. Right. And it used to be like, you're a fantastic person. That's I can't schedule around that. Now I can. And in the last year, I've hired 10, you know, 32, 35 year old guys. Yep.

And, and, you know, they work every other weekend and a couple of nights a week. I love them. They love golf. They're good. They're reliable. You know, they have regular full-time jobs. This is their fun job. I would have never been able to hire them without seven shifts. It makes it so easy to be flexible to people. And I think in today's society, you know, that the flexibility of a job is, you know, extremely, I think that's, I think that's great. And then the other component is that I have these task lists.

Once again, when you're hiring, I have about 10, 14 to 18 year olds who work for me. And they are challenging. I've been hiring teenagers for 20 years. And it has been more and more difficult. I am a proponent since I have kids. I don't believe that it is because they are stupid or lazy. I think that they learn differently.

And they are taught through YouTube. And they are afraid to make decisions for themselves, primarily because, I mean, they were raised differently than you and I were. And so 7SHIFTS helps me overcome this barrier because I have these task lists and I can put videos in there. So.

Then I'm not constantly repeating myself. So when I, it used to be that you could say, go clean the bathroom and the bathroom would be clean. That doesn't work anymore. And so now we're like, put the toilet bowl cleaner here, sweep here. This is where the dust pan goes. And then what we do is we have them as part of the task, when it's completed, they have to include a picture.

Nice. And they can snap that with their phone. I think it's probably not. All of these tasks are on their phone and it's a nice little check mark. Um, uh, and it is, um, it has been so wonderful for that younger age group because now I don't have to constantly be su I don't supervise them as much as I used to. It used to be, I just felt like I was a babysitting service because if I wasn't monitoring them, you know, the job wouldn't get done.

And now it also is a nice, you know, I don't I'm not angry that they have their phone You know because they had you know, they need it to be able to do their job. That's right and then each task has videos or pictures or You know written content And so we have it for cleaning We have it for cleaning it's almost like our handbook Where you know, it's kind of a

you know, it's a step by step of what you do when you open the clubhouse. What you do. It also makes us versatile with that scheduling, because if if I have somebody who's opened before and they've never they've never done that, normally they're maybe on the closing shift. They don't have to stress because they just pull open that task list. And they're like, oh, here's what I do when I open and, you know, check, check, check. Yeah, that's great.

Well, listen, I hope that you will, and maybe even the people on your team, I hope you will come on our site. I don't, we don't talk about it. Our site is GOLF COURSE TECHNOLOGY REVIEWS dot ORG It's not a big money endeavor, so we went with.org, but I hope you'll go on there and give some reviews to some of these vendors. That's a good way to help support them. But I think last question for you, and then we'll wrap it up, and I do appreciate your time very much.

What technology companies in golf, what do they need to do better? Where do they miss? Maybe it is service, I don't know, but what do they need to do better that ultimately serves all of the operators in the industry? We need to be very mindful of, I need less staff. Golf is a very labor-intensive business.

And if you know, we're gonna you know have you have to pay you have to pay 15 20 bucks an hour to get good Staff I need to have less of them And so and I I've tried to have my starters take money before that doesn't work. Well But there they tend to be you know 80 So I really need you know simple check-in kiosks

I need either or on the app, you know, simple check-in. I know Gallus does have that, but I think they only integrate with Club Profit on that. Anyway, my big thing that I really, really want is I want a simpler check-in process. I'd like to be able to completely eliminate a starter. I don't even know if that's possible, but I think part of the kiosk check-in has to have a key distribution.

where you check in and then a key comes out. And I think some of the technology has even been tied to a golf cart. Right. Where that technology, like the golf cart doesn't turn on until you've paid. So we actually need to think bigger of who all we're integrating with. And I wonder if there's some sort of...

now that you have all this facial recognition software, if there's some sort of a tee camera or something that we can help to monitor behavior on the golf course as well. We didn't talk about any cart management, but I do think those types of things are really needed in the industry to help with labor costs and then help with the overall pace of play. You can't be everywhere all the time.

And so it'd be nice since we have all these big brother things to use. I mean, I think in short, hey, a problem I want solved is labor, right? And then let these technologists go and run and try to figure out what they... I did have one last thing I meant to ask earlier. There are a lot of golf courses in Iowa, certainly, but all over the place, even New York and all over the place. A lot of golf courses that don't even like have...

an electronic tee sheet. They're still on paper and pencil and that type of thing. Are you of the opinion, I genuinely want an honest answer, are you of the opinion of those golf courses will make more money if they begin to adopt technology? 100%. I don't understand anyone who has a paper tee sheet. It's impossible to market. You're not capturing any data.

And it was the biggest difference that I made at this other golf courses. You know, they had had a paper tee sheet for 20 years. You know, we took over the golf course. They had a database of zero. Yes. Because it was all on, you know, index cards. And just as a reminder, I think earlier in the episode, you said you jumped revenue by half a million. Yes. Yeah. So. And I 100% attribute that they didn't even have a website.

Right. So, you know, they made my job really easy. It definitely answers your question. If you are behind on technology, you know, you're so much more efficient at using your tee sheet. And then paper is a NO. Well, I appreciate you being honest there. That's good. Well, listen, I know you guys are under crazy weather stress right now. So I really do appreciate your time.

I very much wanted to have you in this early, early set of episodes. Cause I think your voice is, is super important. And, and I just think, I know we went long, but I do, I do appreciate everything you shared with us. And call me anytime. I love talking about technology. Okay. Well, we will, we'll, take you up on that and hopefully we'll see you and post a couple of reviews. That would be amazing. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Allison.