By Thomas Noyes, CCM, CCE
Principal, GSI Executive Search
Most club dashboards are scoreboards. They tell you, very precisely and about a month late, what already happened on the field. Labor cost percentage by department. Cost of goods. Revenue per member. Budget to actual. All useful, all necessary and all about as inspiring to your line staff as the fine print on a dues statement.
A confession: I stopped using the word "profit" in the club business so long ago I can't remember the last time I said it. Nobody on your team gets fired up about profit margin. Swap in the proper club phrase, "excess of revenue over expenses," and, well, it really rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? But honestly, who cares? Your server doesn't know what it means for them. Even if they did, there are too many variables they can't touch.
I want metrics that are simple to understand, simple to track, simple to explain and, most important, simple to affect. Ever wonder why the United Way puts that giant thermometer out front? So everyone can watch the red part go up. Inspect what you expect, and put it where people can see it.
So let's stop being scorekeepers. Let's be players and coaches. Here are the numbers that tell you what's about to happen, while you still have time to do something about it.
One of my advisors, a very smart club manager with more letters after his name than a bowl of alphabet soup, told me member engagement was one of the most important things a club can track. I nodded wisely. Then I went home and realized I wasn't sure how you'd actually measure it. Isn't engagement just the sum of everything else: check averages, cover counts, lunches per round?
After combing through the cobwebs, I think the answer is touches. Count how many times each member touches the club in a week or a month. Every visit counts, including the ones that never ring a register: tennis, pickleball, fitness, the free coffee on the way to work. A member who stops in every morning just for that coffee sees value in the club. They're touching the heck out of it.
Now do a little math. Say dues are $1,000 a month (yes, some clubs are there). A member who touches the club 100 times a month pays about $10 in dues per touch. A member who comes in 10 times a month pays $100 per touch. Twice a month? That's a $500 cup of coffee.
Which of those members is sitting at the kitchen table next to the dues statement, doing the same math? Those are the people you should be talking to. Not at renewal time. Now.
Cost per touch cuts both ways, by the way. I once had a member tell me he was underrepresented on the board. His reasoning: he paid about $4,500 per round of golf each year, while the board members were paying more like $40 to $70. He sincerely thought someone like him deserved a designated seat. I pointed out that our top spenders were putting $40,000 to $50,000 a year into the club. Both groups matter. You just track them, and talk to them, differently.
The good news: between your POS, tee sheet, court bookings, fitness check-in and the front gate, much of this data is probably already sitting in your systems. Somebody just has to add it up.
Member satisfaction used to be something we surveyed once in a blue moon. Now tools like the HAPPO Meter in Northstar let clubs collect feedback in real time, which is great. But ask yourself: whose satisfaction are we measuring? Mostly the people who already show up. They've voted with their feet.
What are we learning about the people who don't? You can have a dashboard full of green arrows, everything better than last year, and still have 70 members quietly planning to resign the next time dues go up or the board makes a call they don't like. How do you measure that?
Start with the low-touch list from above. That's your watch list. One of the most important things you can know about your club is who isn't using it, and why.
And please don't tell me unspent minimums cover this. Asking for a friend: what about the members who are so well-resourced they don't care about the minimum? They'd rather mail it in than walk on in. Some are members for the one month a year they're in town. Lucky them. A paid-up minimum tells you their checkbook is engaged. It tells you nothing about whether they are.
One of my favorite questions for club members: What do you tell your friends about your club?
You'll never capture the answer on a survey. People will lie on this one. We're all a little tolerant of our club's quirks: the spotty service, the beloved caddie master who's slowing down after 32 years. What I really want to know is whether members brag about the place and proudly show it off to friends and family, or whether it's just the cheapest spot in town for a round of golf and an underpriced martini.
So skip the question and watch the behavior. Track everything guest-related: guest rounds, guest fees, guest dining covers and which members are bringing them. Nobody brings friends to a place that embarrasses them. A member who hosts guests is writing you a five-star review with their own reputation on the line. And today's guest is tomorrow's membership prospect.
When guest numbers slip, the brag is slipping too. You'll see it here long before you see it in the resignation letters.
Why do the gum, candy and magazines live right next to the grocery store register? One more item in the bag. And if you think McDonald's and Disney don't track simple ratios like this, you're nuts.
Clubs can play the same game with two easy numbers:
Both are dead simple to calculate. Better yet, your staff can actually move them. Post yesterday's number in the bag room, the grill and the shop. Set a target. Watch the competitive juices flow. It's the United Way thermometer with a burger on it.
We all know most club F&B operations struggle to make a buck. Some might even say F&B runs an excess of expenses over revenues. I don't like to use the L word. No, not that L word. Loss.
Part of the problem is that the business clusters around a core rush, say 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the hours on either side are thin. So track sales per labor hour, and every so often break it out by the hour. You don't need to do it daily; the pattern won't change much week to week. But a few weeks of hourly data will show you exactly when you're paying four people to watch one member eat soup. It'll also help you make, and defend, the call to trim labor in those windows.
While we're here: does your whole service staff come in at the same time every day? May I ask why? "Because it's easier" is not the answer. Does your revenue all show up at the same time? Probably not. Your schedule shouldn't either.
Track inventory turns for food and beverage and for the golf shop. Three reasons to care:
I once heard of shoppers hiding the garment they wanted in a different section so nobody else would find it before the markdown. Of course, that would never happen at a private club.
Don't just ask members to "support their dining room." Remind them who owns it, then give them the number: how much F&B revenue per member is in this year's budget. If the top line comes up short, it's a pretty good bet the bottom line will too.
I once told a membership that we needed $109 per member family per month in dining to make budget. Guess what happened next? They started asking, "How are we doing?" The members were tracking it for me.
Easy number to track. Easy to explain why it matters. That's the whole recipe.
None of this requires a consultant, a new software platform or a lost weekend with a pivot table. Pick two or three of these. Put them where staff and members can see them. Update them often enough that people actually check.
The scoreboard will still tell you what happened. These numbers tell you what's about to happen, while there's still time to call a different play.
And if you read every word of this, thank you. That's the metric I track.
