Facilities - Supplies - People

Guest Who?

Keep reminding yourselves what the potential guests can provide and how they are important to the growth of your facility.

By Rod Heckelman

Monitor guest usage

Almost every facility wrestles with how to manage guest usage. Even with established rules and regulations, there will still be an ongoing challenge to monitor guest usage. With a facility that is sold out, the issue is seldom a concern, it would be just a matter of meeting their members’ expectations of their privilege of being a member. There are also facilities that have a turn-style entry that makes monitoring guest usage much more manageable.

But for many tennis facilities, there is often so much real estate in use that there are many more points of entry that can make it difficult to monitor and control guests entering the facility. The result can require the staff to be more vigilant about monitoring the use of the courts. If that challenge is overwhelming, a facility either becomes more lenient about guest usage or the opposite, being more aggressive and restrictive of non-member usage. Add to that the nature of most facilities only needing a few employees to operate their business and if they do not have in place a monitory system at the Reception Desk, your club will struggle with controlling guest usage.  

Provide a welcoming experience

To better address this issue, let’s first review the guests that will be attending your club. You would like to believe that they are friends or possibly someone checking out your facility because a member has invited them to play. These guests are very important, they are likely to be potential members. Any facility that hopes to grow, wants to provide a welcoming experience for all new guests. At that moment of entry, you hope to get as much information as possible…name, email, address…which would provide you with the contact needed to follow up on their experience at your club.

But remember the lifestyle of most tennis players these days has them coming to play and then leaving when finished, so they often don’t have the time for a long-drawn-out introduction to your facility when they arrive or leave. Have in place a form that your member can fill out at their convenience. The easier this first-time experience is for everyone, the more likely the guest will enjoy that moment and you will have also made your member happy. 

Happy members make great salespeople. Avoid, offering specials and deals to entice that player when they first visit your facility. We’ve all been on the side of that conversation, and it always seems to be more focused on the sale rather than the experience.

Sell the club experience

You’ve got their information, so now all you need is an invite to use your club at the right time. That right time could be a special social event, a tennis mixer, a fun competitive event, basically anything that has them exposed to the enjoyment of using your facility. Again, it is important to note that you are not selling them a product or item that is a one-off purchase. You are selling an experience that will likely become a part of their lives. For that reason, it is also important to have in place a flexible program that will appeal to many types of potential members. Are they families looking to meet other families, competitive players looking to up their games, or casual players hoping to expand their social venues? We all talk about how this new world of technology provides an amazing amount of information, but with tennis clubs, that information often falls short of bringing people together of common interest, but well-run events are much more likely to be successful.

Address the facility hoppers

The second type of guest is the most difficult to address. That is the player who is used to hopping from facility to facility, expecting just to walk in and play. Whether they are intentionally trying to get a free ride or not is actually not the most important issue. The most important subject is how you can artfully dismiss this person and still maintain a pleasant interaction. You want to be firm and also polite, remember there is often a member involved, and in some cases, several members. The fact is, if your facility does not have, for any reason, a point of entry where non-members must register, they will often just head to the courts and begin to play. The last thing you want is to address any player once they have taken to the court to play. Remember that quite frequently, your member may not even know that they are hosting a non-member or if that non-member has checked in. It’s difficult, but you need to be patient and wait for the right time to handle this matter. You can either address your member casually after they finish playing to find out information about this guest, or you can try to find a time further down the road to interact with the member or the guest. Just keep in mind, in most cases, you initially really don’t know the intention of these few people, so don’t let those few who are breaking the rules ruin your day and your facilities’ environment.

Liability Waiver

No matter how these non-members have come into your club, there is one issue that always needs to be addressed, and that is the guest signing a liability waiver before using your club. This real need can serve as a mandated process for using your club and can help to encourage both the member and the guest to sign in. Note, that having that guest sign a liability waiver is helpful in most incidents, but remember that you cannot waive negligence. The best way to address that issue is to have daily walkthroughs of the facility that are documented and signed. As for any unfortunate accident or conflict, the best possible way to handle that situation when it occurs is to make sure you secure as much documentation as possible. Who was involved, where did it happen, at what time did it happen, why did it happen, who witnessed it happening, what response was provided, who responded, and of course, all details concerning names, addresses, and methods of contact.

Any quality insurance agency that handles athletic/health facilities can aid you in creating these sign-ins and also the proper responding procedures, you just have to make sure that your staff is constantly updated and trained on this subject.

We have all hoped to create a great facility that can provide a great social and fun atmosphere. Guest should always be welcome and greeted properly, so don’t let a few bad apples spoil the fun, just keep reminding yourselves about what the potential guests can provide and how they are important to the growth of your facility.