What your people will ask Smarter Club
Mostly it isn’t strategy. It’s the question that used to mean asking someone to pull a report.
Every desk has its own questions
Each department asks for itself, against numbers first proved against the reports your controller already trusts, and usually has the answer in under a minute.
Chef
What the club has paid for steak over the last two years, without searching invoices.
F&B director
The time from cover to chit close, by day of the week and by season.
Head pro
Who the top female player is on ladies’ day.
Event head
Pasta night counts going back five years, with the children on a separate line.
The answers cross systems
Not just how many rounds were played in August, but rounds played against F&B spend, and how much F&B the club captured on the days golf was played. Answers like these are hard to find without a data lake, because no single system holds both halves.
Real questions, typed into Smarter Club at member-owned clubs this year
- General manager
- when was the last time [a member] dined at the club
- Controller
- how much do we pay for [our club software]how much do they charge a monthwhats their renewal fee
- show me the average days on dues paid by members. in a chart
- F&B director
- how many steak frites were sold in july
- provide a menu item summary for both the grill and [the dining room], by item, from July 1st to todayplease exclude drinks and employee items
- I want to see the total rounds by [membership type] vs. the capture in Food and beverage at the club the same day they played
- Membership director
- Provide me with a percentage of members that have not utilized the club in 30, 60 and 90 days.Also provide me a percentage of members that have come to the club, but have not utilized F&B
- Head pro
- how many rounds were played in august9 v 18
- relate golf usage of the top 20 players to pos spend
- show me golf engagement by day of the week for july
- Event head
- I would like to know the counts for all pasta night for the past five yearsAdd in the pasta night child counts on a separate line, same timeline
- I would like to know how many covers per event and by year
- Board
- How has food and beverage revenue changed over the last 5 yearsyes compare covers/traffic alongside the dollars to see if growth is volume or price drivensplit by outlet
- how much net profit do outside tournaments make
We took out anything that points to a club or a member, shown in brackets, shortened a few and fixed the odd typo. They’re sorted by the desk each would usually come from. An indented line is the follow-up. What can be answered depends on what a club has connected. Lists of members and their contact details can only be asked for by the people the club gives a login, and every question and its answer are logged.
The first answer is rarely the last question
More than a third of what people type is a follow-up. This is one person, in about ten minutes.
Nobody ran a report, and nobody had to be asked. When a committee needs it on paper, the next line is “run the same summary and export to PDF.” And when a follow-up comes up in the meeting itself, you can ask it there rather than wait for another round of reports.
- what is the average check amount for the [dining room] and the grill?
- yes. please split by lunch vs. dinner. and average check by month
- please provide an average check in the grill on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays over the last 4 months
- for dinner only please
- please run the same dinner-only cut for [the dining room]
Bring the question you keep having to ask someone else.
Smarter Club runs today at several member-owned clubs, on different ERPs, and we’ll put you in touch with a general manager at one. We’ll also show it to you on Dunross Valley, a club we invented, so nothing of yours is involved.