The Big Mistake: Lack of Support
When choosing a golf management software, many golf course managers become so excited about how much money the software they’ve chosen is going to bring in or the features it has they overlook the quality of the support that they’ll get, thinking if the software is good enough, they won’t really need good customer service.
But when you’re in a tournament or in the middle of your busiest day of the year, the last thing you want to do is be stuck on hold for an hour just to get routed to an outsourced call center.
Customer service, which we’re defining to include support, installation and training, and check-ins, is something your course or club just can’t do without.
Service
1. Support
Like we mentioned above, you want to make sure that the software you’re looking at has excellent, timely support. Every company says that they have great support, but a way to test this is to actually call in. Test a few companies and record their response times, as well as the quality of your interaction with the support rep.
2. Installation & Training
Installation
If you need to get set up quickly, call customers of the software you’re considering who are in the area and ask how long it took to get set up and how the experience was.
Training, Support Pages, & Walkthroughs
Great tools are only as helpful as the people using them, which is why quality training, set up, and support are critical aspects of any system you implement for your business.
If the software you’re looking at doesn’t provide thorough, cost-free setup and training (even if you don’t need it,) make sure they have support pages, walkthrough, and other tutorial-style resources for you to reference when you need them.
Support pages are a kind of “F.A.Q.” the software company’s support team puts together about the most common issues and questions they get from customers. This means that, if you have a question, instead of calling in you simply search for the answer in the support pages.
Walkthroughs are tutorials, either in the software or in videos on a site like YouTube, that take you step-by-step through how to use the software or a particular tool. This is extremely useful for training new employees, and can save you hours of time.
3. Check-Ins
Many major software companies have a position similar to an “Account Manager.” This person is usually in charge of a specific set of customers to give them the personal attention they need to fully utilize the software’s tools and functionality.
Account Managers should be in addition to support, so don’t confuse the two. Both roles should care about the success of your business, but:
Support Teams should be on call to handle small questions and immediate problems.
Account Managers should be more interested in making sure that the way you are using the software is optimized for your business needs.
Account Managers are the people you want to call when you’re having persistent problems, have an idea for a feature that your course could use, or are wondering how to better use your software. They should act as an extension of your team, and proactively reaching out to you on a regular basis.