Case Study: Orbis Academy at South Winchester Golf Club

Over 50% of membership engaged by Academy team

43 Learn to Play participants

16 Academy Members = ￡4,800

16 Conversions to full membership = ￡17,592.68

Total new revenue = ￡22,392.68

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South Winchester Golf Club features an inland links style golf course, 8 bay covered driving range, short game practice area and practice putting green.

Orbis Golf has been running the Academy at South Winchester since 2018. The focus of the Academy has been to drive a regular pipeline of new members, improve member retention, and to help engage the membership more deeply with the club.

PGA Coach Sam Holloway has worked at South Winchester since prior to the switch to Orbis, and has led the coaching set up at the Academy ever since.

“The biggest change since Orbis came in 5 years ago can be summed up in my title. I’m now a Golf Development Professional. My role is to connect people to play, learn and enjoy the game. I take responsibility for their experience at the club, not just their swing. A successful golf coach at Orbis is someone who takes care of a golfer and their journey through the game.” Sam Holloway.

Sam has been integral to the success of the partnership between Orbis and South Winchester. Sam has been contracted by Orbis to deliver coaching services following the ‘whole club’ philosophy at the heart of the Orbis model. By placing the coach/member relationship at the heart of the club, Sam, Orbis and South Winchester have seen fantastic results year on year.

“The culture at Orbis is set from the top. Rob and Andrew focus on the bigger picture of making sure a golfer is happy and enjoying their game. Coaching can be a big part of that, but the value of a whole club membership is the most important priority. If we can move away from the old school PGA Pro mindset of technically improving a golf swing to helping create golfers for life, then coaches win, clubs win and the golfer gets the best from their investment of time and money.”

Driving the new member acquisition model at South Winchester is a focus on customer pipeline, customer journey and engaging programming. New learners follow the Orbis Learn to Play programme, a two part coaching programme that has been designed specifically to enable learners to quickly acquire skills and engage in the social, fun side of the game.

With a clear pathway for learners to engage with the club from day 1 and progress towards club membership, Orbis has great success in retaining learners at the club.

“I love not having to worry about where new business is coming from. Orbis keeps a steady stream of new enquiries coming through with their direct marketing and I have all the programming in place to ensure new learners get a fantastic experience every time. The pathways for progress are incredibly well thought out and the conversion into Academy memberships has made a huge impact on the club.”

“From introductory session through Learn To Play Golf 1 and then Learn to Play Golf 2, you get a set of people who have learned together for nearly 4 months. They form a fantastic bond through the process so the next step into club membership feels an easy one to make.” Sam Holloway.

In addition to the pipeline of new members, Orbis works with the team at South Winchester to activate the relationship between coaching team and the membership. By promoting a culture of engagement with the membership, member attrition rates have reduced and more members than ever are engaging with the Academy.

“My job is in the Academy, but my responsibility is to the whole club. By feeding enthusiastic learners into the club and engaging with golfers in and out of lessons, we’ve helped create a real buzz and an enthusiasm for the game and club life.”

“The team at Orbis take care of getting new people through the door, my job is to keep them loving the game.” Sam Holloway.

Integral to the model for better engaging the membership and new learners with the Academy, is the Orbis GLF. Connect app and Academy management system. GLF is integrated throughout the whole customer journey, improving the experience for members and students, and engaging them outside of lessons.?

“I used to have WhatsApp groups with my students which was great, but quite often people would mute them and they’d get missed. By managing group conversations through GLF. Connect the students know that when it pings it’s golf chat and the engagement has gone through the roof.”

“Giving students the opportunity to view their progress and receive feedback through the GLF app gives great motivation outside of lesson time. And if someone does miss a session they can catch up on the lesson by checking out the details and heading to the range themselves.”

In addition to the customer facing applications, GLF. Connect provides a seamless booking and payment system with automated confirmations and reminders that have a significant impact on student retention. GLF also captures data about the student experience, monitoring and reporting on key metrics throughout the Academy and providing vital information for coaches and management to monitor and improve services.

“My whole booking system is run through the GLF. Connect app. It’s taken a while to get everyone comfortable using it, but with a little help it’s now become a staple for every student. It really does take a lot of stress out of scheduling my lessons and has reduced no-shows for lessons to virtually zero.”

The partnership between Orbis Golf and South Winchester Golf Club has delivered positive outcomes for every stakeholder. The club, the coaches, new students and the club membership all receive an exceptional experience. Those results are backed up by year on year data that shows the club and Academy going from strength to strength.

“Much of what we do and the approach we take seems obvious when you think about it, but it feels so fresh. We’ve completely changed the club at South Winchester by being 100% committed to being customer focussed.”

“Membership levels have definitely improved, but more importantly, the membership feels happier. The club feels fresh and positive and I think the work we have done in the Academy has really driven that change.” Sam Holloway, Golf Development Professional, South Winchester Golf Club.