Mysterious shoppers raided Brocket Hall Golf Club


By: September 30, 2014


Back in this April I had already written about Brocket Hall Golf Club won 59Club Awards' Silver Flag award for outstanding customer service. Recently Brocket Hall Golf Club conducted a mystery shopping survey by 59Club.

Brocket Hall ball room

Brocket Hall reached significant results in 3 particular categories:

  1. Its practice facilities, including the Palmerston Academy, are, this year, scoring at an impressive 95.6 per cent, against a Podium score of 86.5.
  2. The club's ‘on-course services' also outperformed the very best clubs, scoring 68.7 per cent to the Podium score of 66.2. This includes elements such as the tidiness of the starter's hut and information on pin placements and maintenance, through to helpfulness of staff and conditions of on-course toilet facilities, and, outscored the industry average by a remarkable 25.7 percentage points in the process.
  3. On-course presentation', arguably a golfer's most abiding memory of a visit. An exceptionally high score of 92.9 per cent elevates the renowned venue into an exclusive group, beating the Podium score of 90.3

Brocket Hall with helicopter

David Griffin the director of golf operations at Brocket Hall, said they gained additional customer insight from this survey. Why don't they use social media monitoring software (e.g. Radian6, Sysomos, Scout Labs etc.) to detect customers' attitude, preferences?

Brocket Hall with lake

At the same time, I am not convinced that we make every purchase decisions rationally. I have to agree with Dan Ariely when says if we are to assume that consumers hold constant, well-defined preferences, this puts the stability of valuations into question. So we cannot rely totally on the findings of this mystery shopping since it reflects a specific status.

People make in many instances emotional decisions that such surveys will not be able to measure. Therefore we have to find the emotional sweet spot of our customers. What are they looking for? Joy? Fulfillment? Relief? Euphoria? Acceptance? These needs and expectations are hard to measure.