The private club, part of a 787-acre, master-planned resort community of 1,200 luxury homes near Dallas-Fort Worth, recently decided to go against conventional thinking and close each Tuesday, instead of the typical Monday day off.
Club Accountant Cindy Williams is in charge of tracking the financial impact of the move through EZSuite, a complete club management system powered by NBC Sports Next. Ultimately, it will be Cindy’s daily, weekly and monthly reports that will determine if the club will stick with their decision long term.
“Part of our decision to stay open Mondays was because of Monday Night football, and people tend to stay home on Mondays,” Williams said. “Every other private golf course is closed on Mondays, but our management team wanted to give this a try.
“This is all based on comparative data, since I do daily sales reports for beer, liquor, wine, food, and golf shop merchandise. We also know the green fees purchased … EZSuite gives pretty immediate information.”
EZSuite is the technology tool for any kind of club – private, public, resort, municipal – that makes tough decisions easier, like the one faced by Heath Golf and Yacht Club. The proof is in the numbers. EZSuite can monitor the pulse of any club to determine its health, tracking important data for budgeting and forecasting. It is trusted by more than 1,200 clubs around the world, from a small single-club operator like Heath to larger operations, such as Escalante Golf, a Texas-based boutique owner and operator of luxury golf properties across nine states. It’s scalable, logical and versatile.
“We at Escalante use it in a unique way from an individual club,” said Sean Staton, a business intelligence analyst for Escalante Golf. “We like the centralized format that incorporates all of our clubs within one database. That’s a nice thing from a management perspective.
“I sit in Virginia and I can have access to other clubs and, within seconds, can set up whatever they need,” Stanton said. “It’s seamless, and it works … from a corporate perspective, it has allowed us to dial in on key metrics to drive more money to the bottom line. We have a similar way of seeing things from club to club.”
Tina Heinbaugh, a strategic customer success manager for NBC Sports Next, works with private clubs around the country to make sure they’re maximizing the breadth of EZSuite technology. She said the separate modules within EZSuite that control membership, food and beverage, retail, events and accounting work well together. EZSuite is compatible with multiple accounting applications and tee-sheet software.
“Everything talks to one another and is fully integrated,” she added.
The robust EZSuite reporting features make it easy to track data and create all sorts of reports. Real-time data can be used for historical comparisons to determine the health of the club across all segments of the business – membership acquisition and retention, pro-shop sales, food and beverage operations and more. Users can set benchmarks and get text/email notifications when that target is met or missed. For example, a club could pull a report on the best- and worst-selling wines or item on a dinner menu and make an adjustment based on sales. All of these decisions can have a big impact on member retention.
“You can find out who is not utilizing the club and target those members to determine why,” Heinbaugh said. “In the member module, you can set up alerts based on their activity. You can take your bottom 10 percent at the club, and the pro could get an alert or an email every time they make a purchase at the club. You can make face-to-face contact and get feedback on how that member is feeling about club life.”
NBC Sports Next provides full support for those who use EZSuite. Williams is still learning its nuances. She admits she calls support regularly with questions. “They know me by first name,” she said with a laugh.