In the last month over 350 members of Duff House Royal GC in Banff, Scotland, have already downloaded their club’s Eagle app to discover new ways of checking club news, competition results and events by smartphone, tablet or club website.
Club manager Gerry Fitzpatrick rates the new Eagle app highly, stating, “It’s a fantastic communications tool for the members, and for club managers it’s a no brainer.” By exploiting the app’s sponsor dropdown feature and sponsor tab he has already gained two new sponsors, offsetting the app’s modest costs and turning it into a profitable source of additional income.
Besides posting competition results and draws on to the app’s Noticeboard so that they’re online and viewable within minutes, Gerry is exploiting other features to the max. On opening the app, members can immediately see the course conditions for the day via the checker on the Home screen’s base; in the app’s Noticeboard he recently posted the results of a major membership survey and a story about the new course drainage with images, content that has generated a lot of positive feedback.
Gerry explains the attraction of the Eagle app, “Three things: one, new features that made it an attractive communications tool for the members; two, a way to both reduce the cost of the printed diaries and provide the members with a better online equivalent that is easy to keep up to date; three, a new channel for sponsors.”
Gerry continues, “While I still use e-mail to reach the membership, the app is ideal for the kind of fast-moving messages and information they really want and like receiving. Consequently we’re redesigning the club’s website to be a more effective shop window for external audiences like casual visitors and society organisers.”
Initial resistance in some quarters is changing fast as well, as he explains, “The reaction amongst the members has been very interesting. The younger ones are very enthusiastic of course, although some of the older members resisted initially, but we’re finding that attitudes are changing fast. Along with support and one-to-ones in the office to show them what to do, members with smartphones are showing other members how to use the app and discover what’s going on at the club.”
Gerry summarises his opinions on the Eagle app. “Like all technology that’s new, the app’s a bit daunting at first, but the support from Eagle is terrific and they really helped us exploit its features for new content opportunities. Our members have learned to check the app almost daily to see what’s new, and in a remarkably short time it’s become an invaluable, highly popular and income generating, membership service.”
Eagle www.eagle.uk.com