Now clubs get the chance to rebrand, retheme and rethink their dining offerings to truly create favorite, safe place dining for their members. More than ever, privacy and controlled environments mean safety and enjoyment rolled into one at the club. This is a time to offer club dining that is much more in accord with popular casual restaurants as to menu selection, pricing, dress codes, use of technology, staffing and overall atmosphere. The successful dining experience that clubs can offer should, of course, be based on high-quality food and service, but this is only half the dining success formula. The other half that really makes the difference involves location convenience; a place where everyone (the friendly staff) knows your name; your friends are there; the dining décor is friendly and comfortable; and the price is right. This is what gives members good value to justify dues and to reassure them the dining environment is safe in ways we never thought possible.
The new normal is here as clubs reopen during and after the COVID-19 crisis. It will be a significant opportunity for private clubs and we will be able to position our clubs as the “member’s favorite places to dine.” In times of crisis, people often appreciate the power of community, being with friends, sharing and helping one another. What better venue to create that sense of community than through membership in a private club—and serving as members’ top choice for dining and socializing. The safety of the private club environment will be our best marketing tool, a way of enhancing social contacts through club membership and ensuring confidence in current safety protocols. This is an opportunity for effecting change. The old-style private club dining platform must be replaced with a new dining program, diversifying and opening up more options that are relevant to members’ lives. Bold, innovative and well-communicated menus and programming will separate the winners from the losers. The unfortunate reality of COVID-19 is that many local area restaurants, pubs and bars will not reopen. It is important that we replace those favorite haunts that members used to frequent with similar offerings in our clubs. Failure to do so will be an abdication of the opportunity.
MENUS
• Menu offerings and variety of choices are one of the biggest complaints from members. In the short-term, menus need to be smaller and changed frequently. Supply chain issues will make large/unchanging menus obsolete.
• Well prepared and competitive casual dining and grab-ngo will all be part of the new normal. Menus must reflect this.
• As long as clubs and communities remain partially closed, clubs providing to-go food should schedule a dedicated staff person to this activity. A single “Ring-style” doorbell with a camera at a designated pickup location makes this easy to offer.
• High-quality and consistent food at value pricing below $20 will become more prevalent.
• Cost effectiveness: Value is the new buzzword.
• Ordering: disposable menus, blackboard-style menus, club apps and server’s verbal communication regarding specials and food descriptions will become the new club norm.
• POS stations will not be used. Servers will have a shift assigned table/iPad, newly cleaned, for all food ordering, to-go food, reservations, beverage lists, etc.
COVID-19 has taught us that members truly look at the club as their second home, but maybe in a more casual way than thought previously. Members have been conditioned during the stay-at-home orders to enjoy their dining through a new approach. Clubs must continue with offering them what they have come to expect along with some private club enhancements. The goal of creating casual dining space is to create an environment that is sustainable and a location the members would want to frequent daily, to successfully compete with the choices of restaurants in the convenient locations around where they live.
VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING/PHYSICAL SPACES
• Virtual interactions and online programming are now a part of our present, not a COVID-19 anomaly.
• Micro social media marketing focused on advertising to membership will keep them informed and looking forward to dining at their club. The communication methods at their disposal must be used effectively.
• Mix indoors with outdoors, but don’t skimp on the quality of furnishings, overhead canopies and heaters. Avoid poor quality heaters with mushroom, top-heavy designs and cheap portable firepits. Buy high-quality roof canopies with canvas walls and invest in high-quality indoor/outdoor equipment.
• Dining rooms must have maximum flexibility for spacing according to social distancing guidelines. This may not be a long-term issue, but for now it is important. • White tablecloth dining events will be important but not part of a daily experience.
• Dining reservations will be a requirement due to social distancing. This will be necessary to track all members and staff at the club daily per CDC regulations for outbreak and contact tracing protocols. Other areas such as fitness, golf, tennis and swim will be the same as reservations will be required for every offering. Members come to their club for dining, but this is more than just the food. They come for the atmosphere, ambiance, camaraderie—and now more than ever—for a safe sanctuary environment. The private club environment provides a safer, more caring community with good controls that restaurants cannot provide.
SAFETY
• The new normal in the short-term will be more challenging than we can anticipate. Regulations will provide many service challenges for members and staff but they can be effectively navigated.
• CDC rules enforcement and compliance will be essential. Members will not be able to use their club as they were accustomed. Bylaw language may need to be amended. Good communication to members will be more important than ever to assure safety.
• Face masks, temporal/radiation thermometers, gloves and additional cleaning services for staff uniforms (similar to grounds maintenance) are here to stay. Casual uniforms made of washable fabrics promote cleanliness for staff and provide reassurance to members.
• Touchless, stand-up hand sanitizer stations throughout club (both inside and outside) are needed.
• Dining hours will be limited with more time needed for sanitizing spaces and furniture between table turnover.
• All furniture, flooring amenities and surfaces will need to be sanitized multiple times daily, so having less carpet, no woven fabrics for seating, touchless bathroom fixtures, automatic door openers, etc., are things to keep in mind when remodeling/replacing these items.
• Kitchen flow of food going out in a dining room as well as soiled dishware coming back into a kitchen and the locations of soiled dish scraping/washing will need new considerations.
BOARD/MAINTENANCE TEAM
The club’s board must be supportive of the management team implementing new and alternative dining that may not have been offered at the club previously. All demographics of the membership will benefit for new/innovative concepts in dining and social activity. Think outside the box. Be bold, innovative and creative. Now is the time to establish your club as the go-to place, your members’ favorite restaurant. It’s going to take a board and management team partnership to make club dining a success.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Although there will be a substantial amount of change in the short-term and maybe longer, there will be one constant: The Consistency, Quality and Value of the hospitality provided to the member will be critical for dining success. There is a difference between hospitality and service. As any club manager knows, service is the delivery of a product, while hospitality is delivery of the product with emotion, feeling and care. We are in the “happiness business.” As members prepare to return to their “favorite place to dine,” it should be guaranteed that they are provided the opportunity to reconnect with their favorite server or bartender, to speak with the chef and to feel like they are simply back home … at their club.
What will separate your club from the restaurant down the street? First and foremost, your members must feel safer. They must trust that their club has exceeded expectations regarding required protocols and guidelines. Each club has a decided advantage over public facilities that must be communicated directly to members, including what the club has done for them and what dining experience they can expect when they return. Most importantly, the club should stand out because of the comfort, quality and safety that it provides.
EYE CONTACT, SMILES, HUGS AND GOOD FOOD
The question we should ask ourselves is, what will make them comfortable? It is simple, eye contact, a smile, a hug and good food. Each of these components are what we all yearn for from birth. Everyone wants to feel recognized and acknowledged. In hospitality, there is a simple “10-5-2” system that is easy to teach staff:
• 10 feet away you make eye contact with the member,
• 5 feet away you make verbal contact with the member, and
• 2 times in your conversation you use their name.
“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness,” is a widely used, and accurate maxim from writer William Arthur Ward. There will be no greater welcome to your members than a warm smile from a favorite waitress or a jovial bartender. Members may not be able to see it under a mask, so make sure they see it in the eyes and hear it in the voice. In the post COVID-19 world, it may be difficult for a while to provide your members with a hug, so the next best thing is to embrace them with kindness. Remember to anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. Good, consistent food is critical but food is just 25% of what will make members identify the club as one of their favorite places to dine. It is the human element we all crave and now more than ever, the club will need to deliver to sustain success. While the quality, consistency and value of the menu is essential, as Benjamin Franklin said, “The handshake of the host affects the taste of the roast.”
As a club manager, you have the unique opportunity in reopening to refresh and instill these values in your team. Remind the team of the importance to make every member feel like they are the most important member at the club. Even though you may be delivering hospitality to your members in an irregular way, make sure you are doing it in an extraordinary manner. Walt Disney said, “Do what you do so well they want to see it again, and bring their friends.” There will be no other time in the club’s history to be more of a host than now. Take a step back and remember service, delivery and hospitality will be very different in this COVID-19 period. But it is your opportunity to make your club’s dining and the members’ overall club experience something extraordinary.