When private clubs turn their attention to long-range strategic planning, they usually think of focusing on broad areas such as governance, facilities and membership development. Specific aspects of an operation such as a food-and-beverage program are often viewed as a secondary consideration, if indeed they are considered at all.
But with surveys consistently showing that dining is the most universal, important and influential member experi- ence—but also showing (see pg. 6) that while 92% of members say their club should be their favorite place to dine, only 46% say it actually is—F&B should be seen as integral to achieving all of the strategic goals that a club establishes, and as a key and ongoing contributing factor for carrying out the club’s mission and vision and ensuring its long-term success.
F&B is a club amenity, just like the golf course, pool, fitness center and other features. But most of the clubs that struggle with F&B take the wrong approach to it in their business modeling or financial planning, by feeling that they want or need to run the department as a profit center, like the restaurant down the street.
Given the proper resources, most quality clubs and their managers can match member expectations for quality and consistency of dining. Their hands are often tied, however, when the Board/House Committee and membership at large complain about inefficiency and losses in F&B and the subsidies (from food minimums and/or support from other departments or areas) that have been put in place to sustain the department.
The truth is, however—as the article on p. 12 of this issue substantiates—the mean larger club in the Club Benchmarking database subsidizes F&B to the tune of 11 percent. In other words, it costs that club $1.11 to deliver $1 of F&B revenue.
And that’s perfectly acceptable—a subsidy to cover this shortfall should not only be expected but, it should be argued, embraced.
Setting the Table
When viewed in this context, clubs’ strategic plans should include the same goals, areas of focus and action plans for F&B operations as for all other areas.
This is especially critical given the added demands on dining programs that have been created by expanded memberships and the influx of younger members seeking more family-oriented offerings.
Specific steps in every club’s strategic plan for F&B will be different, and they always need to be generated through a process that begins with gaining input from the board, management and membership, and then using that input to prioritize key objectives. Also, strategic planning for F&B, as for all aspects of a club’s operations, should not be seen as a single-focus or “one and done” activity; it should be unified and integrated with other elements of the club’s overall strategic plan and updated and reprioritized regularly, preferably on an annual basis.
In that context, here are some examples of the types of action plans that could be established specifically for the food-and-beverage component of a club’s comprehensive strategic plan:
- Provide a high-quality dining program that achieves 4.0 or higher satisfaction ratings on a scale of “5” (very satisfied) to “1” (very dissatisfied) for all offerings, as measured through regular membership surveys and benchmarked against other clubs.
- Upgrade dining facilities as necessary, both inside and outside, to maintain favorite-place status among members in relation to the other dining options available in the area, as measured by regular membership surveys and reflected by member usage.
- Use the survey input and other resources to identify tactics, such as greater menu diversity, increased hours, etc., that can be employed to stimulate use and increasing satisfaction with the overall dining program.
- Commit the necessary resources (financial and otherwise) to ensure that the F&B Department is staffed at the correct levels and includes personnel with the required skill sets, both tangible to intangible, to achieve and sustain favorite- place dining status.
- Create a service handbook as the “gold standard” of service expectations for everyone on the food-and-beverage staff, and hold training sessions on a regular, scheduled basis. Review all aspects of the department’s hiring, training, compensation and operating plan to assure effective performance.
- Establish a mission and identity for each dining outlet at the club and communicate the role of each outlet to the membership, to achieve the goal of matching concepts with expectations.
- Respond to emerging trends that have greatly diminished the importance of formal, upscale dining at clubs today and shifted the focus to providing a la carte dining through venues such as a casual pub grille with an adjacent bar/ lounge and a very casual family grill adjacent to wellness/ fitness, golf simulators and indoor recreation facilities, often with a Starbucks-type lounge and work areas nearby.
- Acknowledge and respond to the increased importance of providing covered outdoor dining and bar areas in season, which have now been shown in surveys to be considered the most important type of F&B offerings for most club members.
- Adjust strategies for offering and using large dining rooms and private dining rooms for social events and special family events such as weddings, while also responding to the trend that now discourages opening up club ballrooms for outside, non-member events, because of how they can impede the full and constant use and enjoyment of the club by all members in today’s full-capacity environment.