Farmington Country Club, located in Charlottesville, Va., has the assets you would want and expect at a large, vibrant private club. It has scale, with more than 2,500 members; it has the gracious beauty of the South, which affords club members a panoramic view of
Tom Mulhern makes his living designing innovative and engaging customer experiences for a wide range of organizations including restaurants, retail stores and health care systems. Here is how he describes one of his favorite retail experiences: When I walk into my favorite store, the first
One of the most challenging aspects of club management today is achieving a successful dining program. When asking members what their expectations are for club dining, 70 to 80 percent will say, “just make it one of my favorite places to dine.” But when asking
Q: What are some key best practices related to conducting accurate pricing comparisons on club supplies? A: It is important to know what to look for when you receive a price comparison. In many cases, comparisons pair the customer’s purchases with lower quality items. For example,
Club Trends Fall 2014
Q. How do you hold consultants accountable? A. Clubs engage consultants for expertise in a variety of services. The first step is to determine what your club really wants to achieve. Is it realistic? What do you hope to learn or solve? What would success look like? How
At the 11th Annual National Club Conference in beautiful San Francisco, one education session was a panel whose topic was “Outsourcing Strategies for Club Success.” As I listened to the panel, it brought me back to my days with a large national consulting and professional
On Monday evening, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released the much-awaited final regulations for the health care law’s Employer Mandate. In a surprise move, those final regulations provided a further delay in the implementation of the Employer Mandate for an
Q: How do you optimize your management team? What are the most critical components of an effective management team? A: Many managers spend a significant amount of time doing the wrong things very well or the right things very poorly. The responsibilities and goals of a private
During my recent travels to different private clubs, I found there was one question many clubs had in common: What is the best form of payment at a club: credit card, cash or club charge? Let’s further discuss these three very different forms of payment