Gregg Blanchard
The next time you’re holding lunch in one hand and your phone in the other, try a little experiment. Find a nearby hotel or resort and read their absolute worst reviews on TripAdvisor.
If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll find a common thread among those reviews: employees. “Rude” is typically the common denominator that underlies a principle that a friend of mine describes like this.
“You may be the marketing director, but make no mistake…every employee at the resort works in marketing right along with you.”
For all the good you may do from the marketing office, it can all be undone in an instant by a single employee having a bad day.
Enter Stage Left
Enter a couple of golf courses you might not have heard of: Nakoma Golf Resort and Spa in Northern California, and A.J. Jolly in Kentucky.
Some of their marketing has touted something that, in the context of this idea, makes a ton of sense.
And here’s A.J. Jolly’s home page:
Both of these points of differentiation come from Golf Advisor’s annual Staff Friendliness Rankings, the longevity and popularity of which says something all on its own.
Size Matters, but it Doesn’t
If this had been published by a bigger name in golf or news or sports or travel, would the ranking carry more weight? Maybe.
But the fact that someone had both the data and the insight to create the list at all, and these courses were included as two of the best of the best in the country? To me, that carries enough value to use.
And use it they did, just as they should have. Great work.
