The best news to emerge from clubs’ innovative responses to the challenges that this year posed is how they stand to have a permanent and positive effect on operational and strategic approaches going forward.
Certainly, there can be no debate that hospital workers are the hands-down, uncontested and most worthy recipients of any recognition that is due for front-line service and timely, effective and meritorious response, in the face of the immense challenges brought on this year by the coronavirus outbreak.
Just as certainly, anything that’s been done at club and resort properties pales in comparative importance to the battles that have been waged on the medical front. Still, we are glad that our special Top Innovators issue in December 2020 (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/december-2020-issue-answering-the-call/) gave us a chance, at the end of a trying year, to salute how so many club management staffs stepped up to quickly shake off the initial shock of the pandemic and rally to find ways to make positive contributions towards combating this unforeseen scourge and helping people and communities get through, and recover, from it.
As one Director of Communications wrote in submitting Top Innovators entries for her club: “2020 was an unusual year for us all. The pandemic and its spread required creative thinking by our team in every department. We quickly and successfully pivoted from traditional offerings to those that ensured the safety of us all, while maintaining the award-winning level of services that our discerning members have come to expect.”
In addition to finding new ways to provide safe and welcomed recreation and socialization opportunities for members and their families, clubs and their staffs also became a strong support system and significant contributor for the larger fight, through their many efforts to raise funds and supply needed food and supplies to those on the front lines. Clubs also played an important role, because many are part of communities with older populations, in helping to protect and provide comfort and needed assistance for that especially vulnerable segment.
The best news to emerge from the responses seen this year is how many managers say they not only helped to bolster this year’s business performance in the face of potentially disastrous results, but also stand to have a permanent and positive effect on operational and strategic approaches going forward.
As evidenced by many of the examples provided in our Top Innovators issue, many new events, programs and approaches to facility design and operation that were created out of necessity, to work around restrictions imposed by the pandemic, proved to be so popular they will become permanent additions to clubs’ annual calendars and how they now set up to do business. Virtually every operating department, and especially food-and-beverage, fitness and golf, have developed a variety of new ways to provide value and appeal for their products and services that will be continued as important new revenue streams and attractions, both for existing and potential members. Communication techniques, to both memberships and staffs, have been completely reexamined and made much more efficient and effective through newfound reliance on video and other platforms.
While no one wants to see what 2020 brought extend too far into the new year, there’s no denying that clubs are in a far better position to respond to whatever else might come, thanks to all that they learned and accomplished when put to the test this year like never before. And that certainly merits special recognition for everyone involved.
Joe Barks,
Editor
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