Cardinal Golf Club addresses the ball with their new guest WiFi

Background

Naturally, Cardinal Golf Group operate club houses where players, members and guests can enjoy some relaxation away from the course. Shannon Enwright, Marketing Director, required a system that would help her identify the people using the facilities that she didn’t already know.

Of course, there was already a lot of knowledge about the members, but a gap when it came to guests and visitors. For Shannon and her marketing department, these people are hot leads to sell new memberships to as they will have experienced the facilities and the quality of the product they offer.

The Challenge

Shannon knew what she wants to achieve from the outset and had heard from elsewhere that it would be possible through WiFi. What she didn’t know about though was the setup of her existing WiFi network. By communicating with their 3rd party IT suppliers, it was established that they were using a brand of Access Point that was not supported by Social WiFi.

Typically, in this case we would configure a MikroTik router and connect it to the existing network, but there was a reluctance in this case.

It was decided that a partnership with Fortinet would be explored and to try integrating Social WiFi with their hardware range. It turned out to be a quick task and very quickly Cardinal Golf Group were set up with Social WiFi at their courses.

The Solution

Once the technical installation was completed (a remote process by Social WiFi and their hardware suppliers), a beautifully branded login system that matched the first class facilities that they provide. The simple login process with Facebook, Google or Email, meant that Shannon and her team could seamlessly and legally gather visitor data.

By making this data instantly available in the Social WiFi dashboard, it could be exported 24/7 to any CRM and mailing system they wished to use.

One function that wasn’t initially used but later implemented, was the ability to automatically send communications to WiFi users. In particular the ‘not-seen-in’ automation was used to send an email to any users who had connected, but not reconnected within a set amount of days. The plan here was to try and attract back known visitors, who perhaps had been lost or needed an extra incentive to come back again.

The Result

In the summer season of 2019 alone, over 950 email addresses were gathered for Shannon and her team. Many of these came with additional details such as name, date of birth and hometown, to help with further targeting.

An unexpected benefit for Cardinal Golf Group was the review gathering tool, that attracted over 200 responses with an average score of 4.4. Reviews of 4* and above are being directed to their Google reviews page, meaning that up to 171 new positive reviews will have been written on their profile, boosting their local reputation.