Bangkok, Thailand: Thailand’s Thai Country Club and Thana City Country Club, Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club and Cambodia’s Angkor Golf Resort took centre stage at 59club Asia’s inaugural Service Excellence Awards, supported by Golfbreaks.com.

During 2019, data was captured from mystery service audits and benchmarked across all golf venues that 59club Asia works with throughout the region. The awards recognise the most successful venues in sales performance, staff attitude, internal processes and facility standards.

Gold, Silver and Bronze service excellence flags were awarded to venues that delivered the most consistent golf experiences, rewarding overall team effort across each element of the 59club mystery shopper auditing report.

“We are thrilled to be part of our clients’ success stories. Through our proven statistics, we are proud to see their consistent solid improvements, to see the teams overcome their own challenges and further develop their operations based on our mystery shopper audits. It’s an honour for us to be part of the process to support and develop the industry,” said Araya Singhsuwan, Operations Manager at 59club Asia, an Associate Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

Thai Country Club scooped five awards, including Golf Sales Team of the Year, Leading Individual Group Golf Sales performance (Wibullak Chulakasyena), F&B Manager of the Year (Pichayapak Chamkrachang) and Greenkeeper of the Year (Brian Distel).

John Blanch, Thai Country Club’s General Manager, said “We’re delighted to receive the Silver Flag Award from 59club Asia. From day one our entire team were enthusiastic and motivated to engage with 59club Asia. The Mystery Shopping Auditing programme provided us with invaluable data that we have used to improve our performance.

“It encouraged our team to be more active and focused to ensure improvement as every part of the customer journey is measured. We have seen an improvement of 10.4% in average score throughout the entire operations in 2019. We have also seen a solid improvement in the tee-time reservation at 8.9% in average score, plus positive changes in all other areas. It’s been a positive experience for all of us and has enabled us to set new measurable goals.

“In my 30 years of golf course management this is the most important innovation I have witnessed. Thai Country Club looks forward to continuing our development as well as our partnership with 59club Asia.”

Angkor Golf Resort was recognised with four awards, including a dual success for David Baron as Golf Manager of the Year and Golf Retail Manager of the Year, and Golf Operations Team of the Year, headed by Socheat Mey.

Baron said: “These awards are a credit to our full team and the continued support we receive from 59club Asia. The analytics, training and guest feedback we receive is second to none. The data provided enables us to highlight specific areas for improvement and take the necessary steps to enhance our guest experience. However, the journey doesn’t stop here. We look forward to raising the bar further and continuing our journey with 59club Asia.”

Sentosa Golf Club achieved the status of Bronze Flag Members Club, a notable feat given they’ve only been working with 59club Asia for a four-month period, during which time they improved their overall experience percentage score by almost 5%.

Andrew Johnston, General Manager and Director of Agronomy at the Singapore venue, said: “We’re proud to be recognised for our commitment to customer service and the ability to provide excellent facilities for our members and guests. We instil a culture at the club which allows and encourages our entire team to be better than they were yesterday, ensuring we are ready to welcome anyone 365 days of the year with the highest standards possible.

“The 59club Asia service has helped us identify some areas of the business that need improving. Receiving a Service Excellence Award reiterates to us that our commitment to excellent customer service across all aspects of club life at Sentosa continues to be acknowledged.”

Thana City Country Club made the most improvement throughout the year, utilising the Mystery Shopping Audit programme and attaining Silver Flag Resort Club status.

A club spokesperson said: “Thana City Country Club and our team are thrilled to be recognised and awarded the Silver Flag Award from 59club Asia. Our engagement with 59club Asia and the Mystery Shopper Audit programme in 2019 added a huge amount of value to our operations, developing our member and guest experience at the club. Although we knew many of our strengths and weaknesses, working with 59club Asia gave us a deeper understanding of what our members and guests thought of our facility in terms of hardware and service levels.

“We developed clear opportunities for the improvements of our operations and the development of our colleagues, setting individual and team targets, that were targeted and achievable. Throughout the year we achieved improvements of 8.1% across all departments. The whole team were engaged from day one. We will continue working with 59club Asia and are excited to see how much further we can improve our team to enhance our guest experience at the club.”

Winners and Nominees

Leading Individual Group Golf Sales Performance – Wibullak Chulakasyena (Thai Country Club). Nominees: Chan Naren Rith (Angkor Golf Resort); Nicole Thew (Sentosa Golf Club)

Golf Sales Team of the Year – Thai Country Club. Nominees: Angkor Golf Resort; Sentosa Golf Club

Golf Retail Manager of the Year – David Baron (Angkor Golf Resort). Nominees: Rungdao Pooprasert (Thai Country Club); Kamolnath Moohammad (Thana City Country Club)

Golf Manager of the Year – David Baron (Angkor Golf Resort). Nominees: Chavalit Surangsee (Thai Country Club); Pongtorn Rungseang (Thana City Country Club)

Golf Operations Team of the Year – Angkor Golf Resort. Nominees: Thai Country Club; Thana City Country Club

Food & Beverage Manager of the Year – Pichayapak Chamkrachang (Thai Country Club). Nominees: Bunnal Ros (Angkor Golf Resort); Monthon Wongsamang (Thana City Country Club)

Greenkeeper of the Year – Brian Distel (Thai Country Club). Nominees: Rodney McKeown (Sentosa Golf Club); Mana Sungpuk (Thana City Country Club)

Silver Flag Winners: Thai Country Club (Private Club). Thana City Country Club (Resort Club)

Bronze Flag Winners: Sentosa Golf Club (Private Club). Angkor Golf Resort (Resort Club)