Happy Hour

“While bars aim for peak time because they are trying to lure in drinkers away from competition, most ranges will be aiming to bring in golfers who would otherwise not hit balls.”

The association of Happy Hour with partying and bars is unmistakable in this timeless promotion. However you operate this device it will be easily understood in publications and will act as a good strap line to gain business.

One interesting use I have seen of this concept is to make the Happy Hour 8am to 9am in order to get non working golfers to the range early in the hopes that they will stay and spend throughout the morning.

In one range in the industrial heartland of the UK, a Power Tee operator ran 10 happy hours per week (Monday to Friday) these were set outside the shift work patterns of the local factories and allowed the operator to discount heavily for the local unem- ployed and retired without having to erode prices among the working community.

Be careful of Happy Hours at peak times (usually 6pm to 8pm for urban ranges). While bars aim for peak time because they are trying to lure in drink- ers away from competition, most ranges will be aiming to bring in golfers who would otherwise not hit balls. Running the happy hour in peak times may cause waiting problems and erode full price business that would have been there regardless.

Downsides
Depending on your dispensing system this may be open to abuse. Tokens purchased during Happy Hours by friends of golfers can emerge at peak times. Impact of these promotions is very hard to measure without careful planning.

Martin Wyeth, Power Tee CEO, has visited driving ranges the world over and is pleased to share his observations of how some range owners have successfully improved ball sales using Power Tee.