Many of the UK and Europe’s leading venues, teams and individuals were in attendance as 59club recognised those who delivered the very best service to their members and guests during 2022 at their annual celebration of Service Excellence, which this year took place at The Hilton, St George’s Park on Thursday May 2. Delegates enjoyed educational seminars during the day, which included Olympic Gold Medal winner and now Head of Performance for the League Managers Association, Tim Foster MBE; Bestselling author of “The Habit Mechanic” and founder of Tougher Minds Consultancy, Dr Jon Finn; and former Manchester United Captain and Premier League winner, Steve Bruce.
As day moved to evening; host for the evening, seasoned presenter, Vernon Kay opened the glittering awards ceremony that has long been regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the golf & hospitality industry, since 59club’s honours list began some 13 years ago. The event recognises the finest customer service providers for having achieved the highest standards of excellence across 2022. 59club’s accolades are determined by scores collected from their impartial mystery shopping audits, which evaluate the experience afforded to guests, club members and prospective members, in accordance with 59club’s objective benchmarking criteria.
On the night, 59club saw their UK & Southern European teams present 38 individual and team awards spanning 18 categories, recognising ‘service excellence’ across all areas of the businesses; sales, service, operations, retail, spa, golf course, food & beverage and management. With 59club continuing to reflect the very best performances, regardless of a venue’s size, scale or profile, by segmenting several individual accolades into 3 categories, based on a venue’s average green fee rate.
Of this year’s awards, Will Hewitt, general manager of 59club UK, commented: “With a growth of over 20 per cent in the number of venues taking our services, an award nomination this year represented an outstanding achievement across a number of hugely competitive categories. 59club awards are based on an objective analysis of the service provided at a venue, therefore recognising the venues, teams and individuals who truly do deliver world class service on a consistent basis.”
The Grove and Belvoir Park Golf Club collected the highest prized awards of the evening — Ultimate Golf Resort and Ultimate Members’ Club respectively. Both venues also achieved multiple individual and team successes; with Brad Gould and his team at The Grove collecting the enviable Golf Manager and Golf Operations Team of the Year titles (£130 and above green fee category); with Alice Kozlowski adding the Leading Individual Golf Sales Performance award to The Grove’s trophy cabinet.
