The 90th edition of the Masters officially begins this morning when honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson hit their ceremonial tee shots, immediately followed by the start of tournament play.
As I discussed in last week’s column, the best companies and sports teams focus on continuous improvement, and no organization epitomizes that more than the Masters and Augusta National.
This time of the year, I typically write at least one column on the Masters/Augusta National because there is so much that businesses can learn from the Masters and how it is managed. This is particularly true for service enterprises. As I tell my students, while products are consumed, services are experienced. So, service enterprises must focus on the customer experience, and no one does that better than Augusta National at the Masters. While the customer experience at the Masters can be examined from multiple different perspectives, in today’s column, I will focus on how the Masters/Augusta National manages both the “front of house” and “back of house” and the links between the two to provide an outstanding customer service.
The front of house of a service business is the part of the business that has direct guest interaction, while the back of house is the part of the service that is typically performed out of the view of the customer, but has a significant impact on the customer experience. For instance, at a restaurant, the front of house consists of servers, hosts, and bartenders, while the back of house includes chefs, cooks, and dishwashers. At an airline, the front of house includes those who check you in and your bags, gate agents, and flight attendants, while the back of the house includes the flight crew and baggage handlers. While the front of house focuses on the customer’s interactive experience, the back of house is focused on supporting the quality, consistency, and speed of the service that positively impacts the customer. Good service is also dependent on a strong link between the back of house and the front of house to ensure customer needs are met. At the Masters, we can clearly see the front of house in action, and I will share with you what I have learned about the back of house and the link between the two.
Front of House
At the Masters/Augusta National, we can always see one of the most important tenets of a successful service business on display, and that is a focus on the customer and his or her experience. It starts with the entrance at the parking areas where the parking attendants direct the patrons politely and efficiently to quickly park their vehicles so they can spend more time on the golf course and in the pro shop, the places where they most want to be. The themes of friendliness and courtesy continue throughout the day at Augusta National, starting with the friendly greetings upon arrival through pleasant experiences at the pro shop, food concessions, and even the restrooms. Even though patrons can potentially encounter lines at each of these venues, they move through the lines quickly, and the pleasant demeanor of the workers makes any waits more than tolerable.
Two things stand out that all service businesses could emulate from the Masters front of house. First, all workers who will be interacting with customers are either hired based on their sunny dispositions and overt courtesy, and/or they are trained very well to be that way. Encounters at the Masters are all very positive and helpful. Staff at the pro shop and food concessions go out of their way to help you find what you need. All service businesses can learn from this in that hiring and training people to be friendly and courteous will translate into return customers. One thing that the Masters does that might be harder to emulate is the amount of staffing they have. They appear to have more than ample staff to service customers in a timely manner. While overstaffing would be beneficial to all service businesses, it may prove to be difficult from a cost perspective.
Back of House
As noted above, the back-of-house functions are those that do not directly interact with the customer but impact the customer experience. Immediately after the conclusion of one Masters, work begins on improving the back of house for the next. I have been fortunate to get to know some people who work in the back of house at Augusta National and have learned some of the things they do to improve the customer experience that I can share without disclosing any trade secrets. First, in recent years, Augusta National has increasingly used data analytics to address staffing and stocking of food concessions and the pro shop. They have studied the timing of when patrons are most likely to visit those locations. In addition, in recent years, Augusta National has done much to hone their back of house, particularly in logistics, to help them better transport food from various food preparation locations to the concessions and move pro shop items from storage into the pro shop during the tournament. As a service business, the most important lessons to learn are to increase your use of data analytics to assist with demand forecasting and inventory management, and also ensuring that your back-of-house processes are built for speed and efficiency. One last important lesson is that your front and back of house need to be in regular communication to ensure seamless handoffs between the two, and making sure nothing “falls between the cracks.”
If you have a chance to experience the Masters during the next few days, I know most of your attention will be to watch the greatest golfers in the world, updating your Masters wardrobe, and possibly getting a gnome. However, also take some time to observe how a world-class service operation takes care of its business. They are truly “Masters of the House.”
