In conversation with Lee Williams, General Manager of Hurlston Hall.
At Hurlston Hall, we have over 70 employees who look after our 700 or so golf members and 1800 spa and gym members.
We have an 18-hole championship golf course, driving range and golf superstore that also includes all kinds of coaching and video analysis.
We also have a state-of-the-art Elemis Spa and health club, including a gym, with residential spa break facilities hosted in two 4-bedroom cottages.
We have a large clubhouse and ‘casual’ fine dining restaurant with over 70 covers, as well as a sports bar that’s used by golf and gym members. In terms of events, we have conference and banqueting facilities which seat around 300 delegates.
Lastly, we have a large and well-stocked fishing lake and a residential caravan park including both permanent and touring berths, there’s even an archery field! The business turns over around £3.6M a year.
We know that EnquiryBot has generated at least £35K of attributable revenue in just a couple of months. This represents an ROI in excess of 5000% so far
What has happened since you put EnquiryBot on your website?
I started at Hurlston Hall in September and, prior to this, used EnquiryBot to great effect at Woolston Manor in Chigwell where it became our main lead generation source.
At Hurlston, we know that EnquiryBot has generated at least £35K of attributable revenue in just a couple of months. This represents an ROI in excess of 5000% so far. Digital is now a much more productive channel for us and it’s helped us rationalise further investment in the website.
For this reason, we see EnquiryBot more as part of our programme of excellent customer service and not just a technology product.
For example, we promoted a kid’s activity club on social media and within a week we had 10 people book via EnquiryBot. We didn’t update the website, we simply used EnquiryBot as a friendly booking system.
What impact has EnquiryBot had on the business?
“EnquiryBot has really helped us streamline our customer service process. The enquiries go straight to 8-10 key people right away and get answered promptly.”
EnquiryBot has really helped us streamline our customer service process. The enquiries go straight to 8-10 key people right away and get answered promptly.
EnquiryBot also helps us gather enquiries out of hours that get answered as soon as possible. Because EnquiryBot pre-qualifies web visitor enquiries so well, we convert a very high percentage.
For example, for golf and gym enquiries via EnquiryBot, we convert 88% (94% high at one stage). Incredibly, we have a 115% gym ‘tour’ to sale ratio, because people are signing up their partners and friends at the same time.
But it’s the quality of the initial enquiry that counts. Our system also allows me to go in and check the status of enquiries. This is important, and we review performance bi-monthly. Our business is managed on KPIs and budgets are approved by the board after these have been worked backwards to what we need to achieve.
EnquiryBot has proved to be much more effective than using phones to transfer enquiries. It’s quick, clean and efficient and our customers certainly appreciate that too.
“EnquiryBot has proved to be much more effective than using phones to transfer enquiries. It’s quick, clean and efficient and our customers certainly appreciate that too.”
What do the wider team think about EnquiryBot?
They’re very pleased. Funnily enough, our Chairman has regular conversations with ‘Chloe’ (the name of the Hurlston Hall EnquiryBot) and shares it with his friends!
It’s made us far more productive as a team and definitely improved our customers’ experience overall.
On that, in the whole 4 months, we’ve only had one complaint from a member. This person wanted to know how to stop it from popping up and hadn’t understood the ‘minimise’ button.
You can’t make everyone happy all the time but EnquiryBot makes 99.9% of people happy most of the time!
“It’s made us far more productive as a team and definitely improved our customers’ experience overall.”
