Assignment

Oh yes the dreaded assignment due in amazingly late in semester for a first assignment, must be because we are doing a million blogs, well i am at least.

People here's a post i found on Bill Schmidt GCO2826_Bill blog.

"Below is my transcript of the Dirk Dibit interview. No guarantees its 100%. I am hard of hearing and so I might have missed a bit.


PD. I’m talking with Dirk Dibit, Dirk is the head professional at the Mount Gibson Country Club. Thanks for you time Dirk. Now Dirk if we could just begin by just describing this Pro Shop that you run, I notice you take cash, you take credit, you take eftpos and
DD. Love the cash Peter.
PD. Of course you do. Um, What king of things do you sell?
DD. Umm. We’ve got a fairly well stocked store. Umm we do clubs obviously, bags, buggies, um electric buggies, the odd golf cart as well. Ah we also give lessons, so we sell that as a service. Umm what else would you like to know? Golf balls, tee’s and all the other accessories and things.
PD. And also I noticed a well stocked fridge with some coke and some icy poles and things like that. And you’ve got a particular problem, you’ve got a computer system that helps you with the point of sale?
DD. We do. um.
PD. That works OK?
DD. Yeah we use Quicken point of sale.
PD. OK.
DD. Which integrates with the accounting package in the are in the office I try to steer away from that but it all seems to work OK.
PD. Good. But you’ve got a particular problem and that’s why we’re talking to you today with the are lessons and the bookings. Is that correct? Can you just.
DD. That’s right.
PD. Tell me a bit about how you run that side of your business right now.
DD. I’ve got, umm, rather than having lots of full time employees, I’ve got several part timers, umm, I spend a lot of my time on the course giving lessons, umm, so its quite hard to keep track of bookings, umm no just, not just bookings for the hire carts that we’ve got, ah also booking lessons, ah, with me and the other professionals and, um, also tee times for the Saturday competition for the men and the, ah, ladies on the Wednesday.
PD. N OK, So lets take that one at a time. You’ve got some golf carts that people that are playing golf hire from you. They give you some sort like a licence or something.
DD. Yup, Yup that’s right. We’ve got four petrol carts and we just purchased another four electric carts, which are really nice. Ahm. So we take, ah, so we take a two hundred dollar credit card deposit and a drivers license imprint before we hire the cart and that’s, the hire rates thirty five dollars for a Saturday for eighteen holes.
PD. And that’s, the money side of its working OK the problems the bookings is that correct? Just managing?
DD. Yeah, it’s just hard to keep track of who has booked carts, some times its done over the phone and people forget to put it in the booking, ah, register, we’d just like something I guess a little more centralised to keep track of that sort of thing.
PD. OK. And tee times, so their the allocated time slots that people hit off on? Is that right?
DD. Yeah. It’s, um, probably the most beneficial for us on the Saturdays for the men’s comp, ah, the guys start teeing off you know sort of, from sun up till about two o’clock in the afternoon, depending on day light saving, and something that, we had a few members, a couple of them work in IT, and they’ve suggested, that it would be good to be able to view the allocations on line from home, ah, see what slots are open for the day and maybe book them selves in and umm, the more I can stay out of that process the better.
PD. And when they book in what, um, information would you need from them, you need their name, the time slot they want,
DD. Yeah, and
PD. information (not sure b.s.)
DD. and their golf link number which links up to the handicapping system.
PD. When they’re making a booking would you like them to be able to make a booking just for themselves or for their friends as well?
DD. Ah. It would be good if they could view the other pings (bookings b.s.?), um, sometimes the fella’s are pretty particular about who they play with specially in group competitions, um, some of them like to avoid some of the older guys who are a bit slower, some like to tee of earlier so that, it would be good view, um, perhaps even send an invitation to some other people that they know to invite them to tee off at a certain time would be useful.
PD. Ok, and all that is done right now with just a paper based system?
DD. Yup, that’s it.
PD. And, the but, its just a sheet hanging on the wall?
DD. Its just a time sheet that we keep behind the counter and, ah, they come into the shop and ask to see the time sheet and they fill it in. And we have actually lost the time sheet once before and that, that was ah, quite a problem as you can imagine.
PD. Yep, And bookings for lessons, how does that work right now?
DD. Um, um, same sort of situation I keep a diary behind the counter which all the staff have access to, usually I give away a free lesson when I sell a set of golf clubs and I’ll book that, that customer in straight away, but also just those that book are range of lessons we do group deals for five or six lessons ah of purchase, that sort of thing, but its all kept paper based as well the same with the ah, tee times at the moment.
PD. OK And what kinds of lessons do you sell, ah, how long do they last for?
DD Ah, the standard lesson that I give is a forty five minute lesson but we’re flexible, depending on what time I’ve got in the diary, um, but we generally wouldn’t go over an hour and a half for a lesson.
PD. And do you do group lessons, clinics, ah, what if a couple came, or a father and son? Some are singles, some are doubles?
DD. Yeah, yep we work out group rates, I run a series of junior clinics as well on a Sunday morning, um, those that generally handle differently, um, there’s a, a, guy in the club that looks after the juniors and he takes their names and just gives me a sheet but ,ah, we cater for all groups all ages.
PD. OK People some times cancel do they? They make a booking, they ring up and say can’t make it?
DD. That happens rarely, um, more often they just don’t show up, so um I am not sure whether we could have some sort of system where they pay in advance or we can, I don’t know, take a credo card number and charge a cancellation fee that sort of thing. That, that could work but the only concern is that it’s, ah, a little bit formal and it could put some of the older guys off side.
PD. OK. And when somebody makes a booking what information do you need. Do you need their name, anything else?
DD. Um, Yeah, just their name. those that have, after, on your first, ah, lesson with me I ‘ve got a short sheet were I just take a few notes about your swing and your, ah, level of game an your fitness and that sort of thing. Um. So any subsequent lessons you have with me I’ll, I’ll, update that list, and you get that to take home and it, and it, gives you a few drills to work on your swing and that sort of thing.
PD. OK, Interesting. And when you are booking lessons, say a lesson goes for forty five minutes , do you need a period of time before you take the next lesson or can you schedule them right up against one another?
DD. Ah, ah it’s a little bit hard to do’em back to back. Um usually we head out onto the practise fairway and the ah customer will hit half a dozen golf balls or you know up to fifty it doesn’t really mater but I have to at the end of the day I’ve got to go and pick them up so unless there a little kid I usually ask them to go and get the balls but the other members, I need a bit of a buffer I’d say, ah, five or ten minutes between lessons, um that would be good.
PD. Excellent, and this sort of system that ood (?) imagining perhaps people could um book their lesson on the web um would you like a link between that and your eftpos system so that when you came in in the morning and got the list of, ah, lessons that you had to do for the day you also had some sort of indication about how much to charge the people or um that it rang up automatically on the cash register?
DD Oh look that would be excellent, um, um if you could some how hook up the system through the computer interweb (?) to the err the back point of sale system that would be fantastic, I don’t know how you would do it but that ah would be great.
PD. Excellent, well that’s some good information thankyou err Dirk.
DD. No problem thankyou Peter.
PD. We might get out of that hook (?) yeah um I’m sorting out my book and my partings a problem now um we might get back to you with some more questions later on. I really appreciate your time.
DD. No problem thankyou Peter."


Awesome hey... i'll have some more notes later but now i'm going to run away.

Peace!