How well do golf course owners and operators really know and understand their customers, and their customers' playing and buying trends? For On-Pin International and On-Pin Analytics, a leader in technology development for the global golf industry, the answer lies with the launch of Verifeye, a patented system of passively tracking individuals as they move about the course.
Utilizing portable Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, Verifeye provides golf course owners and operators with the unprecedented ability to collect and analyze live pace of play, individual player habits, actual course utilization, and detailed historical data. Verifeye has the ability to integrate efficiently with a facility's point-of-sale and tee sheet to deliver a sophisticated level of data collection that can be essential in helping determine the success of the operation of any type of golf facility.
"Through real-time data that encompasses all aspects of a given operation, Verifeye can enhance both the bottom line at facilities and the experience for golfers who can be rewarded with affinity programs and other ways to encourage them to spend more time using the entire facility," said Ian Glasson, who founded On-Pin Analytics in 1998, as he recognized an opportunity for technology to improve operations at golf facilities.
"We constantly are innovating," he continued, "by inventing technologies to empower golf course operations. The effective use of advanced technology such as Verifeye is critical to the overall business and playing experiences in golf today."
Member and guest RFID tags are provided -- to be kept on golf bags, in wallets, etc.-- to golfers, with RFID reader stations installed around heavily trafficked golf cart path locations on each course. Verifeye data is collected and displayed in real-time on the On-Pin dashboard and uploaded to On-Pin Cloud servers.
Golf course rangers/marshals then effectively use the data to keep play moving and for detailed, visual reports.
Glasson said he is excited from results gleaned through initial product development and testing of Verifeye case studies that have demonstrated:
- a 21-minute average improvement to pace of play, and
a 10-12 percent increase in golf facility revenue
- Costs for the Verifeye system are based on the size of a facility and its specific needs.
At The Woodford Club in Versailles, Kentucky, owner Randy Clay added Verifeye last fall. He was so impressed with the value of the dynamic system at his 18-hole, semi-private facility that he created On-Pin International LLC, in conjunction with Glasson Investments Pty. LTD, and nationally acclaimed PGA Professional Bob Baldassari, who will lead the business development to help make Verifeye's array of technologies available to owners and operators at golf facilities throughout North America.
"Verifeye is an emerging technology system that also can complement other pre-existing technologies that a facility may have invested in," Clay said. "While the technology in Verifeye is highly advanced, the goal for any facility that uses Verifeye is simple -- to more completely understand your golfers and determine ways to get them to play more golf and spend more time and money with you. That can happen with greater retention through the predictive analysis that is unique to Verifeye."
For more information on On-Pin International and the new Verifeye system, call On-Pin International at 859-682-6001, and visit www.on-pininternational.com.