Participation in Girls Golf Rocks grows by 209% after working with Played.

Girls Golf Rocks is a national programme run by England Golf to encourage girls aged 5-18 to learn and to play golf in a fun and friendly way. The programme takes place at over 200 clubs.

We caught up with Lauren Spray - Women and Girls Manager @ England Golf to learn about her experience working with Played.

The Girls Golf Rocks team use the Played platform to;

• Make it easy for parents to discover, book and pay for taster sessions and 6-week courses in a few clicks. 
• Streamline the management of the programme across 200+ venues.
• Provide all coaches and organisers access to relevant participant information.
• Gain valuable insights to help improve the programme experience.

“The Played team has been fantastic to work with. They have supported us with training for the team and our clubs and coaches, they are very responsive and they are always seeking our feedback to further improve the platform. Our programme now feels more streamlined, consistent and professional than ever”

Before working with Played, England Golf had the following challenges

• It was too hard for parents to discover, sign up and pay for their kids to take part in the programme. Having to look at a list of clubs, call or email the clubs to register and pay in cash at the venue. This made the experience of signing up painful and time-consuming, reducing the number of people taking part.
• Spending too much time managing the admin of the programme, having to speak to coaches and organisers individually to solve problems.
• They struggled to gain any insights and metrics into the programme's performance, resulting in more hours spent collecting data manually.

“Our previous booking platform was clunky, ineffective and not fit for purpose. Managing the programme became a heavy burden and there was no view to how this could become sustainable over the long run. We needed a way to simplify the management of the programme”

Played enabled England Golf to deliver an enhanced experience for participants, programme organisers, clubs and coaches.

“Using the Played system, you're able to find something really quick and easily by doing a postcode search’’

• It enabled anyone across England to easily search for local golf activities, sign up and pay in just a few clicks. 
• The platform streamlined the process of uploading venues, courses and sessions, saving 2 weeks of admin time. 
• Gave England Golf as well as individual clubs and facilities access to insights about their bookings and participants.Clubs and facilities could then share a link to their specific venue page via their websites and socials, giving the programme a greater reach.

“The Played platform offers a very customisable experience for clubs and coaches to promote their golf activities in an engaging way that appeals to people looking to take part”

• Cancellations, refunds and other support tasks could be dealt with seamlessly.
• A large portion of admin and reporting for the programme was automated and information could be accessed in real time.

“Thanks to the Played platform, the ease of being able to deal with cancellations and refunds has been a huge time saver”

Since utilising the Played platform, England Golf have:

• Grown participation in the programme by 209%
• Increased the amount of clubs taking part by 72.5%.
• Saved 12 hours per week on admin. 
• Reduced costs by 30% compared to the previous system they had in place.

‘’Played are a fantastic team that are always readily available to support whatever your requirements are and nothing is ever too big, everything's always handled with great professionalism and care. It always feels to us as though they are very invested in our programme. They want to see us do well, just as much as we do. They are always trying to find ways to make our lives easier, the customer experience has been fantastic. We are very optimistic about how much more impact our programme can have now that we work with Played”

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