The Pellucid Perspective - May 2018 - 8

GOLF EQUIPMENT
SALES

Club manufacturer service frustrates
green grass customer
By Stuart Lindsay

ousy weather, poor customer service and Gettysburg. If you
give me a minute, I'm going to tie these subjects together.
Earlier this year, John Krzynowek published an excellent series of blogs summarizing his Golf Datatech study of the
"Amazonization" of golf retail sales.
"In today's world, premium golf clubs aren't a particularly good
fit for the Amazon business model, at least in its present form.
Because high-end golf club models change frequently, clubs are
often custom fit, and golfers like to try them in person prior to
purchase, the Amazon experience isn't ideal." John Krzynowek,
Golf Datatech, February 21, 2018
My recent foray into launch monitor and golf simulator use
turned out to be expensive - my FlightScope educational session
resulted in my ordering a set of Callaway Rogue X irons from
my golf professional. He ordered them from Callaway on April
7th. The weather in Wisconsin was so crappy that I didn't give
the clubs another thought until three weeks later, when I got all
excited to play my first round of the year with my new toys. There
was only one problem - my new clubs weren't in my bag. To add
insult to injury, Callaway was still showing an anticipated ship
date of four more weeks.
Coincidentally, our friend Casey Alexander of Compass Point
Research and Trading published his Q1 2018 report on Callaway earnings on April 27th. Callaway had one helluva first
quarter, highlighted by a 33% increase in club sales over
Q1 2017. At first blush, this high demand could explain
the delay in getting my clubs - maybe they were truly
back-ordered and I had simply selected a "hot" product.
Unfortunately, being a researcher has its drawbacks and my curiosity got the better of me. Golf
Galaxy would sell me the clubs with the only caveat
being "usually ships within 3 days." Amazon would
ship them immediately, but told me they had "only"
9 sets in stock, also saying that more were on the
way. It should be noted that my fitting indicated no
lie angle or other adjustments, so all I needed was a
"stock" set.
In the meantime, another call to Callaway indicated
that they had "changed" how my order was being fulfilled and
they would be shipped on May 9th. (This article's deadline prevents my knowing if that gets done). Maybe I should be happy
that Callaway is making that "adjustment," but this situation is
wrong on so many levels.
I could have cancelled my order with my green grass golf
professional and ordered from either Golf Galaxy or Amazon
and had the clubs by now. I also have to ask why Callaway only
escalated the order after my golf professional had to call twice.

8 The Pellucid PersPecTive

You would think that a 7 week delay in taking care of both a
good wholesale green grass account and retail customer would
get flagged on an "exception" report and be addressed at Callaway
without two phone calls being necessary in the first place. The
alternative fulfillment method should have been used at the point
the 7 week delay was first noticed. I can hear the "digital" excuse
coming, but that just means their digital management should
be set to recognize delays, and necessary steps to expedite these
types of issues need to be procedurally created.
Also noteworthy in Casey Alexander's upbeat Q1 report was
that the strong sales were "wholesale" shipments that needed to
be followed with the usual strong retail sell-through months of
April and May. Pellucid's latest weather report shows an unusually large decline of 26% in Golf Playable Hours in April on top of
the already unusually poor first quarter, which has created a 23%
decline YTD. You have to wonder if the manufacturers might
want to be thinking about balancing inventory where possible.
Readers may be wondering what Gettysburg has to do with
this transaction. Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain inherited 120 "mutineers" from the 2nd Maine just before his 20th Maine regiment
was deployed at the battle of Gettysburg. Authorized to shoot the
mutineers by commanding general George Meade, Chamberlain

My recent foray into launch
monitor and golf simulator use
turned out to be expensive - my
FlightScope educational session
resulted in my ordering a set
of Callaway Rogue X irons from
my golf professional.
May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - May 2018