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August 2010
On the Tee with ForeTees Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your fellow staff members. Thank you and enjoy!
Welcome to the eighth edition of the ForeTees newsletter. As always, a lot is going on in St. Paul, Minnesota, as our staff is hard at
work making our industry-leading online reservation system the best it can be. Below I will fill you in on many of the new enhancements
that have been made to the system including the new iPad interface. This new interface will allow the teaching professionals, the starters,
and the rangers better access to the tee sheet and lesson book "live" wherever they might be on property or off.
We always appreciate your input on how we are doing in making ForeTees a valuable tool for you and the members at your club. Please let me know at jock@foretees.com or contact Brock or Ben at support whenever we can be of assistance. For support contact information, just click on the "Support" button at the top of the ForeTees Home Page or Tee Sheets.
The New Online Editor is here!
Now, your ability to upgrade your Announcement Page is greatly enhanced by the new Online Editor available on your ForeTees site.
This online editor is easier to use and much more advanced than the previous editor.
To use the new editor when updating your announcement page, go to Tools - Announcements and select 'Use NEW Online Editor' from the option list. One of the great new features with this editor is the ability to resize your images before adding them to the page. To learn more about the editor and how to use it, click on 'User Guide' just above the editor window when you open the editor. The guide is in pdf format and can be printed for future reference, if desired. Notice: If you are currently using one of our older announcement page templates, you may experience some minor problems when using this new editor. Please contact pro support if you need any assistance. Also, watch for a future announcement of a feature that will allow you to download new templates.
Your New ForeTees Tool - the iPad!
Yes, it's here, the new ForeTees interface for the Apple iPad! This great, hot-selling product can now be effectively used with
our industry-leading tee time system. Our expert programmers have made it possible for staff members, rangers, and golf instructors
to be able to take the iPad Wi-Fi 3G to the first tee, golf course, or the lesson tee. The iPad also makes it possible to 'hang' a
live tee sheet any place in the club where it maybe desired.
The iPad interface is currently available for your use. To use this interface, simply access your ForeTees site using the same URL (web address) as you normally do and the same pro shop credentials. Our system will automatically detect that you are using an iPad and will adjust the pages and navigation as needed. While most features are supported on the iPad, some are not possible (i.e. drag-n-drop) and some are simply omitted (i.e. System Config). Notice: Members wishing to use an iPad to access their tee times should use the Mobile interface just as they would from their smart phone. Please have them follow the instructions provided by clicking on the Mobile button in ForeTees when logged in from a computer.
New Features
Club Contact List
You now have the ability to add as many people to the contact list as you wish. Prior to this change you could only list one contact.
Adding more contacts will allow more staff members to receive backup tee sheets via email, and will allow you to take advantage of some
other new features being introduced now (see below) and in the future.
We urge you to build your contact list now and see how this can help your club. When you add contacts, in addition to their names you will be able to specify the following: 1. a short name (initials, first name, etc) to be used for identification 2. a title (Head Golf Professional, Assistant Golf Professional, etc) 3. 1 or 2 email addresses per contact 4. option to receive backup tee sheets (for each email address) 5. option to receive these newsletters (for each email address) 6. option to CC the email address on all emails sent from ForeTees (see feature below) 7. option to include the contact in the name list for identification when making or changing tee times (see feature below) We would very much appreciate it if you would add every contact at your club that would like to receive this newsletter (and select that option). That will ensure that everyone is kept up to date on the latest news and innovations from ForeTees. To add or update your contact list, select System Config - Club Setup - Club Options, then click on "Add, change or view Staff List and Options" in the right column near the top of the options form.
Send Email Options
If you utilize the above Club Contact List feature, you will now have 2 new options available when sending emails to members from the ForeTees system.
First, if you would like more than one staff member (or even a club member) to be copied on all emails that are sent to members, simply add them to the Contact List, include their email address and specify the "CC this Address" option (#6 in the Club Contact List feature above). Each time an email is sent from the ForeTees system these contacts will be copied. Second, if there is more than one contact with an email address specified in the Contact List (see above), you will be allowed to select which contact's email address will be used in the "Reply To" field of the email being sent to the members. If more than one staff member uses ForeTees to send emails, this will allow them to specify their own email address in the Reply To field so that they receive any replies to their emails.
Staff Member Id in Tee Time History
It is now possible to track which staff member creates or updates each tee time. The staff member's name (short name) is added to the
tee time history each time a tee time is created, changed or cancelled.
To utilize this feature you must first add all the staff members to the Contact List (see above). Each contact that will have access to the tee times must have the "Include this person in name list for identification:" option selected (#7 in the Club Contact List feature above). If more than one Contact has this option selected, a drop-down list will be present when a pro shop user is making or changing a tee time. The user will be forced to select a name from the list when submitting a tee time request. The name selected will be placed in the tee time history entry for that tee time request/change.
Security Enhancement
Recently, some of our busier clubs have expressed concerns that some members may be gaining access to tee times earlier than should be allowed,
therefore beating other members to the coveted times. Typically these members have a technical background or access to technical staffs.
While we have never found any concrete evidence that a member was "beating" the system, as a precaution we decided to take some steps to
prevent the possibility of someone using a program or other method to gain access to a tee time early.
We do not wish to publicly discuss the details of this enhancement, but we can tell you that it involves some encryption and will make it virtually impossible for a member to access a tee time before that time is available to all members. Should the system catch a member violating the access policies, that member will be forcibly logged out of the system. This security enhancement is in place for all clubs and all tee sheets. You do not need to do anything to enable it and it cannot be disabled. Please let us know if you would like more information on this.
Guest Tracking
ForeTees is currently in the process of testing our new Guest Tracking feature at several of our clubs throughout the country.
This exciting new feature allows a facility to track the guests that visit your club by creating a database of the guests' names,
email address, and other information the club desires. This Guest Tracking tool also provides an excellent marketing tool for
the club when it comes to attracting new members. If your club would like to participate in the testing of this new product,
please contact our support department at support@foretees.com.
Some Interesting Statistics
Phone Calls Saved
In the month of July, based on members making or modifying tee times online, ForeTees saved clients an average of 1,880 phone calls from coming
into their golf shops. As a result, staff time can be focused more on merchandise sales, customer service, instruction and a very valuable
one-on-one relationship with the members.
Mobile Phone Usage
Since introducing the mobile interface at the beginning of the year, 80% of ForeTees' accounts have activated this feature so that members can
more conveniently make, or modify a tee time. Approximately 5,000 members at clubs across the country have taken advantage of this feature.
Total Logins
Since the company started in 2002, more than 28 MILLION logins to the ForeTees system have been recorded.
NOTICES:
If assistance is needed in putting to use these new features recently added to our ForeTees tee time system, please contact
our Support Team at prosupport@foretees.com.
If you would rather not receive these newsletters from ForeTees, then simply send an email to jock@foretees.com with the subject line "unsubscribe". We will remove you from our list. If there are other staff members at your club that would like to receive these newsletters, please add them to the ForeTees Contact List (see above), or simply send their names and email addresses to jock@foretees.com.
Keep It Down the Middle!
Watch for these emails in the future to keep up on the latest news from ForeTees. |
