XM Community Connect ft. Zach Carlson, PGA TOUR | XM Community
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This event is now available on-demand! You can find the links to the session below.

 

In July 2024, we were pleased to welcome Zach Carlson, Director of Fan Research at PGA TOUR to our Community Connect event! 

Event speaker

  • Zach Carlson, LinkedIn
  • Director of Fan Research, Data & Decision Sciences at PGA TOUR

Company background

As a leading organizer of professional golf tours in North America, PGA TOUR showcases golf's greatest players, while engaging, inspiring and positively impacting fans, partners and communities worldwide. This session will focus on PGA TOUR’s approach to driving change and incredible experiences through XM programs, fan feedback, and metrics.

 

Access the recorded event

Qualtrics Community Connect Event Featuring PGA TOUR
Passcode: PGA&Qualtrics1!

 

Q&A 

  • This is your opportunity to ask Zach questions!
  • Be sure to comment and share your favorite insight from Zach!

How does the PGA tour plan to compete with LIV during live events? The tours are striving for different customer experiences for the fans, so how do you envision growing engagement across these different audiences? 


How do you recruit fans to your community? are there any new audiences that you’re focused on this year?


What was the most interesting feedback that you have received and did that make a change in the way you operate/do things?


What’s the most effective way that you’re gathering insights when you’re onsight at a live event?


thank you for sharing your experience Zach! two questions: 1- why do you use the average satisfaction instead of favorability? 2- How do you determine the key aspects on experience as a whole? Thanks!

 


Are you able to measure your fan experience vs LIV? Has the PGA made any shifts to alter the fan experience due to the presence of the LIV? (massive PGA fan here)


What are the main ways you get feedback from the players? With a crazy schedule and being very important, I would imagine participation is difficult.


How do you recruit fans to your community? are there any new audiences that you’re focused on this year?

We have many avenues for recruitment including targeted audiences on social media, house advertisements on our website and app, member referral programs, and outreach via industry partners (typically email). We’re very focused on trying to recruit as many “casual” fans as we can to learn what they want from the PGA TOUR product. You can imagine a fan panel with little tangible incentive heavily skews towards a “Core” audience and it’s very important to have input from all types of fans. 


What’s the most effective way that you’re gathering insights when you’re onsight at a live event?

We’ve learned we need to meet the fans where they already are e.g., their phones. We utilize QR codes at specific locations as well as an “always on” link in the mobile app and push notifications from the app to encourage participation and feedback. We market a chance to win an incentive to help boost numbers. We’re still learning which avenues are most effective but plan to keep all ways of accessing feedback tools open. 


What are the main ways you get feedback from the players? With a crazy schedule and being very important, I would imagine participation is difficult.

Our top way is a very robust, annual survey. That’s obviously not ideal as it doesn’t allow us to improve experiences in the moment. The Players are very busy and it’s been a challenge getting them to adopt regular feedback. The goal this fall is to integrate pulse touch points in their private mobile app, using technology to target and segment players on a weekly basis to get direct tournament feedback. This would help us improve in the moment and also benchmark tournament experiences over time.


How does the PGA tour plan to compete with LIV during live events? The tours are striving for different customer experiences for the fans, so how do you envision growing engagement across these different audiences? 

Our focus is not on LIV, but simply creating the best experience for PGA TOUR fans that we can. They have done some innovative things with their onsite, digital, and broadcast products and we certainly stay aware as we do with all other sports and entertainment entities. 


thank you for sharing your experience Zach! two questions: 1- why do you use the average satisfaction instead of favorability? 2- How do you determine the key aspects on experience as a whole? Thanks!

 

In short, it depends on the platform or experience we’re measuring. Across all our touchpoints, you’ll find measurements of CSAT, favorability, traditional NPS, ease of use, likeliness to return, etc. Experience as a whole also boils down to the specific touchpoint but our overall focus is growing our fandom and increasing engagement (wherever that may be) among the fans we’re reaching.

 

 


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