No One Talks About the Celebration Golf Experience---Except Celebration Golfers

CELEBRATION, Fla. --- Now that the season is under way, golfers at Celebration Golf Club near Walt Disney World in Osceola County are already praising what club staffers privately call the Celebration Golf Experience. But John Bixler, general manager at Celebration Golf Club, said the Celebration Golf Experience is an under-the-radar term. “It’s not something we advertise,” Bixler said. “It’s something our golfers remember when they leave, it’s why they come back again and again, but no one talks about the Celebration Golf Experience,” he said. Before the season began, Bixler put his entire staff through a rigorous customer service training program developed by the XFactor Institute, a Division of Learning Journey, Inc. Celebration Golf Club is the best golf course in Central Florida. We have groomed it to perfection and you won’t find better play anywhere,” Bixler said. “But I know 15 other golf courses here who can all say the same thing,” he explained. What sets Celebration Golf apart is the thing no one talks about. “The Celebration Golf Experience is what makes us unique,” Bixler said, “and it’s unique for every golfer. The one way we distinguish ourselves from every other golf course in Florida is the Celebration Golf Experience,” he said. It’s not supposed to overpower golfers, Bixler said. “The Celebration Golf Experience is a feeling of satisfaction. It’s the same feeling you get after a really good meal with really good company. And in a few days, it turns into a feeling of anticipation for the next Experience,” he said. Bixler said programs like his are creating what he calls the Experience Economy. “The service industry is evolving into the experience industry,” Bixler said. “It’s the next step. The age of cookie-cutter service is over. The Celebration Golf Experience requires personal, interactive and enthusiastic sets of skills that will generate an overall experience that can only be found here,” he explained. Staffers groom specific skills and follow rules to create the Celebration Experience, but Bixler won’t say what they are. “No one talks about the Celebration Golf Experience at Celebration,” Bixler said, tongue in cheek. “But our golfers talk about it. That’s when we know we’re succeeding,” he said.