After years of product development, process improvement, and careful analysis, resorts have honed the beginner experience to a high degree. A combination of suitable gear, continuous hand-holding, cross-trained staff, properly fitted boots, and a range of beginner packages——from one-day lessons to multi-week programs——are helping resorts boost their trial and conversion efforts.

One such resort is Mt. Hood Meadows, where the rental experience has undergone a major transformation over the past several years. The area combined several often siloed departments into one mega-department, snowsports services, in which all staff collaborate to make beginners’ introduction to snow sports as smooth as possible. Communication—between staff, and with customers—has greatly improved as a result.

Meadows’ rental clientele is diverse. Its Portland-based market “is a melting pot of all types,” says Chris Kastner, snowsports services director. “We have a great children’s learning program; that attracts families. We also have an older clientele midweek. A lot come up from Intel and other companies, and many haven’t seen snow before.” A new two-for-one “learn with a friend” campaign has also helped the resort increase its first-time adult beginner lessons.

For all these various audiences, Meadows has developed a process to treat them like members of the family.


ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL
The key to success has been to integrate several aspects of guest services to provide a seamless introduction for newcomers. MHM brought ticketing, rental, retail, Nordic, racing, snowsports school, and mountain hosts under one umbrella. The departments all receive the same basic training and work as one to make sure guests purchase the most suitable ticket or package, receive the right gear, and have the best lesson.

This restructuring began five or six years ago, and it’s still a work in progress. “People did like their silos,” says Kastner. “It’s not perfected yet, but we see the benefits. It’s flexible. For example, it’s important for cashiers to be able to answer rental questions. We can take a cashier out of the ticket booth and move them to other areas. If someone’s sick, we can slide someone from ski school customer service into rental.”

Meadows has a separate children’s learning center with its own rental department. “We’d love to have it all in one place, but that’s not practical,” says rental manager John Boyd. To simplify signups for families, they are all directed to the kids center, where everyone—kids and any adults who also rent— can purchase their packages and pay once. Kids go straight into their programs, while adults and teens 13 and up are directed to the rental center, rental forms in hand. “Our staff have a really good understanding of how this all works,” Kastner says, and that has improved the process for families.


THE HUMAN TOUCH
Hosts and rental employees greet customers outside the shop, and even meet busloads of beginners in the parking lot. Cashiers are cross-trained so that they can provide advice and direction at any ticket location. Ski and snowboard instructors serve as greeters and bootfitters in the rental shop before leading students out to their classes.

Good signage also has a limited role in guiding beginners. “We have good sign­age,” says John Boyd, Meadows’ rental manager, “but people tend to overlook it. So we’ve gone to more personal contact.”

That contact begins from the moment of arrival, whenever possible. “We have one person who will meet guests at the bus, if there are lots of rentals involved,” says Kastner. “We also station staff outside the rental shop door to answer questions.”

Once inside, there’s plenty more assistance available. “At sign-in we have lots of staff, including instructors, on hand to work with guests,” says Boyd. Employees steer renters to one of 11 electronic stations where renters input some basic data (name, birthdate). Meadows is a pay-first setup (“We’d change that if we could,” Boyd adds) and employees quickly help newcomers find the most suitable program. After paying, guests head to the bootfitting area, then to the tech area to pick up skis or snowboards.

Meadows tracks its performance throughout. “We have time stamps in the system to tell us how efficient we are at each station. We have the ability to measure our needs and labor,” Boyd says. Typically, the process takes about 15 minutes when the shop is running at full capacity, and about 8 minutes at off-peak times.

Meadows uses the RTP rental module, which is integrated into the resort’s overall management system. That simplifies signup and gear selection for returning visitors, and for those who have pre-registered online. Those guests bypass the POS system and move directly to the boot room, where any additional transaction information can be added. “The more information you put into the RTP system, the more you get back,” says Kastner.

The software program allows a different routine for guests in multi-week programs. “We’ve been efficient in streamlining the process for them; they fill out all information prior to their visit, like an online purchase. We receive it and build the info onto a rental form for the guest; from that, we pre-tech all their gear. That moves very quickly.”


BIG ROLE FOR INSTRUCTORS
Perhaps the most valuable gain from the integration of staff comes from deploying instructors in the rental shop. “The input we’ve had from ski school has been tremendous,” says Boyd. “They know how a boot is supposed to fit, know what the experience is on snow, and that’s the most valuable benefit we’ve seen. And it also helps sell lessons.

“Ski instructors spend more time with a guest than anyone else, and it’s great when that time begins in the bootfitting room, talking about skiing and riding. It makes the experience more seamless.” It also helps that snowsports school meets right outside the rental shop door.

“That’s the benefit of having a snow sport customer service department,” says Kastner. “I’ve been a professional ski instructor for more than 30 years. We’re passionate people, we want to build passionate customers and have them enjoy the sport for the rest of their lives.”

“You can sell more lessons if you have instructors talking to the guests,” adds Boyd (hence his preference for having guests pay at the end of the process rather than the beginning). “It’s been an incredible benefit. Guests want to learn.”

And Meadows feels that seamless process helps with conversion. “We have really tried to create lifelong skiers and riders. We’re getting them in the right boots, and we’re selling more lessons. Snowsport school results have been very, very good for the crowds we’ve had.

And that helps build more long-term customers.”


A TEACHER’S TALE
Not that it happens overnight. Sue Overbee, a skiing mom who became an instructor in 2002 when she began bringing kids to the mountain, has watched the evolution from a variety of vantage points: host, bootfitter, instructor, and guest. “It’s been cool to watch the integration of the department,” she says. “It has really come together in the past five or six years.”

“From the first, snowsports school has a passion for the guest. I always felt like we were the place that can make it happen. We can help them have a good time. We’ve sort of infiltrated the other departments; we just take care of people.”

The focus is on the experience, not just learning how to ski and ride. “We understand what it’s like to work in the real world, we understand the hassles. We know what our guests have to go through.”

That especially applies to bootfitting. “We just help them find the right boot, make sure the fit’s right and that their socks aren’t twisted. We just take each guest as they come, have them try on a few boots. It takes a bit of time, you don’t want to rush through that process, but it’s not hard.”

“We want them to get through the process quickly, but we don’t want to rush them,” says Boyd. “We have quite a few people helping guests with boots. We especially try to help the new folks; they don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like.”

It’s not just about speeding guests through the process. “We’ve taken the time to build that relationship with the customer,” Overbee says. “We tell them where the coffee is, where to meet for lessons or the best place to meet the family at the end of the day.” Meadows has been willing to staff the department so that there are greeters and assistants at every stop during the day.

“A lot of what we do is helping people find the right place to be,” says Overbee. “It’s like inviting someone to your house.”

All that attention raises efficiency. “We save time and money by getting people in the right gear in the first place,” says Overbee. “And the rental shop has done a great job of training.”

Meadows’ improved scores for the first-time experience in its guest quality surveys validate its approach. “We believe the greeting and shepherding of our beginners by our coaching pros is an important part of this improvement,” says Dave Tragethon, executive VP of sales and communications. “They manage expectations and reduce any angst that guests may have as they get ready for the slopes. Another benefit: complaints about boot fit have been reduced significantly since our instructors have been involved in this process.”

Meadows has more concrete measures, too. “Approximately 25 percent of those taking a one-time beginner lesson move on to our three-time package,” says Tragethon. Even better: Of all those who purchased and completed the three-day package, “20 percent purchased a pass product at full price this season,” he adds.


BEST YET TO COME
As good as Meadows has become, Boyd and Kastner see room for improvement. They would like to pre-tech more guests, and are actively looking for ways to expand storage space for that purpose. They’d like to move payment to the end of the process, since some guests decide to take a lesson only after they have met the instructors in the boot room. And they’d like to provide more information to renters in advance.

“We’d like to put some educational videos on our website specifically for beginners,” says Kastner. “What to expect driving up here, things to be aware of for clothes, eyewear, and skin protection, so that they know what to bring. We can also show them what to look for when they choose a boot, snowboard or ski, what to expect to feel when they have the right size boot, and what happens at the tech bench. That way they won’t feel completely blind and they can be more successful once they get here.”