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November 2015

Everybody's an Expert!

At something, that is. How can you turn that expertise into a superlative guest service culture that takes hold across all departments?

Written by Ron Shepard, Skier Services Director, Crystal Mountain, Mich. | 0 comment

Everybody at your resort is an expert at something. There are expert snowmakers and expert marketers, expert ticket sellers and expert chefs.

Address guest questions to any one of your resort experts, and chances are they’ll provide the right answer, in a courteous and informative way. The reality is, however, the experts are not always on the front line, and when they are, they may not be on the same front line that is receiving the question.

Since very few of us are expert at everything, the key to excellent service (and great “Mountain Spy” answers) is to ensure that resort staff listens for information cues from guests, responds with accuracy, and knows where and when to redirect. While some staff do this as a matter of course, all staff need to acquire the habit. And that requires training.

Taking a cue from “Mountain Spy,” let’s look at how information spreads throughout a ski resort. In particular, let’s look at the systems some resorts have in place to ensure that the staff is armed with the right tools to be knowledgeable and helpful to the customer.

We recently met with a group of resort managers to discuss this very subject, and asked them how many of their employees would know what was wrong in the image at the right.

All recognized that this woman’s goggles are on upside down, and some even pointed out that her helmet wasn’t buckled. At the same time, all agreed that there might be some staff at the resort who might not recognize the problem.

We changed images, and showed the employees the picture below, and again asked, “What’s wrong here?” This time, not a single person got it right.

You’d think that the real issue in this scene would be obvious to anyone. The problem was, the attendees saw the issue with the skier (whose skis are on backwards), but not with the resort, where not a single employee is helping this guest.

Once the issue was pointed out, the question arose: “Who’s job is it to approach this guest?”

The answer, of course, is, “It’s everyone’s job.”

So, who is telling that to the staff? The plain truth is, we often expect our employees to know how to handle guest service situations as they arise, but we don’t always supply the tools they need to do so.


Creating Experts in Tourism
The common consideration for all departments is our customers. Every area of the resort shares the guests and participates in their experience. Some resorts operate their departments independently, others interdependently; from our view, a sense of common purpose is the best route to superior customer service.

Listen to the skier services director at a major Western resort on the subject of cross-functional training: “We have a very comprehensive new employee orientation that includes elements around the interdependency of the various parts of our company and the importance of knowing not just your own department, but the others at the resort.”

Although we don’t always think of them this way, our staff are much like the personnel who run a Tourist Information area. Consider the sort of information that these folks offer: It is directed primarily at those who had never been to the area, and informs about the amenities and services the region is known for—their location, hours, and some aspect of their offerings. The staff that supports these booths are, first and foremost, ambassadors. They are friendly and helpful, they make recommendations where they can, and what they don’t know about first-hand, they have the resources to look up.

Is your resort structured the same way? Is every outlet some form of a tourist information area?

We often enter the season with training specific to our departments. But not every resort proceeds this way. Some begin from the opposite perspective: they start by training resort staff on the array of products and services the resort offers, and teaching them the art of tourism. These resorts focus on the information guests seek regularly to ensure all staff members either learn the answers or know where to look for them.


The Expert in Tourism Transformation
This transformation can begin in areas where guest interaction with the staff is most concentrated, and ideally, where it happens first. Parking lot attendants, for instance, should not only be outfitted with trail maps and event calendars, but should also be familiar with commonly sought amenities and frequently asked questions. Can they direct guests to, say, the ticket window, kids center and the rental shop?

Perhaps the most visible and guest-connected department is the ski school. Its employees ride the chair a dozen times a day (here in the Midwest, dozens of times per day), and field questions about every aspect of the resort. Instructors are regularly asked about grooming and snowmaking, about equipment and weather, about neighboring resorts and upcoming events. They may also be asked about more specific things, like the price of various products and services. And they may not know the answers—these are not items they pay for.

There are ways to make sure they learn this information. When employees at Mt. Hutt in New Zealand start their season, their first trip to the resort involves a tour of departments, often wrapped around a game of sorts. One season, teams were given iPods with music playlists. Each team had to identify a particular song, extract a clue from the song, and travel to a location in which members of a department would offer a brief presentation about what they do, and describe some of the questions they are often asked.

Each department at Mt. Hutt, incidentally, is part of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) program, through which employees can earn educational credits, via an NZQA achievement certificate. In addition, any resort employee can seek a certificate from any department, and can take part in courses on front-line management. Employees end their first season with a completed certificate in tourism through this program.

This is no small concept to consider. What would a similar initiative mean to your staff?


Connect the Dots
As a tool for identifying gaps in intra-departmental understanding, you might sketch a basic chart of the departments at your resort (see illustrations on page 45). Duplicate the list, switching the order, and draw lines to connect departments that adequately share information about what they do, the challenges they face, and guest FAQs.

Considering the likelihood that a staff member of any department might be asked a question about a topic involving another, a chart that maps the ideal sharing of information between departments might look like the one at right.

It’s daunting, yet this is what clear communication looks like when mapped out; for many resorts, this actually is what it looks like.

For instance, if your ticket office is selling lessons and rentals, those connecting lines of communication probably exist. If your F&B staff provides meals for ski school, that line exists.

Undoubtedly, snowmaking and grooming provide a grooming report to the ticket office, and to marketing, although they may not send it over to the ski school. Likewise, snowmaking might have weather data that they could forward to retail to, perhaps, plan for a busy day in goggle sales. Resorts that do this well believe that cross-departmental familiarity makes for a tighter team and more effective guest service.


Managers as Experts
Resort managers understand the value of cross-training at the managerial level. That’s why regional association seminars often include a mix of titles in the audience. The challenge comes in bringing this form of resort-wide understanding to the frontline employee, and making that transfer of knowledge important to the frontline manager.

To that end, Hunter Mountain, N.Y., opens these lines of communication with a daily afternoon operations conference call known as the Daily Huddle. In it, department heads share their forecasts for the following day, and update known data for the short-term future. For example, staffing levels are dynamic at Hunter, so managers might adjust staff to expected demand, calling in (or not) part-time employees based on information shared at the Huddle. Business level indicators come from a variety of sources, including history, lodging reservations, prepaid tickets, and weather data. During this conference call, changes to outlet offerings are conveyed to all departments. The following morning, department heads share this information with their teams.

Hunter president and CEO Russ Coloton makes a point of dropping in on these morning meetings. “I like to view first-hand the effectiveness of the communication,” he says. “It is of no use if we talk about the business, but then fail to share the knowledge with our front line.”

Hunter’s approach ensures staff are kept current and not providing misinformation to guests.

There are other means to achieve this, too. At Snowbird, Utah, managers are required to work a shift in other departments. Resort employees are permitted to train in two other areas of the resort, so they can share departmental information. At Deer Valley, Utah, instructors are provided with contact numbers throughout the resort, and are encouraged to develop an awareness of local restaurants and amenities so they can take on the “local expert” role.

On a broad level, PSIA/AASI’s Central Division has opened the doors to resort managers, asking them to detail the customer service topics most important to them. PSIA examiners can then convey this information to the membership.

Individual resorts are also moving in this direction. Richard Wren, skier services manager at Michigan’s Boyne Highlands, says that preseason instructor training is being expanded to include guest service. “While we often use this time to ensure alignment in teaching concepts and demonstrations, this season we are going to stress our responsibilities as stewards of winter. Our staff is going to immerse themselves in the guest experience,” says Wren.

Crystal Mountain, Wash., evaluates staff using a point system that factors in resort and industry knowledge. Employees can test their understanding of these concepts to earn points toward their overall performance score. Often, staff members work together to seek knowledge from other departments.

This process began in ski school, but has been adopted by other departments as well. It works like this: Over the course of the season, Crystal instructors are offered clinics on a broad variety of subjects. They begin with basic operations across the resort, but expand into areas of sport science, meteorology, and the type of amenities guests seek. The result is that the instructors are as knowledgeable as those folks at the tourist information stop.

This fall, SAM encourages resort managers to break down the silos and share information across departments. We’d like to hear from those resorts that adopt a “certificate in tourism” concept or otherwise offer staff the opportunity to learn the answers from their fellow experts. We look forward to hearing how this increase in knowledge is reflected in your service scores.