Research need not be expensive, nor need it be so complicated that you have to have a Ph.D. to understand or use it.
On the other hand, if you’re doing a research project to keep the boss happy and not because you have some very specific goals and stated needs, then don’t do it. The reason for basic research is to identify customers so you can match present and future services with true consumer needs and whims. It also identifies competitive advantages in order to effectively position a ski area in the marketplace.
Your area is different from others. It does have unique characteristics, so get close to this information to compete successfully.
Don’t Go It Alone
There is a lot of good assistance available and much of it is free or at least inexpensive if you look in the right places. Get some guidance from a ski association or other travel-related organization. Ask for a couple of minutes of guidance from recognized professionals such as Jim Branch, Marvin Kottke or Chuck Goldner.
For the work itself, try graduate schools at colleges and universities. Once in tune with your goals and objectives for research, they can take care of every facet of the project including survey construction, interviewing, tabulation, a detailed report and possibly even recommendations on how to utilize the knowledge gained.
Collecting Information
There are at least a dozen ways to collect information from customers, but two are the most popular: interviews with skiers and non-skiers at the ski facility and mailed questionnaires.
Other sources of information, ranging from discussions with customers to more formalized focus groups, are a possibility. You also can get data from season pass applications, lodging registrations, in-room questionnaires, number plate surveys, ski school registrations, ski rental forms, credit card slips, names and information collected by area businesses and organizations and many, many more places.
Liftline interviewing has numerous advantages including high interviewee capture rate and a high response rate to individual questions. A productive rapport can also develop between the customer and interviewer which enhances positive public relations.
I do not, however, advocate having customers fill out printed questionnaires while riding lifts. Often, there develops a greater elapsed time per interview compared to liftline interviewing. Weather can substantially retard the response rate, and an additional person riding in the same chair or lift can contribute to polluting the response of the selected sample skier.
Carefully code liftline interviews as to the day, time and place of the interview so you can do later comparisons.
I use different colored survey sheets to distinguish day of the week and other variables.
Mailed surveys are generally better when personal questions need asking or the number of questions in the survey requires more than two or three minutes to process as in a liftline survey. If you go the mailed questionnaire route, be sure to enclose a stamped reply envelope and also consider an incentive for responding such as a free lift ticket.
Sometimes a mailed survey in addition to a lift line survey, is desirable to not only expand sample size, but also provide for a comparison of responses obtained from the two different sampling techniques. The sample size for mailed questionnaires should be roughly double that of liftline surveys because only about haIf the questionnaires will be returned.
Sampling Mechanics
Be sure to obtain samples from each of the distinct periods you offer skiing: midweek, weekend and, if appropriate, evenings. For reliable results, stay away from sampling during times of extreme weather.
Sample size is important, but need not be overdone. Certainly, 200 interviews or questionnaires are required, but rarely would even the largest area need more than 1,000. A desirable target is 300 to 450.
Field-test your questionnaire before you interview skiers or mail it. Dry-run the questions to make certain they are clear and not open-ended. Testing them on friends and staff people is perfectly acceptable. If any item does not get a definite or absolute response, it is probably poorly structured and needs revising.
One thing is certain, people collecting the data must be absolutely objective and follow precisely the counsel of experienced interviewers and others who are advising you. If you hire handsome male ski instructors to do the interviewing and the survey turns up showing 85 Percent female response, you’ll know you’re not getting accurate information.
Interviewers should be able to make a favorable impression on guests, be dedicated to the project at hand and have had a good deal of practice testing the interviewing process before they actually go into the field.
Collecting data can be touchy if you delay the skier in the lift line. Yet, you need to ask sufficient questions for meaningful results. One apProach might be to select the person to be interviewed (via a precise random sample formula). Don’t tell him how many questions you’ll be asking and, after he agrees to Participate, hand him a slip of paper which enables him to approach the lift operator via the ski school entrance following the interview. Thus, no real inconvenience is caused the paying customer.
What To Ask
Of course, ask the demographic questions, but go further. Get a description of the skiing experience at your area. Discover what ski areas the person considers best. If they’re a regular skier at your area what keeps them coming back? What do they consider the most outstanding characteristic about your area. How many times do they ski in a day? How far did they travel to ski that day? Do they find it easy to get information about your area? If not, might they have suggestions? How many different ski areas do they patronize in the average season? Which ones? Are they skiing on any particular kind of ski pass? How many years have they been skiing?
Try to find out what your customers like about you-and do more of it. Also, find out what they don’t like about you and, of course, do less of it. In short, inquire about the human characteristics of your customer as much as the traditional demographics.
Tabulating and Reporting
After collecting data the dull work begins, but don’t put off the tedious task of tabulating. Do it now. Do it accurately, and try to do it with the aid of a computer.
Computers are great because they can help you not only summarize information, but cross tabulate it to isolate and more deeply analyze unique characteristics of the study. A home computer with ordinary sheIf software is perfectly adequate for doing tabulations as well as analysis.
When attempting to analyze the data, share it with others and ask for their interpretation without benefit of your own views. Often, someone will draw different conclusions from the same data. It is important for you to be planning your marketing moves based on what you know rather than what you think or feel. Shared viewpoints on the true meaning of your tabulations are conducive to sound decision making.
Although it is important to understand your area’s unique characteristics so that you can position yourseIf marketing-wise, it is also healthy to compare the results of your research to that of others in the ski and/or travel industry.
Sources for making comparisons include periodicals such as the Cornell Quarterly and Journal of Travel Research; indexing services such as the U.S. government Research and Development Reports Index; the work of specialists such as C.R. Goldner, University of Colorado, and Harris Kerr, Foster and Company; also, ski trade and tourism associations such as NSAA, state travel divisions and TIA; various agencies of the U.S. government; and yearbooks, handbooks, proceedings of trade groups.
Last Minute Tips
1) Basic research need not be expensive, but you should be serious about it nonetheless. Five hundred dollars is a very adequate budget for out-of-pocket expenses. Professional assistance might be bartered through skiing and lodging services or possibly totally free ifarrangements are made with a college or university.
2) Be patient. You may not see any patterns or trends in one year’s worth of collecting information. It may take two or more years to develop sufficient background information, but no matter how long it takes, from day-one you’ll have real facts instead of intu-
itive feelings on which to base your business decisions.
3) Once you have reliable information, use it. Many people go through the entire effort, but then toss the results on the sheIf to gather dust. Your information also may have value to others and could be sold or traded with non-competing businesses to pay off your investment in the project.
4) Lastly, get yourseIf some background information on market research and bone up on it. The best I’ve seen for ski areas to date is probably “How to Conduct a Skier Study” by C.R. Goldner, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
