The majority of your customers are first-time or beginning skiers. Many have never had their foot in a ski boot, let alone latched to skis. The way they are treated, and the efficiency with which they are handled may mean the difference between a customer returning or trying other ski areas.
In years past, ski resorts were flooded with an endless supply of young, energetic and attractive people who were doing a brief year or so as “ski bums.” With more people than jobs, employees usually stayed at one job the entire season. The rental shop personnel molded into a smooth, cohesive team.
Unfortunately things change. High rents, career-oriented youth and unemployment insurance paying as much in benefits as the rental shop can afford in salary have reduced the number of people arriving each fall. The result, in many instances are rental shops where personnel is literally here today and gone tomorrow. New people have to be brought into the rental operation and trained on a month’s notice.
Although rental shop work is not terribly demanding, employees who know the difference between pronation and pre-release are valuable and unusual. Today, instead of a jack-of-all rental trades, we have to compartmentalize the rental operation and develop “specialists”.
Each job or station is done by one employee during peak rental operation. Even with transient personnel this compartmentalization works if you have a written procedure for each job station.
An example, an operation procedure for dispensing poles might read as follows:
Station 5
A. Dispensing Poles
- Greet the customer in a courteous manner
- Ask to see their rental form
- Determine the customer’s height from the form or ask them
- Select the proper length pole, using the height correlation chart
- Check the pole for damage
- Instruct the customer on the proper use of the strap
- Record the pole rented on the appropiate spot on the rental slip
- Instruct the customer to proceed to the next station.
B. Slack Periods
- The pole dispenser is responsible for keeping the pole rack in a neat orderly fashion
- Repairing broken baskets, tips, straps and handles
- Removing damaged or broken poles from inventory and recording this information in the inventory control book located at the cashiers desk
C. Rental Return
- Greet the customer
- Take the poles and inspect for damage
- Record their return on the rental form
- Replace the poles in the appropiate rack hung by their straps
- Instruct the customer to proceed to the next rental station
The written operating procedure for the entire rental operation will be long. However, once complete it will be a useful tool. It decreases the amount of time taken to train rental personnel, it allows you to draft personnel such as parking attendents and slot them into the rental operation with a minimal amount of training, and it reduces management’s dependence on key personnel. When the operating procedures for each job have been completed, additional information can also be provided for employees. Dress codes, pay rates, starting times, lunch breaks and hiring and firing practices are also important for temporary personnel.
In most rental operations there is a key person, one who works for less than he should and does more than expected. If this person is intelligent enough to run the operation in an effective and efficient manner he will soon realize that his job is a dead end. Unlike other department heads, the head of a rental operation has limited room for promotion. In order to retain this key person, management will either have to pay more than the job is worth and/or intergrate the person into the off season staff. Sooner or later he will probably
