Digital Transformation of the Snowsports School At Independent Ski Areas
Digital transformation at independent ski areas has enabled them to stay competitive, reduce labor costs and continue to provide the comfortable, accessible experience that has been their hallmark. This includes meeting the guest’s expectation of how to engage with the ski area.
Independent ski areas are the backbone of snowsports. These are mountains where you learn; these are places where you want to learn. They aren’t intimidating and are known for their charm, friendly atmosphere, and personal connection. They are often the place you go to experience snowsports for the first time in a comfortable non-intimidating setting. Very often family owned and operated, the independent ski area is where most new skiers get their start.
Historically, independent ski areas weren’t always known for quick adoption of technology. However, the COVID-19 pandemic drove change for every outdoor business. The adoption of technology within the industry accelerated to address several immediate issues caused by the pandemic. These included:
Managing capacity to meet health department guidelines,
Selling online to minimize contact with area employees and manage capacity,
Controlling the sale of lift tickets to mitigate crowds, and
Managing constrained availability of workers due to illness, mandates, and changes in immigration policy.
Along with these near-term solutions, technology also helps minimize issues that continue to challenge the industry including limited staffing, housing limitations, and weather-related challenges.
While the pandemic created the cover for ski areas to change, in the long run optimizing guest bookings, maximizing staff time, and providing an exceptional customer experience is important to stay competitive and even just stay in business for all snowsports operations. This is particularly true for snowsports schools as they are a large portion of revenue for independent ski areas. That’s why digitizing snowsports schools is extremely important. Once you ditch your old ways of scheduling day-of lessons using a clipboard and pencil, and have moved into the technical space, you will quickly realize the immediate and long term benefits. Your staff now have the tools to be successful, your guests are equipped with the information they need to have a great experience, and you have more time to do what you love about your job.
Prior to digitization, lessons were mainly sold at the time of guest arrival. You had your fingers crossed that the number of staff coincided with the number of lessons you offered that day - and if not, you were leaving revenue on the table. Pre-sales were only done for a small number of private lessons, creating exclusivity around the sport. Guests would arrive at the ski area and were greeted with long lines to sign up for lessons only to then move to another long line to get their rentals. It wasn’t uncommon for guests to show up late, or miss the lesson they signed up for entirely. By the time they arrived at their lesson, they were tired and frustrated before they even had a chance to experience the sport.
As the snowsports director, you prepped and planned for busy weekends, hoping that enough instructors walked through the door to teach all the new skiers and riders needing a lesson. Predicting demand was impossible. It’s based on so many different factors; snow conditions, temperature, traffic patterns, school calendars, time, and day of the week. For that reason, often the number of private lessons sold was rather conservative. The lesson book was a mess of guest answers and hash marks, arrows and scribbles. Somehow the number of planned lessons and the number of guests who appeared at the line up were vastly different. In the time it took to get through all the lines, those signing up for ski lessons decided they wanted to learn to snowboard instead. Commonly, not all the hash marks made it onto the book and the scramble of “ski school math” took over.
Today, the guest can book lessons, rentals, and lift tickets well in advance of arrival at your ski area. They are prompted to answer a series of guest questions online and are provided information on what to expect and when to arrive, allowing for both instructors and guests to plan for their arrival. Once they do arrive, their tickets are waiting for them and their rentals are already set up. The streamlined process reduces stress and allows the guest to focus on the fun ahead. When they arrive at the snowsports school they are greeted by an instructor who is expecting them and is ready to welcome them to the sport. At the snowsports school, the director knows who is scheduled and has pre-assigned their lessons. The capacity of each lesson is pre-set, and you can sell as many lessons as you have instructors. The instructors arrive at work with certainty that they have lessons to teach, and they know what they are teaching and who is in their lessons before they arrive. All that remains is to meet and greet their students and off they go.
The transition from a paper to a digital clipboard has allowed independent ski areas to streamline the processes of booking, scheduling, rental delivery, and guest queue management, permitting everyone to plan accordingly. The chaos and frustration is minimized and everyone can have a fun experience building new family traditions while keeping the legacy of the small ski area alive and thriving!