CREATING SKIERS

It’s not easy, it’s rarely glamorous, but creating new customers is essential to your health. Here are some ways to get ’er done.

BY RON LEMASTER

For years now, the industry has skiers. For a number of reasons, day areas have been through the programs for worried that the total number of teach more beginners than destination younger skiers can come back as assis - active skiers and snowboarders is, at resorts. People are more likely to give ski - tant instructors. That makes them best, flat, or, at worst, declining. The ing and riding a whirl if it doesn’t require heroes, and gives the younger kids a goal NSAA Model for Growth provides fig - a large commitment of money and time. to shoot for. Brilliant! ures that tell us what percentage of Perhaps that explains why day areas with people taking beginner classes each small vertical rises and access to large pop - FAMILIES year have “converted” to core partic - ulation centers offer some of the most We all know that kids who have been bit - ipants, or lapsed into inactivity, or innovative instruction programs. ten by the skiing and riding bug are more returned after a hiatus. The hard likely to continue if there are more pro - work, though, comes in creating a KIDS SKIING grams for them, or if their parents ski or steady flow of newcomers. Ski areas have been running big numbers ride, too. And the most important parent That work is sometimes muddied by of school children and teens through is mom. That’s pretty obvious, too: the imperative for snowsports school to their various programs for decades. Are Whenever you visit a day area with an also be a profit center. As resorts have these programs converting kids to long- active kids program, you’ll see parents, become more bottom-line-oriented in time skiers and riders? usually mothers, sitting in the base lodge the past 20 years, ski school as profit cen - Glen Peterson, the snowsport school reading, working on computers, and oth - ter has sometimes overshadowed its role director at Hyland Hills outside Min - erwise killing time while their children in customer development. It hasn’t neapolis, believes his programs have are having a great time learning to ski. always been this way; until some time among the highest conversion rates in Some ski schools see this as an oppor - around the late 1970s or early 1980s, the the country. One of the keys to success, tunity, and actively work to get those par - primary function of the ski school was he adds, is short multi-week ski school ents into ski school. Hyland Hills to produce skiers and create an expand - programs. After much experimentation requires parental participation in its pro - ing and ongoing market. with different lengths, all Hyland’s pro - grams for three- and four-year-olds. For The pressures of the newer profit role grams are now three weeks long. Any - other kids’ programs, a voluntary meet - have served, in many cases, to subjugate thing longer, Peterson opines, scares ing is held for all parents after the first the older one. Is it possible that this shift some people away. session, and that meeting is used to pitch helps explain the market stagnation the Most snowsport schools report that the parents’ participation, at a greatly dis - industry has bemoaned for the past their year-to-year-retention rates remain counted rate, in their own learn-to-ski decade or more? pretty high as long as they provide pro - program that runs in parallel with the

m Still, a number of schools have figured grams as kids age. In other words, kids kids programs. Peterson reports that sim - o c . o f out how to get a lot of people of all ages who were in a middle-school program ple actions like this, and scheduling the n i m a on and for the first time will continue to ski at the area when start and finish times of adult lessons so s / t

n in their lives, and turn a significant per - they’re in high school as long as there is that they mesh conveniently with those e m e centage of these newbies into long-term a program explicitly provided for them. of the kids (adults start a short time later g a n a Otherwise, participation fades. and end a short time sooner), along with m Ron LeMaster has spent more than 30 years a e There are many examples of contin - attractive pricing, brings 20 to 25 percent r

a as a ski instructor and coach. A technical i k uing programs, but Bretton Woods offers of those parents into ski school. s advisor to the U.S. Ski Team and Vail Ski / 4

5 School, he has written four books on skiing. one of our favorites: 14-year-olds who At Perfect North Slopes in Indiana, Top: Boston Mills/Brandywine taps into the young adult market with its Midnight Madness, from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. Far right: Perfect North Slopes encour - ages parents to take lessons with their kids so par - ents can learn how to teach them. Right: Hyland Hills makes lessons appealing to kids and enjoys a high conversion rate. one program puts parents in classes with their kids, and parents learn both how to ski and how to help teach their kids. In Pennsylvania, the members of the Pennsylvania Ski Areas Association pro - vide free skiing for fourth and fifth grade students who ski with an adult. That pro - gram is being extended to include a free lesson for parents, to further encourage them to get them out of the base lodge YOUNG ADULTS station teaching: instructors are sta - and onto the hill. AND BEYOND tioned at fixed locations around the Jon Stepelton, the snowsports school Not all newcomers are kids, of course. slopes, and students stop by for instruc - director at Boston Mills/Brandywine, And there are plenty of programs that tion at their own pace. Ohio, another significant creator of bring older folks into the fold. Boston Mills/Brandywine has also skiers, reports that the areas are putting College students are one key market. had success promoting ski lessons at the together a new program for next year, Hyland Hills has a tie-in with the Uni - large tubing hill (20 lanes) that is part of specifically directed at getting both par - versity of Minnesota in which college the same operational entity as the ski ents and their children on skis for the students are bused to the ski area for les - areas. Tubers are offered a discounted lift, first time, and skiing together. They’ve sons for which they receive phys ed cred - lesson, and equipment rental package. been doing this informally for a while, it from the university. Several other Stepelton says that participation in this where the parents ski with the children colleges do the same thing; more would if cross-promotion program has really during the last week of the kid’s program, resorts made this an option. taken hold this year, its third, as people so the kids can show their parents what Post-grads are important, too. Boston have become more aware of it. they’ve learned. The new program will Mills/Brandywine caters to twenty- and A new program offered last year by give parents instruction while the chil - thirty-somethings with its “Midnight Perfect North Slopes in conjunction with dren are getting instruction, and bring Madness” program. This provides skiing a local health club also appeals to a them together near the end of the pro - on Friday nights throughout the season, mature crowd. The program combines an gram. Parents receive free lift tickets and from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Many of these pro - indoor fitness program with a learn-to- rental gear if they need them, and those grams have a theme, and many include ski package. In its first year, the numbers 1 1 who are already skiers and - special prices for those with college IDs. were small—less than 50 participants— 0 2 y ers get advice on teaching their children The program is aimed at adult beginners but 80 percent of them bought some sort a M / 5

and how to ski and ride with their kids. and advanced beginners, and employs » on page 66 5 Creating Skiers such a ticket wants to go skiing, he or she in front of those beginners is a key ele - » from page 55 can go online and buy, say, lift access for ment in the equation. Alicia Houchen the next day. For this, the customer gets and Rob Linde at Eldora Mountain Resort of season-long pass, such as a once-a- a $3 discount on the lift ticket, and can echo others when they say empathy, week or full pass. That’s solid evidence walk right to the lift, bypassing the tick - patience, and a sincere interest in the stu - of this program’s ability to attract and et window. dents themselves are the most important create committed skiers. The sizeable task of communicating skills. Studies that Tom Pedigrew at Park with and administering the large num - City has done on his school’s retention TECHNOLOGY bers of programs run through most ski rates show that results are independent Much of the innovation that’s helping schools is being made more manageable of the instructor’s years of experience put new skiers on the hill is taking place with social media. Several have a Face - (beyond the first year or two), certifica - in administrative offices—and more book page for each one of their programs, tion or personal skiing ability. Instead, he specifically, on screens of all sizes and as well as the ski school in general. These says, his rates track with the same char - types. Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania is pages are used to promote, manage and acteristics cited by Houchen and others. using RTP software to help communicate monitor the programs and their partici - With beginners, empathy trumps expert - with ski school customers, produce tick - pants. Stepelton says that this work has ise. eting that simplifies the area’s lift, lesson, become so important to the management Pay can pay off, too. Pedigrew cites a and equipment rental operations, and of the programs at Boston Mills/Brandy - big increase in retention rates, from 13 collect useful information about cus - wine that they have created a new posi - percent to 23 percent, after the snows - tomers on an ongoing basis. All this tion specifically to oversee it. ports school instituted its Level 1 Master while saving the customers money on pay program for instructors. An instruc - their tickets and time getting on the hill. INSTRUCTORS & TEACHING tor who has a 25 percent level 1 group les - The ticket stock is reusable, is good at the Ski schools who are successful at turn - son retention ratio (measured over a lift, the rental shop and the ski school, ing beginners into returning skiers will two-week period) or has participated in and is “re-loadable.” When a skier with tell you that putting the right instructors Level 1 Masters training is paid the

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a [email protected] e r a i k s / 6 6 “request rate,” which is 50 percent more sively, and hence with less fatigue and session, including the lift ticket. The pro - than the instructor’s assigned lesson rate. anxiety. And they learn quickly: Rainey gram includes five sessions, a number Park City also pays a $10 bonus to says that most students do, indeed, “get chosen to match the number of times instructors for each level 1 student who it” in one day. NSAA’s Model for Growth says are need - signs up for another lesson. That, too, Perfect North takes the station teach - ed to convert a beginner into a long-term focuses instructors on retention. ing system used in the Boston skier. Pedigrew says that of the 3,000 peo - Some ski schools also claim that they Mills/Brandywine “Midnight Madness” ple who participated in the program last improve their product, and consequently program one step further. It sells a “flex” season, 13 percent bought some sort of their conversion rates, by being more lesson ticket on busy days that is good product from the ski school again this open-minded and imaginative in the way any time during an eight-hour period. A winter. they actually teach skiing. Steve DeBene - new class goes out whenever enough stu - At Boston Mills/Brandywine, a lesson dictis at Bretton Woods says the resort dents have accumulated, and they then is included in the price of the lift ticket. has found that by spending time on a progress through teaching stations In the mind of a customer, that makes the wider range of walking, sliding and step - staffed by different instructors. lesson free—or a service already paid for. ping exercises on the flat early in the les - Both perceptions encourage participa - son, students’ progress is noticeably VALUE AND INCENTIVES tion. SolVista’s “Get on the Snow” pro - accelerated once they get to sliding down Money talks to customers as well as gram includes two days of instruction, the slope. instructors. Anything a snowsport lift tickets, and equipment for begin - SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch in school can do to improve the perceived ners—plus a season pass—all for $199. Colorado offers a guaranteed one-day value to beginners will help attract them All of this shows that committed pro - direct-to-parallel approach that, accord - to lessons and induce them to keep ski - grams are making an impact through ing to snowsport school director John ing and riding. attention to the basics and creative think - Rainey, recognizes and leverages the Park City bolsters its value proposi - ing. Hopefully, others will follow their advances in ski design over the last tion by limiting class sizes to five and lead, and we will see growing numbers of decade to get beginners skiing less defen - pricing its “Start Now” product at $25 per skiers and riders enjoying our sports.

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