Managers/Owners
Hiring
It is difficult to hire enough instructors, especially in resort towns because of the high cost of living, a lack of housing, and a competitive job market.
The average instructor teaches for about three years.​ High turnover creates a lot work and expense hiring instructors who's need quickly learn how to provide a great guest experience.
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A large staff
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During busy periods it is difficult to offer enough lessons, especially the to meet the growing demand for private lessons.
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Providing a lot of big beginner lessons taught by the newest instructors is profitable and deals with the problem of not finding enough instructors, but it is part of the reason there is a low 19 percent conversion rate.
Not having enough lessons contributes to first timers learning from family, friends, or trying it on their own which is also a reason for low growth. Independent schools help meet the demand.
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Great management
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If you can hire a large staff, it is challenging to manage them well. Directors are responsible for hiring, training, scheduling, rebooking, evaluating (where it is done), payroll, record keeping, outfitting, training of desk staff, and communication with the instructors and customers. It requires the use of a lot of software and managing websites, social media, phone systems, and live interactions.
It is difficult to find a qualified director who can do a great job. It takes strong motivation, leadership skills, a great personality, and passion to do the long hours of work; it is far more than a 40 hour a week job. Assuming you can find the right person, can you afford to hire them? Independent schools do the work for you.
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More revenue
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Independent schools generate a lot of ancillary revenue especially early in the season marketing presold rentals and lifts. They can replace or supplement an inhouse school and greatly reduce expenses.
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Private lessons
There is a wide range of abilities with some fearful beginners needing many hours of practice to do what others can do right away. Putting them in large group lessons leaves some bored and others thinking that skiing is not for them, they are part of the 81 percent who do not return.
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Personalization is a major trend in sports training that makes lessons more fun, effective, and tailored to individual abilities and goals. The demand for private lessons is growing and it produces a lot of revenue with a large staff.
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Book instructors
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When customers book an instructor rather than just a time, return business increases. It has proven to triple private lesson business. They are spending a lot of money and love having the choice. There are few complaints and in many cases more lessons and lesson packages are purchased at the end of a lesson.
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Both the resort and instructors earn more which helps to reduce turnover.
It also eliminates the work of assigning instructors, and many times there are not that many options, or the differences are not that great between instructors. The software also helps customers choose the right instructor which for them may mean the right age, personality, and attitude are more important than credentials.
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Innovative training
Instructors interact with guest more than any other employees. Every season there are many new instructors to train in a very short time. Many smaller resorts do very little training, so there is a lot of on the job training.
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The expectation that skiing is easy and natural to learn so just about anyone can teach it hurts growth. Instructors need clear goals and the ability to know when customers are ready for more challenging slopes to create more success and safety.
A lack of training for a lift mechanic may cause a chair to stop running, but low quality lessons reduce revenue and growth. Traditional instructor training that is focused on developing careers is long and expensive. Our ski instructor training program is quick, effective, and affordable.
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Rebooking
Rain or extreme cold and wind don't create a great guest experience, especially the first time. Allowing customers to reschedule online purchases encourages more early booking. It creates good will and generates more revenue with a rebooking fee. Software that allows customers to do the rescheduling saves a lot of work, check out our recommendation.
Sell by the hour
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The ski industry is often managed by people who are passionate and focus on enthusiasts. But a large part of the market are more casual participants and first time skiers. They may not be very fit or athletic so they have trouble skiing for more than an hour or two. If you have RFID, you can get more people on the hill and attract more participants by selling shorter time periods at an affordable price to encourage more first timers.
Sell by the lift
Family and friends usually take new skiers to slopes that are beyond them. Many resorts only have a beginner area and a ticket for the rest of the mountain. If you have RFID, more affordable steps for new skiers can be created that allow them to gradually purchase access to more lifts as they improve. This also helps to insure more success and safety so they are not tempted to try an expert run on day one.
Greater Safety
There is a growing concern about safety, especially among parents and grandparents. Make safety a competitive advantage that you can market. The same technology you use for tracking vertical feet and speed to create leader boards and award pins, can be used to enforce speed zones and shut off chair access to violators for a period. Turn a liability into an asset. You can also identify and turn off access to anyone leaving the scene of an accident.
Realistic expectations
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Skiing for the first time is often done with little planning. Many customers expect that skiing is easy activity they can do for fun like tubing. Parents often think their kids can just follow them to learn.
First time skiers often start on or quickly go runs that are beyond their ability which causes fear, failure, frustration, and accidents, it contributes to 81 percent not becoming skiers.
A lot of people trying skiing, but the problem is getting them to become skiers. Our program helps them understand the importance of preparation and practice.
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Before skiing
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Preparation creates more successful first time experiences.
It is hard to improve at anything doing it less than six times a year, like the average skier.
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Our program shows skiers what to do, how to do it, and if they are doing it before and between ski trips. It encourages lessons, but helps first timers who try to ski on their own how to increase the chances of becoming a skier.
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Beyond hour private lessons
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Hour long lessons private lessons provide an affordable option for customers and can be effective for fast learners. But many customers need much more instruction to make good turns on beginner runs. If customers are unfit, they may only be able to last about an hour at a time.
Instructors have to go at a fast pace and may not spend much time on turning with slower learners. If the instructor is available, it is good in most cases to encourage extending the lesson. Explain why more lessons would be helpful, especially to the many customers think all they need is one lesson.
It is also critical to provide a detailed plan for what to do and where to do it after the lesson. Friends and families often expect first timers to be much better after a one hour lessons and take them to slopes that are too challenging. First timers and their friends need to know that progressing too quick will slow learning, cause setbacks, and be less safe.
Lesson packages
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If people understand that it takes patience to stick through the initial struggles, and that it is not instant gratification, there is a better chance of they won't be disappointed.
Providing this information to first time skiers helps to sell more lesson packages. Recommend the length of the lesson based on age, fitness, level of interest, and athletic ability.
Lesson Pacing
It is common for instructors to move to bigger slopes before the customer is ready, the way most friends teach.
Too much hill too soon is a big problem.
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Instructors, especially new ones can be frustrated by a lack of progress and not know what else to do but add terrain. Or they may may be influenced by kids who really to go to the "big hill". They may not know how to tell when the customer is ready and go too soon. Our clear goals help to set the proper pace.
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Team teaching
It is very hard to create a great experience in beginner group lessons when some can hardly walk and others can do everything right away. It is even harder when it is only one hour long.
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Team teaching first time adult groups creates more success, just like it does for kid lessons. Slower customers can be given more individual attention, and help can be given to the many clothing and equipment issues without holding up the whole class.
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Quality assurance
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Building great customer relationships is important, but customers need to experience enough success to want to return, so the teaching must be good.
Our quality assurance program goes beyond customer reviews, surveys, instructor requests, and certification to assessing teaching during real lessons. Few schools have a quality assurance process, we provide clear goals to make evaluating lesson quality easier.
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Focus on control
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Seventy three percent of skiers ski fewer than six times a season. Most lessons are first timers and infrequent skiers who may not be fit, athletic, or interested in high level skiing, especially when they understand the time, fitness, and work that is required.
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Instruction content has traditionally been created by instructors who are the best skiers with a lot of focus on higher level skiing like carving. Some countries even require instructors to ski within a certain time of a ski racer. This may be good for higher level skiers, but most lessons are for lower level instruction.
Customers often want more control.​ Trying to develop movements for expert carving with infrequent skiers can produce a lot of speed with little control. Our program focuses on control and adds carving later if desired.​
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​​ Ski Moves
People use natural moves when trying to ski: leaning back, turning with their shoulders and hips, and leaning inside their turns. These are opposite the moves needed for skiing.
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t is very hard to change natural moves especially when someone has used them for awhile and now they are habits that are even harder to change. It can create frustration for customers and instructors.
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We provide clear, consistent, and tested goals, it takes time and practice to develop these Ski Moves.
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Consistency
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It is challenging to develop and maintain Ski Moves even with clear and consistent goals because they are opposite the way people move naturally. They are simple, but simple does not mean easy.
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Ski Moves are timeless, it is about good execution and timing.
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If goals are regularly changing when searching for new techniques, it is even harder to progress. Traditional instruction looks at the differences between top instructors every four years at Interski to find the newest techniques. These new techniques create less consistency and this level of skiing is above most of the market demand. More than a set of fundamentals is required to be consistent, a formula is needed for how to use them.
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Our program
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We use side by side visual comparisons, and customers can find their score.​ It has been tested for more than 20 years with skiers of every level.
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It was developed using movement analysis software while working with the US Ski Team's National Development System, NASTAR, The US Special Forces, the National Ski Patrol, PSIA, high school teams, club racing teams, and schools at small and large resorts like Vail.
Physical support
​ A big advantage of live lessons is the feedback and support from instructors. Customers often can not make a move without some verbal and physical interaction to help them, like a physical therapists helping a client.
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Instructors often support customers to prevent falling, going too fast, hitting something, help getting up, and to make the right move.
Make it clear in your user agreement that physical interaction may be part of lessons.
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