What so-called “duty of care” does a ski school owe its paying clients? Obviously, in return for the large amount of money spent, a teaching professional is provided, but the questions goes far deeper than that.
How “talented” is this professional? Are they happy to be teaching; an employee who feels good about what he or she is doing? Well compensated and taken care of? Provided for in the event of an injury? Secure in what he or she is doing?
What happens when the teaching pro has other things on their minds?
Consider what might happen when a teaching professional feels underpaid, unappreciated by their resort…worried about the implications of something going wrong. Where is their focus now?
Teaching professionals are just that, professionals. Are they treated as such by their resorts? Are their opinion and concerns paid attention to? Do they have a forum for promoting improvements in their work place or with regard to their individual situations?
Today’s teaching professional is too often treated in a most unprofessional manner. Sometimes by the clients they ski with and sometimes by the resorts who employ them. Many times, I have heard clients referring to their instructors as “ski bums” who are lucky to be doing what they do for a living.
Why?
Unfortunately, the resorts themselves must shoulder most of the responsibility for the impressions formed by clients. They fail to provide for adequate compensation, much less provide financial protection for such staff. True, workers compensation is available for those injured while performing their duties on the clock, but even then, the teaching pro takes a substantial “hit” when things go wrong. First, they lose the first three days of pay when injured. Second, ALL of their tip revenue evaporates with zero compensation for that. While at some resorts, tips play a small role in the overall financial picture, at larger resorts such tips form a huge portion of what the teaching professional makes and without such tips in major resort areas, they could not afford to even be there.
And what happens when a teaching professional speaks out regarding issues such as pay, insurance, working conditions and more? They are immediately ostracized, if not terminated for “insufficient performance.” If anything, this is a one-way street, with the resorts doing all the driving. Resorts take their teaching professionals for granted. And that results in conflict. Conflict limits the flow of business and should be avoided at all costs, no pun intended.
Is there any wonder why so many clients take ski professionals for granted?
Moreover, the resorts fail to make any effort to adequately “impress” their clients with the qualifications of the teaching professional. These so called “ski bums” have devoted themselves to their sport/profession. Some work on snow year round; almost all try to improve their skills year in and year out, without adequate respect or compensation.
Is there any surprise in the fact that the level of discontent in the world of the teaching professional appears to be growing?
And how does this affect the customer?
Customers pay large sums of money to ski with these professionals. Do they not have an entitlement to a focused, high quality experience every time? Or, is it all right for them to receive this level of attention and care only part of the time? The question would appear to answer itself.
When a client pays for a teaching professional to ski with them for an hour or for a day…or even for a number of days, they have an absolute right to receive the very best that can be offered. Is this the case? One would tend to doubt it’s even possible when the pro has a number of significant issues weighing heavily on their mind.
Teaching pros are people and like everyone else in the working world, when they have issues, those they service will feel the effect of those issues as well. The logic is inexorable.
So, what is the answer?
That is, perhaps, the easiest part of the equation. Take care of your pros so that they can perform at the highest possible level. It is the only way to ensure that your clients get what they are paying for. The failure to do so will only result in declining ski school revenues, particularly in an economy where everyone is forced to cut back on expenditures. Resorts love to complain when ski school revenues drop, yet fail to accept responsibility for such declines, preferring to blame economic factors or a lack of performance by the staff. Quite simply, improved morale equates to a higher level of performance and, consequently, a better experience for the paying customer.
In such a declining economy, what can resorts do to compensate for these issues, assuming they are even inclined to cope with them in the first place?
There are ways to compensate, just as there are for any corporation coping with such declines.
MARKET your professionals. Take a positive, pro-active approach by looking at the skills the teaching professional brings to the table. Change the way the resort advertises itself. Enough of the “come to our prestigious resort” approach. Be more specific when it comes to what you, as a resort, have to offer. Instead of print ads in SKI Magazine, which paint with a broad stroke, try placing ads that demonstrate what your staff provides that your competition may not. Go out on a limb and feature the very pros you expect your clients to pay large sums to ski or ride with. Highlight their competitive background and their educational backgrounds. Do you not realize that some of your pros have more than twenty years experience teaching or speak multiple languages, or even that some are world champions in one discipline or another?
You are selling a product and just like any corporation engaged in the business of doing so, you MUST convince the client to spend their hard earned money. You cannot simply continue to ride along on a reputation that may not even exist any more. History is full of examples of corporations who have tried to do the latter; most of them failed.
There are ski schools that bring in between $40 and $50 million dollars a year gross, yet still claim they cannot afford to pay more, or provide basic insurance during the season, a claim which is ridiculous. This is not the 1960s where ski teaching was but a fledgling industry.
The power to cope with this unsettling situation rests in the hands of such resorts, but perhaps they simply do not have the leadership and vision to see what possible solutions exist.
Today’s ski school director needs to do more than simply manage the ski school. They need to have a sense of marketing and public relations. They need to practice their skills in community relations, both internal and external. They need to be more so that they can do more. They need to look at issues from both sides of the equation and ask the right questions. “How can I motivate my staff?” “How can I assure my customers that spending money to ski with my pros is a good investment?” “How can I take steps to ensure that my staff wants to be here, instead of feeling that they have to be here?” These are just some of the questions today’s ski school directors must ask themselves.
If one is responsible for that many people and their livelihood, the failure to ask such questions is just that, a failure.
You let your staff down and you let your customers down. It all boils down to one simple concept: evolve or die.
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