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Reprints From The Professional Skier

Spring 1997 - "ATS Service Model Keeps 'Em in Class" by Terry McLeod

This article is reprinted from The Professional Skier. All copyrights apply. Please see our copyright and disclaimer notice page.

What starts with S and is the most influential thing to happen to ski instruction since Graduated Length Method? No, it's not the shaped ski influx; it's PSIA's Service Model.

The newest segment of the American Teaching System, the Service Model aims to help instructors become skiing partners who provide an all-around more enjoyable experience for their students, rather than ski experts who merely hold court as technical analysts and coaches. The Service Model outlines invaluable strategies for providing stellar guest service.

New ski technology is making it easier for people to learn to ski, which, in turn, makes us look better as teachers. But no matter how good technology gets, in order for ski school to survive and grow, we need to make, guests so happy with their experience that they tell all their friends how pleased they are and return for more. What follows is a condensed version of the ATS Service Model, based upon material presented in chapter two of the recently released Alpine Manual. Original sources are cited in the manual.

Exceed Expectations

The Service Model could basically be considered an expansion on the ATS concept of being student-centered in our lessons, but it extends beyond that. The model points out the need to exceed guest expectations and then outlines tools to do so.

One key to exceptional service is understanding your customers. As instructors, we know that we must constantly assess our students' ability levels to form an appropriate lesson plan, but to achieve a more thorough understanding of our guests we need to be more than observers. Consistent two-way communication is the best way to reach and maintain a good understanding of your students.

- To ensure that you'll be understood, use simple, clear wording rather than technical terms or jargon when talking with guests. Speaking simply also lessens the chance that guests might be intimidated by what may come across to them as arrogance or an uncaring effort to be impressive.

- Form open questions that start with words like how, why, which, or tell me, so that people aren't limited to one-word responses. When your students reply, practice active listening by nodding, smiling, and using other positive body language. Make sure you don't interrupt.

- Focus on your students' words and messages and then ask questions or repeat important points so you clearly understand what they're saying. Remember when you're talking and listening that 80 percent of communication occurs through tone of voice and nonverbal cues. If you stay focused while listening, you will pick up these cues, and you also will be more aware of the messages you are sending.

By creating an ongoing exchange of thoughts and feelings during the lesson, you will be certain to accurately assess and understand what your students expect from you, and then you'll be better able to exceed their expectations.

Hear Needs, Find Opportunities

The Service Model differentiates between needs and opportunities, and it's important to know how to uncover both. A need is a customer want or desire that you can satisfy, whereas an opportunity occurs when a customer describes a problem or source of dissatisfaction to you. Although the source of dissatisfaction may present an opportunity for corrective action, don't automatically assume that the guest wants to pursue this plan of attack.

At the beginning of a lesson when students say, "I can't ski steep slopes" or "I have trouble turning in powder," they aren't expressing a need to work on skiing steeps or powder, they're indicating an opportunity. By continuing to question guests, you can determine if they want to work on steeps or powder skiing, and if so, you can help them form concrete goals that focus on their expectations.

Ask your students, "What kinds of problems do you have when skiing the steeps?" If they describe a lack of speed control and the inability to link more than a few turns, they're indicating that they're making an effort to ski that terrain and would like to improve their skills so that they enjoy it more. On the other hand, you may find that they get frozen with fear on steeper runs and only go there when forced. Continue to ask questions until you find what it is the students want to work on. This way their specific needs have been defined, which by itself is very beneficial to students, and they will appreciate the direction this clarification lends to the lesson. (As the saying goes, "You can't solve the problem until you know what it is.")

Features Versus Benefits

The ATS Service Model also identifies features and benefits as components of a quality ski lesson and suggests instructors know the difference between the two elements. A feature is a characteristic of your lesson and often describes o function. Your technical knowledge is a feature; a check turn has the feature of being an abrupt, braking turn. Features are not, by nature, always valuable to the customer. In order to have value, they must benefit the customer and the customer must agree that the feature is beneficial. A benefit is the value of a feature to a customer. Your students must understand how different tasks or techniques (features) will satisfy their needs so they can then agree to the value of the benefit. For example, upper-level students wanting to ski steeps may be disinterested in slow-speed hop turns or hockey stops unless they understand that the skills these exercises build transfer directly to better speed control.

With both opportunities and features it's important that you use your skills to clarify your plan so that you and your students understand exactly what you are doing and why you are doing it. After explaining the features and benefits, it's imperative that you deliver exactly what has been determined. You should have a clear picture of student expectations, and at this point if you fail to provide the goods, you'll end up with disappointed students who probably won't return.

See The Individuals

Another way to assure return business is to deliver great customer service by viewing your students as many different individuals rather than as one group. When students start to blur into one big generic group, you're more likely to become a cold robot who is trying to efficiently mass-produce good skiers. Strive to consider each guest as an individual who has fears, goals, and hopes-much like yourself. When you make the effort to treat people as individuals, they will notice that you care about them and will be more willing to describe their wants and needs. They are also likely to be less critical of your shortfalls. Moreover, when you take the initiative to help customers and go the extra mile you will impress them.

Conclusion

Customers take lessons for a number of different reasons, but many people often avoid ski schools altogether because they fear the process will be less than enjoyable. From our own experience as instructors, we all know that the joy of skiing involves much more than attaining technical perfection. We need to help guests discover that joy for themselves.

PSIA designed the ATS Service Model to provide guidelines to help instructors make class more fun and fulfilling than the hours of free skiing the guests could have chosen. When you combine the model's suggestions with today's evolving technology, your students may never skip class again.

Terry McLeod is the technical director for Idaho's Schweitzer Ski School and a PSIA-NW division clinic leader.