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absolutely aasi Celebrity Status By Todd Ainsworth AASI-E Examiner Eastern AASI Teams Coach
T
hink back to a great experience you had. What made it great? Was it the weather, the location, the activity? Or was it the people you were with? For me, when I think back to the best experiences I’ve ever had, the people stand out most for me. As snowsports coaches, we have the opportunity every day to create one of those exceptional memories for each of our students, or to be the person who creates the perfect experience to hook someone on our sport forever. We can be the person they remember from that winter vacation they took that one time. We can change how they look at Winter and the mountains forever. I had two experiences recently which made me think about how the individuals with whom we interact has the opportunity to make us feel special and create a gratifying memory. The first was an initial visit to a local restaurant. It was later in the evening and was not very busy. The manager, joined by our waiter, made us feel like celebrities, or their most important clients, which led to feeling like we had made new friends by the evening’s end. The restaurant staff did this with small gestures such as being extra attentive to our needs from the moment we arrived. They laughed, joked, and toasted with us like old friends, while making excellent menu suggestions. The second memorable experience was on a recent trip. We missed our flight due to extenuating circumstances and ended up on standby for a much longer flight. This all worked out and got us to our destination (albeit 4 hours later) after several frustrating encounters with “customer service” representatives who were less than empathetic. During our second flight, a flight attendant who was not involved with our earlier adventures heard us commiserating with some other passengers who had also missed the earlier flight. This
flight attendant was very friendly, empathetic, and provided complimentary beverages and snacks. This interaction made the last couple hours of a long day less frustrating. These individuals left a lasting impression on me and definitely had an effect on the likelihood of my return business. We as coaches have all spent time perfecting our riding and teaching skills through practice, training, and certification exams. We have a lesson plan in our “bag of tricks” for every situation. We have spent countless hours perfecting our “method” grab, or smoothing out our “double diamond” mogul zipperline. During all that time, how much did you focus on developing your “people skills”? If you’re anything like me, it wasn’t the focus of your training initially. Over time, I have learned that it could arguably be the most important piece to creating the experience our students want. If we focus on making a personal connection with our clients from the moment we meet, we may just be able to make their day that much better. Small gestures like helping students learn to adjust their boots which can sometimes have difficult buckles and laces might give us the opportunity to start the conversation that helps us find out their motivations and past successes and failures. We may even figure out which lesson from our bag of tricks fits perfectly for their learning style. In a service industry such as ours, the experience we provide can be the difference between turning someone into a lifelong snowboarder, or turning them off to our sport forever. By creating positive memories, whether it’s someone’s first day, or a breakthrough in the halfpipe, we will leave our clients craving more time on the mountain, which hopefully leads to another day of riding with us. <<
