I just read that Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch said to analysts that one her goals is to earn back customer loyalty. In order to you earn back loyalty, Park City Mountain and Vail Resorts must earn back the trust of their customers. One way of doing so is to be transparent.
This season, especially, Park City Mountain has failed miserably in this regard. For example, during the ski patrol strike in December and early January, Park City Mountain repeatedly claimed on their website that the resort was running under “normal operations.” Everyone clearly knew that this was not the case.
Additionally, with regard to lift operations, Park City Mountain failed to advise the public accurately about the problems with Pioneer lift. They didn’t admit the problem until the issue was exposed in the media.
Most recently, Crescent lift was out of service for several days. On the web site it just said “closed.” The truth as I understand it was that they had an issue that only the manufacturer Doppelmayr could repair. As Crescent is such an essential lift for moving guests out of the base area, they not only should have informed guests that Crescent would be out of service several days, but to alleviate the congestion and inconvenience, they easily could have opened Eagle, Payday, Bonanza, KingKon and Silverlode lifts early.
When Snowbird had a similar issue with the Mineral Basin lift, they immediately informed the public and kept them updated. Honesty and transparency is what engenders trust and trust results in loyalty.
With regard to safety on the mountain, we noticed the lack of safety personnel/Yellow Jackets. We were told by a person in uniform that many of the safety personnel/Yellow Jackets were among the first to be eliminated as a result of budget cuts. These people are an essential part of skier safety on the mountain.
In the past, these people were clearly visible on the mountain and their mere presence was often a deterrent to reckless skiing. This season they are almost invisible. This makes me question Park City Mountain’s commitment to skier safety, especially when the bottom line is impacted.
Maybe the key to restoring loyalty is to renew their commitment to transparency, trust and safety. It appears that the leadership, including the CEO of Vail Resorts Kirsten Lynch, Mountain Division President Bill Rock, and Park City Mountain COO Deirdra Walsh have forgotten that these too should be considered core values of Park City Mountain, Vail Resorts.
Michael Howard
Park City