Check-in Email 12/13/2018
It sure is nice to finally be open for the season! More changes to the survey have been made that I hope will be an improvement. Now when you click the link below to see the survey you will see all the comments made by team members in previous surveys on the right hand side with responses to the right of the comment. The comments might be below the survey for those using a mobile phone and not all comments have responses. Comments which are specifically negative about an individual or extremely derogatory will not be posted but those are generally few and far between.
Since the comments and responses are now viewable on the website I have not included them all on this email but I have included one response below. You’ll see the rest when you click the link to the survey.
I apologize there are still some formatting issues:
- If someone responded to the survey but left no comment there is just a blank box.
- Comments without a response have a message “There are no notes” next to them.
- All responses appear to be from me since I posted them but I put the responders name at the end of the comment if it was not me that responded.
I appreciate your patience as we continue to work on improving the formatting.
Team Survey can be found here: https://team.skihood.com/
More info on the survey can be found here: https://team.skihood.com/about-team-survey/
Q: “I feel the change in the lift access control position is not a positive change. I feel you need well trained people who want to deal with the access problems right at the lift so issues can be managed efficiently. With how it’s going now the access person is calling on the radio to the lift when they see an issue on their computer in an office somewhere. By the time the lift responds, relays the message to the person at the lift with the tablet and they try to see what’s going on, the person has already loaded the lift. We are providing worse customer service and clogging up channel 1 with annoying radio traffic. The person with the radio at a lift isn’t necessarily the person with the tablet so there’s a disconnect already when the access person in an office somewhere is trying to relay something they see. These people need to be on the front line at the bottom of Mt Hood express and buttercup troubleshooting these issues in person.
There’s too much radio traffic on channel 1. How come park crew, patrol, race, grooming and parking each have their own radio channel and not lift maintenance? Today (Sunday) MHX was 10-60 and the access control person is taking up channel 1 trying to radio the ballroom carpet about some trivial pass issue.
It seems like whatever was the popular breakfast food item for employees usually gets removed from the menu the next year. Chicken fried steak was taken away and now this year the breakfast burrito is gone. But I don’t really care, I don’t buy food at the lodge anyways.”
A: Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. There are other responses on the breakfast burrito issue so I’ll cover the other stuff you brought up. Access control has moved to channel 5 during day operations so hopefully that will alleviate the extra radio traffic on channel 1.
In my opinion to really take care of our guests access issues we need both a strong lift access person out at the gate as well as someone monitoring the gates remotely. There are many access issues that there is no way to solve using a tablet at the gate such as an unredeemed voucher. The only way to redeem the voucher and fix the issue is at a point of sale. So previously a guest could have paid for access for the day but ended up getting sent back to Guest Services to have the issue fixed.
What we are trying to achieve is that no guest who has paid for access for the day would ever have to go back inside to have the issue taken care of because it can be fixed remotely. It is certainly a learning process when it comes to communication and coordination to make sure the process goes smoothly but so far my belief is it has been an improvement and will only get better as we learn. I do agree with you that remote monitoring is no substitute for a strong knowledgeable team member at the gate and that both are really needed to help our guests have a seamless experience which is what we are trying to achieve.
If you are interested in discussing your observations in person, I’d definitely take you up on it as I really want this to be a positive change for everyone and I’m sure things can continue to be improved.