“SAMON ropeways: The innovative system
to determine customer expectations and satisfaction in ski areas”
Mag. Klaus Grabler, Manova NetBusiness Solutions GmbH
www.manova.at
Customer satisfaction monitoring? Too difficult to understand?
Maybe you think about market research as a difficult task with lots of figures
which are hard to read, understand and be act upon. And probably you WERE right.
But isn’t conscious market research mandatory to monitor needs and
satisfaction of customers in order to deliver good value to the customer? So let
us think about a better way of utilizing market research that happens often in
an unsystematic manner in different ski areas. Thus a system offering useful and
easy-to-use analyses and information for the management of ropeway companies is
presented here: SAMON. With this SAtisfaction MONitoring system participating
ski areas in Austria make use (for 4 years now) of a mostly standardized
questionnaire including quality perceptions. The data is collected via web or
via pencil and paper questionnaires. All data run into the online system where
it is analysed in real time. It delivers not only results for the specific ski
area but also benchmarks to others. By using different ways of data analysis
methods each participant gets immediate management information.
Benchmar(ket)ing? – Marketing strategies by benchmarking
It is time for ski areas to think strategically. To be another ski area with
nice slopes, good restaurants and a good half pipe is that is perfect for
families, young and old ones either looking for quiet, sensitive experience or
action & fun entertainment is to reality … of brochures. Using the
benchmarking information of the customer surveys helps you determine about the
ideal target groups for your ski area, the right positioning as well as the
priorities in your quality management. And these are the most important
strategic aspects for being profitable in the future.