“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.

Are you performing good enough? Do you know how you perform in comparison to your competitors?
The basic idea of this online information system is that different companies learn form the comparison of the results of customer surveys with other (similar) companies – so called benchmarking. This comparison of results with others reveals the real strengths and weaknesses because absolute figures from a distinct survey are difficult to interpret and can hardly be turned into action planning. Essentially, a real strength consists of a value better than competitors’ ratings. And it is easy to find out about that. You do not have to be an expert in market research and statistics. Imagine how informative it is to realize with just some mouse clicks that couples in the thirties are more satisfied with the service level in your ski area than any other – whereas you do a bad job for families in the fourties. In technical words you use filter, segmentation and benchmarking to determine your most attractive target groups.

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.