Every long time instructor knows that you need to stand out in the snowsports industry. Like any profession, you’ll want to be known as a reliable and skilled individual to advance. But how can you achieve this, especially if your ski school employs hundreds of ski and snowboard instructors?
There are multiple ways to stand out as a snowsports instructor. These include, how you treat your guests, how you respond to management and how much you’re willing to invest in your personal development.
This post comes from both sides of a ski school. From both working in them and running them. These are some of the best ways to stand out as a snowsports instructor, taken from experience.
Connect to your Guests to Stand Out
Building a guest base is crucial to being a long-term career instructor, or having the most success in a short term too. This is certainly one way to stand out from other instructors in your ski school. Having the ability to fill your own schedule with guests is great for any ski school. It’s highly appreciated by management, allowing them to focus on other parts of their busy day. But how do the best snowsports instructors build a loyal guest list?
It really comes down to creating genuine connections to your guests. Savvy communication skills are key to this. Opening a dialogue beyond the usual small talk and creating a flowing conversation is a skill less spoken about as a snowsports instructor, but it’s crucial to stand out from everyone else.
Bridging the Gap Between You and Your Guests
What if you and your guests are very different people? Often your guests will have vastly different lives to your own. Skiing and snowboarding are generally wealthy sports. Because of this, rookie snowsports instructors especially can get caught up with thoughts of being so different. It’s understandable if you’re living in a shared staff house budgeting your grocery shopping, and your guest is a hedge fund manager often flying around the world.
To make that connection, you’ll need to find common ground. Remove your thoughts of how rich they might be and approach them like any other person that you meet. Do they have other hobbies? What about their sports team? Find the link between both of you and expand on it. More shared interests will be revealed and your conversations will flow much more naturally.
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Avoiding Interview Questions
Think about how you speak to your close friends. Conversations start with things like, “how was Sally’s tennis match?” or, “how do you like your new car?”. You’re always building on what you know about each other and not just asking a checklist of questions.
Sure, you will need to ask some basic questions to get there, but really think about how you ask questions. Avoid questions that expect a one word answer, instead opt for something that allows your guest to give more details. You can use those details as a starting point for further conversation that’s personal to both of you.
Maintaining your Guest Relationships
Once you’ve made genuine connections to your guests, you’ll want to maintain that communication. Exchanging details is important. Sure, they can come back next year and ask for you when they book a lesson, but it’s best to be able to communicate before the season. You can build even more rapport and make sure you’re available when they’re coming.
Being known as a snowsports instructor who can retain guests will make you stand out in any ski school. They’ll be more likely to book you on private lessons too, as you’ve proven that you can keep people coming back for more. Some of the most successful instructors in the industry are fully booked by returning guests before the ski resort even opens.
Be Flexible and Eager to Work
A sure way to stand out as a snowsports instructor is the ability to be flexible and being eager to work. Ski resorts want to provide a professional service to their guests. Operating outdoors on a mountain presents many unexpected challenges. Let’s say it’s a rainy day, the ski school is short some instructors due to injury or sickness. The guests may have come a long way and they still want to ski. You might have to take a large group, or deal with some mixed abilities to make sure everyone has a great time. It’s in these moments that you can stand out as a snowsports instructor.
Being a ski or snowboard instructor is amazing, but like anything, it’s not perfect. If you take those lessons in the rain, wind or other challenging conditions, your ski school will quickly notice. You’ll rise to the top of the instructor ranks before you know it. When it comes to quieter days, it’s likely you’ll still be working as you’ve proven you’re willing to put in the effort and will be rewarded for it.
Some of the best guest comments come from potentially bad experiences. Receiving a thank you letter or guest feedback form saying that they still had a great time, even though the weather was bad, is a direct appraisal of your highly skilled teaching and guest service. Your guests are going to want you again and your ski school will appreciate your efforts immensely.
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Go Above and Beyond
It almost sounds like a cliché recently. But giving more than you’re expected to has a huge impact on your guest’s experience and your ski school. It could be something as simple as helping a guest do up their ski boots before your lesson, or something more, such as staying later to help a guest who struggled. These acts, small or big, will make you stand out as a snowsports instructor in any ski school.
Being willing to give a little more of your time or energy has two benefits. The first links in to connecting with your guests, the second directly links to how your ski school sees you.
Standing Out to Your Guests
You certainly want to stand out as a snowsports instructor to your guests. Like it or not, teaching skiing is at least somewhat competitive. Guests will have a great time with you but they can be fickle, everyone is really. Let’s look at a guest who takes lessons with multiple instructors. If you are the one who makes the time to meet for coffee before the lesson, or helps them buy ski equipment, they are going to value that. You’ll be more memorable for sure and next time they’ll book you for more lessons.
It’s worth saying though, going above and beyond for your guest should be genuine. It should come from your desire to give a great service and/or that you genuinely enjoy spending time with them. It can be easy to stray into giving more simply because you’ll get something out of it. But this will become obvious to your guest and people appreciate genuine reasons for helping.
Standing Out to Your Ski School
Finally, going above and beyond will make any snowsports instructor stand in a ski school. You’ll quickly gain a reputation as an instructor who truly cares about your guests and their experience. After all, that’s why we are all in the profession. Being known as an instructor who wants the absolute best for their guests will open up more opportunities. Maybe there’s a guest who hasn’t had the best experience skiing so far. Ski school management will look to you to help this person and improve the situation. By giving a great service, you’ll be a hero to the guest and the ski school.
The Perfect Ski Instructor Resume
Training and Upskilling
It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or veteran snowsports instructor. Those that train and continue to improve their own skiing, snowboarding and teaching will stand out. As many instructor trainers will tell you from personal experience, there is always something new to learn. Think of it this way too, if an Olympic level ski racer decided to stop training once they’d won a gold medal, would they win anymore?
Ski schools love to see their instructors out on the hill, either in planned training sessions, or simply experimenting with new movements, timings or exercises. Management can see that you are willing to change how you approach things, which leads to a better experience for the guest.
Long term guests will certainly appreciate learning something new from you. This can be how you keep those high-level guests booking you, year after year. If they’re just getting the same lesson, the same experience each time, they might not be too excited about lessons. Keep your skills and ideas fresh to engage with your guests.
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If you want to excel in snowsports, you’ll want to stand out as an instructor, from the rest of the crowd. You’ll get there by focussing on your guest relationships, being willing to put in the extra effort and continuously improve yourself. The results will be more guests, more work and more opportunities.
