Clients' satisfaction in South Tyrols ski schools
Content skiers and ski school clients derive pleasure from skiing and they can enjoy their snow adventure to the full. Besides the quality of the skiing area or the accommodation also a well organized, motivating and secure skiing course contributes to a successful skiing holiday.
In order to find out how far the current ski school offers correspond to the skiers’ needs, in South Tyrol there was made a special study regarding clients’ satisfaction. 38 out of 62 South Tyrolean ski schools or rather their clients participated in the survey organized by the local ski instructor association in cooperation with the University of Padua.
Over a period of four weeks between January and March 2011 more than 1,200 adults (13-77 years) and nearly 3,000 children (2-12 years) filled in the questionnaire. Almost one third of the person questioned were novices in skiing, attending a skiing lesson for the first time.
The questions referred to all aspects of the ski school offer, for instance registration for skiing courses, opening hours of the ski school, clarity of information, internet presence, organization of the courses, composition of the course groups, process of the lessons, teaching methodology and safety.
The results of the study show that most of the skiing course participants are happy with their ski school and their ski instructor. Large differences were neither found between single ski schools nor between peak season and off-season.
The South Tyrolean ski instructors did very well regarding “friendliness and willingness”. Moreover we can emphasize the “general satisfaction with the experience” and the “safety of the lessons”. Capable of improvement are, however the “opening hours for registrations” or the “homogeneity of the course groups”. In addition there is ascertainable an increasing demand for special courses for freeskiers, freeriders and freestylers. Another important topic is always the safety on the slopes.
The primary goal of the research regarding clients’ satisfaction was it to carry out the skier’s wishes, in order to adjust then the offers of the ski schools. Therefore the survey will be repeated in winter 2012/13 and to include the other ski schools of the region. Moreover it is briefly considered to establish a seal of quality for all ski schools.