In the recreational skiing and snowboarding industry, customer loyalty is essential.
Whether your ski area is big or small, you must ensure customers come back repeatedly, always recognizing that even with amazing powder and top-notch lifts and chalets, you’re not the only game in town where people spend their hard-earned winter fun and fitness dollars.
“Loyalty is the core of our business. We are very fortunate to have a dedicated community who choose to invest their time and money into our mountain,” says Jordan Cheney, general manager at Crabbe Mountain, a 65-year-old community-owned ski area in Centre Hainesville, New Brunswick. “Day visits are important, but the fact is, passholder revenue gets us to opening day.”
“Returning local guests, including those from the surrounding areas such as Calgary and Edmonton, are vital to the success of our business,” says Anya Baggley, guest services manager at the Lake Louise Ski Resort, five minutes from the town of Lake Louise, Alberta. “While we pride ourselves on being an international destination and attracting guests from around the world, those that call the Lake Louise Ski Resort their home mountain are truly the foundation of our community.”
It’s not uncommon at Crabbe Mountain and Lake Louise Ski Resort to find grandparents, moms, dads, and children and teens from the same family riding the lifts, proof that the two ski areas have built a solid base of repeat customers.
So, what’s their strategy?
At both, value for money offered through deals tied to season’s passes and popular Canadian Ski Council programs such as Never Ever Days and the Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass are among key draws for both first timers and seasoned skiers and snowboarders. Key targets are existing and potential passholders, whose substantial cash outlay for season tickets is a welcome boost to the ski areas’ bottom line.
At Crabbe Mountain existing passholders get 15% off the following year’s pass if they buy before June 30, and 10 % off if they make the purchase before October 31. Skiers and snowboarders who buy a four-year pass are locked in at the current price, avoiding annual price hikes. A limited number of these deals are offered. Customers who are not passholders but buy a 2023-24 pass after March break, ski for free for the remainder of this season. The plan is working, says Cheney.
Passholders enjoying après at Crabbe Mountain
“I can confidently estimate that we have a more than 80% renewal rate and the number of passholders has increased by 30% over the past three years and there has been a 50% increase in the number of onsite, privately owned ski chalets on the mountain.”
To attract newbies – and hopefully entice them buy season passes in coming years – Crabbe Mountain offers the Learn the Lifestyle Package, which for $228 gives skiers and snowboarders three one-day tickets, three lessons and a full set of used equipment that is in great shape but is being phased out. After their trio of visits, customers keep the equipment.
“It’s a $228 solution that lowers the price, which for some is a key barrier to entering the sport,” says Cheney, who estimates the package will cost about $1,000 if lift tickets, lessons and the equipment are purchased individually at regular prices. “Instead of selling the equipment at a local street swap, we use it to make it easy for first timers to come three times. We hope they’ll be hooked.”
At Lake Louise Ski Resort, Baggley says the to-die-for ski/snowboard/tubing product – four world-class mountain faces covering more than 4,200 acres of diverse terrain and 164 runs – is in itself a key selling point that will convince customers to return, but notes that like other ski areas, the mountain has to work hard to keep people coming back year after year.
A family enjoys powder skiing at Lake Louise Ski Resort
Season passholders have access to a variety of significant discounts on site, as well as deals at 12 other mountains, including three ski areas inside Banff National Park. At their home mountain, they receive substantial discounts if they renew their passes early, plus the first crack at VIP parking and storage lockers, and savings on lessons, rentals, dining, hotel stays, 20% off purchases at gear supplier Paradise Skis, and 20% savings on lift tickets at partner resorts. Mid-week pass holders at Lake Louise Ski Resort save 20% on Lake Louise Ski Resort lift tickets on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Lake Louise Ski Resort passholders tube for free and discounted pricing is available for others who are skiing or snowboarding on the same day.
Two other unique offerings are designed to pique the interest of skiers and snowboarders who need a nudge to commit to winter sports, says Baggley.
Twice daily, Ski Friends, a service run by long-time volunteers, takes skiers and snowboarders of all abilities on a free, 2.5-hour tour across the mountain, offering information and advice on the best lifts, areas, runs, facilities, and history. Ski Friends also offers a free heritage tour, during which skiers and snowboarders young and old learn about the personalities, events and natural history that shaped the Lake Louise area.
Once the snow is gone, passholders continue to reap the benefits: in the summer months they can ride the Lake Louise Summer Sightseeing Gondola for free, a trip that offers impressive vistas and some of the best chances in the area to spot wild grizzly bears.
Like many ski areas in Canada, Crabbe Mountain and Lake Louise Ski Resort offer the Canadian Ski Council’s Never Ever Days (NED) and Grade 4 & 5 SnowPass – both designed to attract children and first-timers to their slopes. For $25 plus tax, NED provides beginners with equipment, a lift ticket, and a lesson. The Grade 4&5 SnowPass enables kids to hit the slopes twice at multiple ski areas in Canada for a one-time fee of $29.99.
As at Lake Louise Ski Resort, there is plenty of proof that their initiatives are working well, says Baggley.
“When Michael, one of our lift supervisors helps load people onto the chairs, he often hears parents telling their kids ‘You know, Michael used to load me onto the lift when I was your age.’ That tells me we have many families that have skied here for decades.”
