Stowe 2/10,2/11

This past weekend at Stowe I had the opportunity to work with lift attendants on Friday, and the customer service department on Saturday. Friday consisted of working at the Midway Gondola, and the new FourRunner quad as well as spending a small amount of time at the Sunny Spruce quad towards the end of our day. Dom and I spent the first half of the day with Kelly at the Gondola, it wasn't terribly busy this particular morning so we pretty much got an overview of how their system works and how they keep the line moving. She showed us the top area of the lift where all the moving parts are and where the motor's reside and gave a a brief explanation of how it all worked, along with an overview of the controls they have in the operating booth and which buttons do what for certain situations. At eleven we attended the mountain operations meeting in the administrative office where they went over the typical daily tasks and discussed upcoming events, trails that needed to be groomed and a few other specific bits of information.

After the meeting we spent time at the new quad and got an explanation of the new RFID rechargeable ticket system that Stowe's implemented at all their lifts. Whoever's maintaining the checkpoint can see a skier's information once they pass through the gates at any given time. All their basic information is displayed as well as the number of runs they've taken and at which lifts they've stopped at. We essentially got the same treatment at each lift we visited, learning the controls, what their policy is for certain situations and so on.

On Saturday Wes, Dom and I worked with the customer service department. We met Heidi in the morning at the Mansfield lodge, where I worked with Gretchen for a majority of the day, while Wes and Dom worked over at the Spruce Peak customer service desk until our lunch a little after noon. Customer service can definitely be a demanding job and I got to experience it first hand with Gretchen. She has to have an answer for every question that comes her way, or at least be able to point people in the right direction to solve their questions. I was able to answer basic questions, give people directions to resort services, inform people about trail conditions and pricing and things along those lines. The most I took away from watching Gretchen was her ability to think on her feet and come up with solutions to people's often involved or confusing questions in an effort to get them back to what they came there to do, go skiing or spend time with their family. Everyone I had the opportunity to work with this past weekend treated us really well and were open to sharing everything they knew with us, and I appreciated each employee's positive attitude towards us both days.