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Chill Factor E - It's Not All Bad

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Kitmatt

Post subject: Chill Factor E - It's Not All Bad

Posted: Nov 29, 2007 - 06:07 PM

Joined: Nov 24, 2007
Posts: 198
Location: Bolton, UK
Status: Offline

It is fair to say that the hype around chill Factore has been vast and a lot (not all) of the comments on this forum have been somewhat negative in response to first impressions to the new slope and its facilities.
I had a phone call today from a very nice lady in PR @ Chill Factore (Dunx, I think you met here during your recent visit) due to some problems my friends and I have had with the call centre and general communications. Needless to say, she has been most apologetic in her response to the problems and will be reviewing the below issues list which I will be sending to her, she can hopefully provide some understanding as to why the initial launch of this fantastic facility hasn't been as "smooth" as we all had hoped.

If you think I have missed anything please post on this thread and I will add it to my email to her. This should mean we can get answers to our questions and hopefully build some confidence back up in favour of chill factore, rather than "bashing" it.

It is fairly detailed so I guess most of you won't be bothered about the shops/ restaurant reviews, but I wanted to provide a complete review of the complex, not just the slope. If you don’t agree or want to add your own comments, please get in touch. I really want this document to have as many people’s input as possible so it isn’t bias.

I will of course post any response from the PR team in this thread once received, provided they are happy for me to do so.
Cheers up front for any comments,

Matt

BEGIN LETTER
Please be advised that all of the below is only in an attempt to provide chill factore with some a comment for future improvement and to hopefully make mine and many others visits more enjoyable.
I have broken comments down into sections as outlined below:
• Retail, Eateries and Bar’s (covering reviews of the shops and restaurants)
• Customer Services (covering staff understanding, management of customers from the entrance to the changing rooms)
• Board & Ski Setup (covering hire and setup facilities)
• The Slope (The main slope and lifts/ systems)
• Other Slope Activities (including Tubing, luge, snowplay and lessons)
• Customer Feedback and Opinion
• Telephone and Contact Services
• In Conclusion

Retail, Eateries and Bar’s
Chiquito’s - Over the past week I have been to eat at Chiquito’s twice and both times the staff, services and food was very good and reasonably priced. After speaking to my fellow diners, many were of the same opinion but felt that at busy periods, the waiting area around the bar became very crowded. During my second visit I experienced this first hand but the wait was only short and it was nothing to get overly excitable about. A family suggested allowing people to reserve at the front desk and come back at a more convenient time would work better as for some reason they were not allowed to do this.
Nando’s –When it eventually opens (I can’t believe they are opening on the 3rd December according to their flyer in the window), the place is always packed at Trafford Centre and I personally think this one will be even busier as it attracts the ski and snowboard community.
Castle in the Air – Weatherspoon’s bars are always well organised and everyone I spoke to is looking forward to its eventual opening.
Fredrick’s – Living in Bolton I am please that Fredrick’s has been given the opportunity to have a chain at Chill Factore. It’s Ice Cream comes as close to the best as you can get in the UK and I look forward to dropping in after a tiring session on the slopes.
Boost – Unappealing to me but many of the people I spoke to on the slope advised it was really good, I will give it a go next time I am down. ANY COMMENTS GUYS???
Chilli’s – Really cool and chilled out place to unwind before or after a session. Spent a lot of time in here, well designed and very appealing to the snow junkie in everyone, chilli’s is a great place to chat and speak to likeminded people about all things snow and chill Factore. Staff service was good and being able to walk outside into the slopes is a great bonus when you fancy becoming a spectator. I especially found it interesting to see how it the balcony was working as a marketing tactic. I’m not sure if you at chill Factore planned for it to act as an advertising platform but it certainly is. I think people sharing the same atmosphere as those on the slopes really brings out the desire to give it a try in everyone on the balcony and I have seen people come down from there and book on immediately afterwards.
I am still yet to visit Cafe Extreme, The Eiger and Mont Blanc but I am happy to send my reviews and anyone else’s I can get to you, if you think it would help? ANY COMMENTS GUYS???

Snow and Rock –Somewhat pricy but full of good quality gear, friendly staff (especially Brock, Chris and the guy’s upstairs in the equipment area). I have been looking for a new board setup and clothing for a forthcoming trip to Meribel, France in February and Whistler, Canada later next year and they have been very helpful in ensuring I have the right gear for the job. I know a lot about boarding but they have been very helpful in concentrating my knowledge down a constructive and conclusive avenue, THANKS GUYS!!!!
Dare2B – Still a little apprehensive about this store as a lot of the stock is own brand and I am unfamiliar with it but have bought a jacket to try out and will see what happens, could be a great place due to the competitive prices but will know more when I have tested their stuff.
Subvert – Awesome store, friendly staff, great gear, SCUK Discount, what more could you ask for (except maybe some mirrors so you can see stuff when you try it on)???
Quicksilver – Not open yet but I know what to expect here.
Evans Cycles – Great chain and happy to see them at Chill Factore, I regularly visited there city centre store and now it is hand to pick up a new crank or brake cables when I go boarding.

Customer Services
Probably one of the most disappointing aspects so far for everyone we have talked too. I know that the facility is new and it will take time to remove the bugs and bring everyone up to speed, but there is no excuse for having people on the reception desk who do not know the basic concepts of the sport, equipment and activities available. This is not the staff’s fault, they have been given little or no training by all accounts, the booking and information systems seem to be filled with bugs and must have had little or no testing before going live. Nearly everyone I spoke to asked the question “Why is there not a separate enquiries desk from the bookings desk?” and I have to agree, probably 50% of chill factore’s future business walks out of the door with questions unanswered because they have to join the queue with people who are wanting to get on the slopes and wait like everyone else. This is unfair if all they want to know is the availability of lessons or slope opening times. I know there is literature available which should cover most of the FAQ’s but it cannot cover everything and making people queue 20 minutes to get a question answered doesn’t work very well. I would strongly recommend placing an information/ enquiries booth near the entrance to the slope area, with a few members of experienced or knowledgeable staff in it to answer the mundane question without holding up people who are booked in for activities or wanting to book.
The queuing system to get to the front desk doesn’t work. We pre-booked our session and despite joining the pre-booked queue we didn’t get served any quicker than the people who just turned up. There should be a member of staff on the reception desk who is dedicated to pre-bookings only and this will make people who turn up on the fly, pre-book next time because they know they can get in faster. This will allow chill factore to forecast slope capacity during sessions and make appropriate communications to customers via your website on full sessions, reducing the number of people being turned away (which I saw several times and the people were not happy).
We also had problems with our passes, and it took us a further 10 minutes to get a pass that worked to let us into the changing and equipment hire area. I blame this mainly on system bugs rather than staff training because the staff seemed to know what they were doing the cards just didn’t work. This again caused some chaos when people were continuing to be served whilst others were trying to get a pass that worked and get passed the barriers.
Our session was pre-booked for 11:45, we arrived at 11:20 and didn’t get served until 11:50 (queuing for 30 minutes), then it took 10 minutes to get a pass that worked, 15 minutes to get changed and were on the slopes at 12:15 (exactly the 30 minutes wait in the queue late, therefore remove the queue, remove the problem). We were annoyed and had no apology.
The changing facilities were very good; however the lockers are somewhat smaller than the average skier/ boarder needs. The bags (especially the roller bags) that people bring along with a change of clothes are far bigger than the lockers provided. It isn’t a problem for those people with smaller fabric bags but many people were turning up with rollers and had no where to put them. My friend was one of these and when we asked a member of staff what to do he simply said “you’ll have to buy a smaller bag for next time”, not exactly the most helpful of responses. My friend eventually left his bag on top of the lockers, unsecure and available to anyone who would want to steal it.

Board and Ski Setup
We both have our own equipment and so had little interaction with the setup side of things. I did borrow some boots as my own were causing discomfort and I have to applaud whoever made the partnership deal to get Soloman equipment for chill Factore. All of it is very good quality stuff and all the skiers and boarders I spoke to on the slopes were more than happy with it, WE DONE!!!
The setup area was well designed and apart from the ski measure gadgets being unsuitable for boarder measurement as well, the staff were friendly, knowledgeable and offered useful advice to those that had questions.

The Slope
The slope itself is fantastic in my opinion. However:
On Wednesday 21st November, I understand it was closed later on because of some problems with the temperature and ice forming (and the fact that the British universities ski and board teams nailed the slope all day on Tuesday).
I understand it remained closed all day Thursday22nd November but re-opened on Friday only to close early again to preserve the slope.
I also know the freestyle session for Saturday 24th November had been cancelled as I am a member of SCUK and Pat Sharples posts updates whenever he can, and after attending the VIP evening held on the 15th November and seeing the types of ramps and rails produced, I was very disappointed that it never happened and no-body from the chill factore staff attempted to contact me and let me know, despite being booked on the slope for it. Having said all this, it should be fantastic when it eventually get’s going.
I understand from speaking to some members of staff that the snow cannons cannot be turned on for long whilst the public are on the slope (although I did see them go on last Friday evening during a session), and had been setting off the fire alarms at one point. This is obviously a system problem but needs remedying quickly if you are keen to keep the slope in good condition and free of ice patches.

The main problem I have with the slope is the lift system. I think the poma lifts are great once you get on them, especially considering they are kinked which is a move in the right direction for maintain a snowboard community, however the pass system is not great.
I understand the need for it, as well as ensuring people come off the slope once there paid session has finished and that capacity management can be as effective as possible, I’m sure it is useful from a health and safety perspective to know how many people are on or up the slope at anytime.
Despite this, expecting people to take their glove off, reach into a pocket to find there pass, swipe it past the sensor (or stick it in the card reader for the recently introduced paper system), place it back in there pocket, put there glove back on, walk though the turn style and get on the lift in anything under 1 minute is outrageous. This coupled with the flow of people joining the back of the queue from the slope at busy period’s means ridiculous queuing times to get a 20 second run down the slope and then potentially 15 minutes before you get up again. This works out at roughly 6 runs in a session during busy periods if you’re lucky (hardly worth the £22’s to get on???).
I came up with a simple solution that people ended up copying during our time on the slope; I simply placed the card in my glove and waved my hand past the sensor to get onto the lift. This took me all of 5 seconds to do and would mean the queues would be significantly faster moving and as such, people would be getting more runs and better value for money.
I don’t think that customers should have to use their own ingenuity to overcome a serious design problem though, could you not issue cards in a case with a belt clip (like a climbing caribena with the card on a piece of elastic for example) that they could simply have hanging from their side and pull to swipe when required without having to undress? I am no solutions expert but if I can come up with an easy remedy by thinking about it for 20 seconds I am sure someone could come up with something even better if given longer.
Worse still is that since week one, you have moved from a fairly poor card sensor system to a paper barcode system which is a makes things even worse if you speak to most people.

Other slope activities
I have not tried anything else yet; however after chatting in chillis to some people who had just been tubing, the consensus was very positive. These extra activities make the experience much better as those maybe not so keen on the core snow sports can still have fun whilst those who are keen can enjoy the main slope. I probably spoke to around 15 people who had either had a lesson or being tubing/ luging and all had positive feedback on the equipment and instruction where appropriate. The snow play seems popular and allows the toddlers in families to have fun in the snow too which I think is an excellent idea.

Customer Feedback and Opinion
As well as the bits of customer feedback I have included in the above sections, we have spoken to the staff in the shops and restaurants as well as your own staff both on the reception desk and slopes, and other slope users and the main idea I got from the people I spoke to is that the facility is great, has a number of major problems which need ironing out, but once done will be a great place to visit and enjoy. I can full agree with this opinion. The facilities are probably second to none in the UK (sorry Cas, MK, Shef and Ross people but when it gets sorted it will probably be true), the design and environment is top class and the ingenuity that has gone into the slope design (i.e. pillar-less lifts, snow cannons mounted to the ceiling and other activities available) is something to be proud of.
The main areas of concern are:-
•Lack of an information/ enquiries desk.
•The queuing system at reception and staff experience on reception.
•The pass system throughout the complex from issue to getting onto the lifts.
•The communications and contact avenues (which I will cover in the next section).

Telephone and Contact Services
This is the final area of major problems that many people share my concern with.
On confronting your management teams on the floor about this I have had numbers of “10,000 calls a day” and comments of “unprecedented volumes” banded back at me but it is unacceptable. With all of the hype and interest that any snow-complex in the north of England has received in the past (the Leigh proposal, the original Manchester snow-dome development and Castleford when it opened), some simple market research around the area should have given you a view of the mountain of gold that you are now sitting on. Unfortunately, because no one can get through to your overstretched call centre, I can imagine you are rapidly losing customers this way as well.
I was one of the lucky ones to eventually get through to the call centre last week to enquire about a private lesson for a friend. I was advised that they could not help me on the phone but that they would get an instructor to call me the next day to discuss what level of private lesson was required. I had to resort to going into chill Factore four days later after endless return phone call promises, queuing up at reception, speaking to a member of staff who put a post-it note on your instructor’s bookings diary and was told that they will ring my friend. Four days later they phoned her. I think this point speaks for itself.
On personal experience, the call centre staff are polite and try to help but the systems are unsupportive with regards to amending bookings and cannot allow a booking to be processed/ changed without payment. They always say they will ring back but vary rarely do which is again probably caused by a poor system not reminding them too on a busy day.

When the slope closed on Wednesday night, Thursday day, no one thought to put anything up on the website explaining the problem and not to come down? No-one thought to put a recorded message on the telephone systems to let people know what was happening!?!? People were simply turning up and being given a refund, a free session and then turned away. Now, no doubt these people were pretty happy but all those who had not pre-booked had the first impression of “sorry but tough luck, we are closed and you aren’t going to be compensated for your wasted journey from Liverpool!”. Normally, I would say that it is their own fault for not checking the slope conditions but if they can’t get through on the phone and there is nothing on the website then there is no way of finding out.

In Conclusion
As I said at the start of this correspondence, we are not trying to complain, we am trying to point out your areas of weakness to help you improve. Hopefully you have had other responses similar to this which will fortify my and the other people’s opinions. I and those that have provided an input to this response from SCUK and direct contact have taken a large amount of time to produce this in an attempt to help you and as such would appreciate a response to the points highlighted above.

Hopefully your response will give everyone some reason to bare with chill Factore whilst it finds its feet. Good luck and well done for finally bringing a fantastic snow facility to Manchester!

Best Wishes and Regards

Matt and friends
END LETTER

Tiberius

Post subject: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 29, 2007 - 06:29 PM

Joined: Oct 17, 2004
Posts: 7885
Location: 10 mins from Cas
Status: Offline

Wow..err personally I think it need to be a lot more focussed to achieve anything.

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Kitmatt

Post subject: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 29, 2007 - 10:42 PM

Joined: Nov 24, 2007
Posts: 198
Location: Bolton, UK
Status: Offline

OK Man,
Give me some pointers then and I will re-write. Alot of it is basic draft stuff but the idea is to build or edit on it so if ther are things that you think are missing, please let me know.
Cheers

Matt

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andyturner

Post subject: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 30, 2007 - 10:38 AM

Joined: Jan 06, 2006
Posts: 83
Location: Bolton, England
Status: Offline

I guess it's way too late to change it now, but someone did suggest that there should be more of a 'buffer area' between the gate and the poma so that even if someone does faff with the gate, they don't cause empty pomas because there's already a few people through the gate and waiting. Oh and in your letter I think you should fix all those times you mean "their", but put "there".

Kitmatt

Post subject: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 30, 2007 - 02:29 PM

Joined: Nov 24, 2007
Posts: 198
Location: Bolton, UK
Status: Offline

Yeah,
Thanks for the comments Andy, I will add them in! Its really rough and I havn't spell checked it yet so will pick up on the grammar/ spelling at a later date, I guess I just wanted to get something together quickly and up so people could comment and I could get it to the management in time to do something about it. Got some bad habits with spelling but it always gets fixed after drafting, Lol! i think the buffer idea is a pretty good one really, would definately speed up the cycle times for a run. Thanks for your input man,

Any other suggestions?

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wolfie

Post subject: Re: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 30, 2007 - 02:35 PM

Joined: Dec 08, 2006
Posts: 188
Location: Londidium
Status: Offline

Kitmatt wrote:

•Lack of an information/ enquiries desk.
•The queuing system at reception and staff experience on reception.
•The pass system throughout the complex from issue to getting onto the lifts.
•The communications and contact avenues (which I will cover in the next section).

with a 1 liner for each point to say why seems enough really...no need to tell your story, as it repeats allot of other peoples. I hope they get it sorted improved before I get down there in a couple of weeks.

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Kitmatt

Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Chill Factor E - It

Posted: Nov 30, 2007 - 02:48 PM

Joined: Nov 24, 2007
Posts: 198
Location: Bolton, UK
Status: Offline

Yeah,
Thanks man, I hope they get it sorted out sooner than that. I guess I just added my story to prove the point but I can see where you are coming from, it is pretty long. Thanks for the advice. What I could really do with is some more pointers/ suggestions on content (especially stuff you guys think is missing)?

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