Expert says Vail Resorts needs to improve communication

Dartmouth Tuck School of Business Professor Paul Argenti wrote the textbook on corporate communication and now regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies.

Argenti said on KPCW’s Mountain Money, Park City Mountain failed when it came to communications with guests during the strike.

“I think they did a pretty bad job, to be honest with you,” Argenti said. “You know this is coming. It is what I would describe as kind of a predictable surprise for a company. And given that’s the case, your communication should be much more transparent and honest, and you need to have open communication channels. And instead, from what I could see, there isn’t a whole lot of communication out there.”

Park City Mountain owner Vail Resorts is now facing a class action lawsuit as a result of the strike.

The lawsuit claims that less than 20% of the mountain was open during the 13-day strike, which left guests who spent thousands on Christmas ski vacations in long lift lines, waiting for up to 3 hours at times.

Park City Mountain Chief Operating Officer Deirdre Walsh previously apologized to pass holders about the impacts and said resort management tried to avoid a strike. Walsh said union members “hurt their fellow employees, skiers and snowboarders, and neighbors” by choosing to strike during the peak holiday period.

The resort regularly posts up-to-date information about open terrain and lifts on X, its website and the My Epic app.

Argenti said the resort’s public messaging should have prioritized informing guests about the on-mountain impacts of the strike.

“Make sure that people understand that you really have a commitment to kind of get this resolved,” Argenti said. “They obviously don’t have a good public relations or communications team, either in-house or that they hire in, to explain the company’s perspective without vilifying workers or the union. I mean, they must be just completely winging it, and if they do have a communications person or an outside agency, they did a terrible job and should be fired.”

“We strive for transparency on operations,” Walsh said Jan. 6 during the strike. “And the truth is that during this unprecedented time, each day is dynamic, and we are doing the best we can to keep guests informed.”

Poor guest experiences at Park City Mountain garnered national headlines, with some vowing to never purchase an Epic Pass again.

Argenti said consumers typically have short-term memories but that Vail should still be proactive in repairing its reputation.

“I do think it will have an effect on long-term relationships, and they need to fix that before it gets to that point,” the professor said. “They really need to do something before they get there, and they have to have a different approach to communications overall. Going forward, if they can do that, they can get beyond this pretty quickly. If they don’t, more things like this will continue to happen.”

In a statement last week, Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch said the company deeply regrets the disruption caused by the strike. Lynch said Vail is committed to rebuilding guest loyalty and trust.

To make up for the impacts over the holidays, Park City Mountain is offering discounts on passes next season to skiers and riders on the mountain during the strike.

This article was originally published by a www.kpcw.org . Read the Original article here. .