In previous years I have updated my SwissWinterSports web site with the latest information on the popular Snow’n’Rail scheme, but this year I have not been able to get the information from the SBB. However information is available on the SBB’s web site.
For those of you unfamiliar with the scheme, you can get a combined 1, 2 or 6 day rail and lift pass at a discount from Swiss Railway stations, and can also load up details on a Swiss Pass which can also, conveniently, be used as a ski pass.
Around 30 or so of the leading resorts participate in the scheme, and it varies slightly from one season to the next. Prices might go up (and sometimes even come down) and some resorts may drop out or join in the scheme. Unfortunately my web site still has last years prices and – from a cursory examination – still has the right resorts listed as participants. However do check with the official site before planning your next trip using the scheme. I will manually update the information over the Xmas break.
What my site is still good for, however, is telling you the best way to get to the resorts by public transport, a rough idea of how long it will take, how many changes you need to make, which stop to take and what to expect when you get there. Also the weather forecast for the next few days, provided as ever by the excellent snow-forecast.com.
It’s another strange season again, but so far Swiss resorts remain open and have more facilities open than they did for most of last season. Let’s hope it lasts!
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What is customer experience?
CX is the customer’s perception of your brand, based on their interactions with your business.
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The perception of your brand that customers take away from their experience with you will ultimately impact your bottom line. So getting it right is essential.
What’s the difference between customer experience and customer service?
As brands recognize the importance of customer experience, there can be some confusion about where it belongs in your business. Most brands have a customer service department responsible for interacting with customers. As a result, customer experience should sit with them, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Customer service relates only to specific touchpoints where customers receive or request assistance. For example, when a customer calls an operator to cancel an order or emails a service provider. As customer experience is based on all interactions with your brand, customer service is effectively a part of it.
If you’re planning on adding a specialist CX team to your business, it’s important to remember that they are involved with far more than just the customer service team.
Why is customer experience important?
We’ve already mentioned that customer experience can affect your business’s bottom line. Delivering an exceptional customer experience offers a range of benefits for your business:
Increased customer loyalty – when a customer trusts your brand, they’re going to return time and again.
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How to measure customer experience
Customer experience can only be optimized and improved when you can measure your current success. As CX is based on customer perception, you need to gather insight from your customers.
Reviews and ratings Requesting reviews and ratings of products and services is essential. Not only does it help product development, but it also helps you identify products or services that are failing to meet customer expectations.
Unsubscribe survey Surveying customers when they unsubscribe from your email marketing will help you pinpoint reasons for customer churn. Churn is inevitable, but if you understand the reasons behind it, you can begin to optimize the customer experience to lower the churn rate.
Customer satisfaction surveys You should regularly be sending customer satisfaction surveys to your database. You’ll increase your chances of getting responses if you incentivize your surveys with gift vouchers, but they’re a great tool to understand your customers. In these surveys, you can ask shoppers about anything ranging from website experience and opinions on new product launches using intelligent survey branching to create unique customer pathways.
Customer service feedback Analyzing the feedback you receive from your customer service operations is also very helpful. If you use a support ticket system or ask qualifying questions you can reveal recurring issue among your customers. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of tickets, calls, or live chats that are logged with your customer service teams.
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Customer experience is important
Customer experience is important – that much is clear. Creating remarkable experiences will keep customers coming back, and if you’re really smashing it, advocating for your brand too. The more trust and loyalty you can develop with every interaction, the more the customer will spend with you, as you continue to meet their needs and expectations.
The Swiss Railways provide an excellent discount deal for skiers, called Snow’n’Rail, which typically discounts the price of a rail ticket to a ski resort by 20% and the lift pass by 10%. it is available online or at Swiss Railway stations.
The new schedule for 2020/21 is out, and it is always interesting to see which new resorts have been added and which have fallen off the scheme. Sadly there have been some substantial losses this year – Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Gstaad Mountain Rides and the Vaud resorts (Leysin, les Diablerets and Villars-Gryon).
The brochure available at railway stations is thin on details this year, relying on you to see what is available at the Swiss Railways web site. Where routes include buses or cableways, these are also included in the offer. Swiss Railways also offer discounts on a number of other rail and winter sports combinations, such as tobogganing, snowshoe walking and cross-country skiing.
The Austrian Railways, ÖBB, offer a similar scheme which includes world class resorts like St Anton and Kitzbühel. They also run overnight services from Amsterdam, Hamburg and Düsseldorf to the ski resorts and a shuttle to Kitzbühel from Munich.
A full list of Alpine resorts which have a railway station is at the Snow and Rail web site. Daniel Elkan at SnowCarbon can assist people wanting to get to the Alps from the UK by train, offering a wider selection of resorts where the last leg might require a bus or taxi transfer.
Snow’n’Rail is the popular scheme organised every year by the Swiss Railways which provides a significant discount on the combined lift and public transport ticket prices for over 40 resorts. The booklets listing the offers are available from stations in local language versions, and the online brochure also provides details in English.
There are no new resorts for 2016/7 although les Portes du Soleil is back after a one year absence. Toggenburg, Hoch-Ybrig and Val D’Anniviers have fallen off the scheme, sadly, and a couple of minor resorts are now only listed online.
After modest increases last year, it is perhaps not surprising to see significant increases in some of the offers. Adelboden, the 4 Vallées, Saas-Fee and many Graubünden resorts have seen hikes around 10%. However Zermatt has kept prices flat, as have a number of other resorts, including Les Diablerets, Leysin, Villars, Grindelwald, Wengen, Mürren, Gstaad, Meiringen, Sörenberg, Melchsee-Frutt, Klewenalp, Airolo and Stoos – some routes from Luzern have even fallen slightly.
Tickets can still get pricey, even with the discounts, especially if you do not have a half-price rail card. Without the additional discount, a full day skiing or snowboarding in Zermatt from Basel or Zurich will set you back around 270 SFr. Conversely, with a half-price card, a day in Engelberg will give you change from a 100 Sfr note. Meiringen, Sörenberg and Klewenalp, in particular, provide very good value for the extent of piste available.
For more details of the new season prices visit the resort pages at SwissWinterSports.
