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Show e THE PARK RECORD www.parkrecord.com IBunskiess, B-9 BUSINESS EDITOR: Monika Guendner 649-9014 ext 1 10 businessparkrecord.com WEDTHURSFRI, DECEIVER 3-5, 2003 Briefs i I - j ' GailMcGuill cGuill named 'administrator of Orem hospital Gail M. McGuill, RN, MS, has jeen named the new administrator for 7 Orem Community Hospital. McGuill will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the hospital as well as ensuring that the facility is fulfilling its mission to the community. She will also continue as the chief nursing officer for the IHC hospitals in the county, and is serving as a member mem-ber of the IHC Summit County hospital hospi-tal design team. McGuill had a 22-year career in Anchorage; and is best known for her nearly 14 years of leadership as the executive officer for the Alaska State Board of Nursing. She also worked as v the chief operations officer and director direc-tor of nursing at Charter North Star Hospital and the director of Quality and Risk Management at Alaska Regional Hospital. McGuill is also the education co-chair co-chair for the Utah Organization of Nurse Leaders, and in 2001 , she was appointed by Governor Mike Leavitt to serve on the Utah Health Data Committee. McGuill lives in Park City with her husband, Jim Bragg, and their two teenage daughters Estate, planning program scheduled Joe Cronley, the Park City Edward Jones investment representative, will host a free program about estate planning at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 9 at his office, 1745 Sidewinder Dr., Suite 202. The program will include estate planning considerations and building an estate planning team. For more information, or to RSVP, call 615-2009. 615-2009. Intrepid Group wins Gold Spike Awards j The Intrepid Group, a public relations rela-tions and promotions company, claimed top honors for public relations campaigns at the 2003 Golden Spike Awards sponsored by the i International Association of Business Communicators and the Greater Salt Lake1 Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. . The Intrepid Group was awarded 10 Golden Spike Awards in the public ;; relations campaigns division. i DEER VALLEY' I I Thisjear, Mother Nature rolled out the white carpet, SO WE'RE ROLLING OUT THE $25 LIFT TICKET. Bring the herd. DEER VALLEY OPENS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6TH. weekend, you can also enjoy events like the Merrill Lynch For two days only, December 6th and 7th, you can ski Deer Celebrity Ski Classic. Or take advantage of the 2-for-l entree Valley for just $25- It's a perfect opportunity to take advantage special at The Mariposa offered through December l8th. Don't of the incredible early season snow this year. During opening ' miss the great early season snow and specially-priced lift tickets. Legacy no Spirit Store closes, leaving Main Street without Olympic-branded goods By MONIKA GUENDNER Of the Record staff The memory of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games faded a little further into the past last month when the U.S. Spirit Store - the retail arm of the United States Olympic Committee - closed its doors for good. The closing of the Park City store means that the town will have one less Olympic legacy to offer its guests. After licensing agreements ran out at the end of 2002, the only way to buy trademarked Olympic merchandise on Main Street was through the Spirit Store or on the discount racks of local shops. The decision to stop, offering Team USA sweatshirts, 2002 Olympic mascot hats and future Olympic baseball hats was made in September, when the USOC outsourced its entire retail operation to XP Apparel. The decision to give XP Apparel control con-trol was closely followed by the decision to close all the USOC retail outlets in Utah, according to spokesperson Darryl Seibel. Seibel added that the USOC continues contin-ues to operate one store in Colorado Springs (headquarters for the USOC administration) and retail stores in Lake Placid, New York. He was uncertain if the USOC ever had outlets in Atlanta, and none are currently listed on the USOC's website. He did not specify whether the USOC or XP Apparel ran the other stores. Fred Moore, landlord for the Caledonia where the store was located, worked with members of the USOC to keep the store in Park City in some form. Despite offering a range of incentives, from a special deal on the lease to taking over all operations of the store, Moore said the USOC was unable or unwilling to negotiate. Employees removed the merchandise before the lease ended on Nov. 30 and moved it to storage. "We're still trying to figure out a way to get the rights to sell the logoed stuff," said Moore, although he admitted his Sales steady, crime minimal The Factory Stores at Park City see good start to the holiday shopping season on all fronts By MONIKA GUENDNER Of the Record staff The holiday shopping season at the Factory Stores at Park City got off to a decent start during the weekend after Thanksgiving. Official traffic counts were down compared com-pared to last year, according to Lyn Thorton, general manager of the mall, but shoppers were more creative in their parking choices. They avoided the mall's two parking lots and lined their cars along Powderwood Drive or in the Wal-Mart Wal-Mart and Hampton Inn parking lots and walked down. The results showed that overall, sales were "pretty good," said Thorton. Many retailers reported that, drive or walk, people were shopping for the holidays. Some of the larger anchor retailers recorded an increase in sales over Thanksgiving weekend 2002, but none of the mall's store reported any surprising or unusual increases or decreases. The "early bird" specials continued to be a popular revenue maker on the Friday following Thanksgiving, said Thorton. While all stores were required to open their doors by 8 a.m., some retailers opened as early as 5 or 6 a.m., offering special discounts or promotional items to shoppers looking for a good deal. longer for Kile on Main 1 T(l t. c c'.rtO 1 GRAYSON WESTBARK RECORD The U.S. Spirit Store closed its Lower Main Street location last month despite local efforts to keep a retail face to Olympics open. optimism was waning. "I can't imagine this town not having an Olympic presence. I was told they are just not geared to have a retail presence," pres-ence," he said. Roots continues to sell clothing with the five Olympic rings and USA logos in their Main Street location. The Canadian retailer has garnered the right to outfit the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. They do not, however, have any Olympic merchandise such as pins, mascots or accessories and apparel with specific Olympic references on them. Mike Sweeney, vice president of the Main Street Business Alliance and a business owner on Lower Main Street, does not consider the loss to be critical, although he supports having a store to carry on the Olympic legacy on Main Street. "I would love to see somebody come in there and take over what they're doing," he said before the store's doors Some stores continued with less radical radi-cal early openings throughout the weekend, week-end, although they were not required to do so by the mall, he added. Sticky fingers The mall did not reinforce its security in any unusual ways for the weekend, said Thorton. One safety officer worked additional hours over the holiday weekend, week-end, with three to four employees from the maintenance department available for assistance. The safety officer was called on several sever-al occasions by store employees who suspected sus-pected a shoplifter, said Thorton. In all instances, the suspect left upon seeing her, and there were no apprehensions. Police activity at the Factory Stores was minimal over the holiday weekend, according to Captain Joe Offret at the Summit County Sheriff's office.. Two phone calls came in on Friday morning from stores with suspected shoplifters. Maidenform and Great Outdoor Clothing Co. reported thefts to the responding deputy, but no arrests were made. "Commercial boosters," or thieves who steal significant amounts of merchandise mer-chandise - sometimes enough to fill a cube truck, were not a problem during the weekend. Merchants at the Factory Stores have employed a community-oriented security 1 S 11 -I WaoOl IT LV closed. "It goes a long way in supporting the Olympic legacy." Ultimately, however, the closing of the store was just a "blip on the radar screen," said Sweeney, who saw more excitement generated from the display of the Moose on the Loose statue that had been stationed outside his spa on lower Main Street. - "The moose has brought more people here than anything else," he said. He saw people stop their cars and get out to take a photo with the moose or just pat it on the back. "The moose is an attractor," he said. "I'm sad to see the store go... Merchants, business owners, landlords, we all recognize the advantage of having some presence of the Olympic legacy," said Sweeney. Moore has already found a new tenant for the space on Lower Main - Alpaca One, formerly in the Galleria Mali, is expected to open its doors on Dec. 15. at outlet mall network to deter theft and apprehend suspected shoplifters. When a store manager or employee identifies a suspected shoplifter, she calls two to three other stores listed on a mall-wide mall-wide phone tree. After giving those stores a description of the suspect, the merchants carry on the chain until the entire mall is notified. The original merchant mer-chant then also calls the front office and the sheriff's department. Despite the seasonal workers, new employees and increased activity in the holiday season, the phone tree system is very effective in keeping an eye on the dubious shopper until the sheriff's department can arrive, said Offret. Retailers can spread the news within 15 minutes and occasionally track someone from one store to another. "They are very theft conscious," he said. The phone tree, a common tool throughout the Park City area, is also used at the mall to alert merchants of evacuations, lost children and other emergencies, said Thorton. The Thanksgiving weekend was the mall's kickoff for the shopping season, when holiday decorations, music and carolers car-olers combined to enhance the shopping experience. The mall will host the Park City Choir, who will carol on the weekends as well as offer gift wrapping in the upper mall. Santa will make regular visits to the mall on Saturdays and Tuesday, Dec. 23, and a photo shoot at Furburbia on Dec. 11. ..v U f , , lw lr s v ;, 1 jf ) Customers might not be right Businesses need to focus on more than giving the customer what they want By MONIKA GUENDNER Of the Record staff It's the service industry's dirty secret: the customer is frequently wrong. Basing a company's customer service values on the old adage that the customer is always right is "one of the biggest betrayals of your employees that you can commit," asserts Bill Geist, a speaker at the Park City ChamberBureau's Tourism Symposium. The tired guiding principle opens up opportunity for misinformed, misguided or even abusive customers to wear down the best employees, said Geist. The customer cus-tomer is still miserable and the employee will often leave the company for somewhere some-where less stressful. Geist is president of Zeitgeist Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning for visitors and convention con-vention bureaus and has spoken in Park City before. Exceptional customer service is essential essen-tial in building up a destination vacation area such as Park City, because 84 percent of people feel entitled to the highest level of service regardless of the price they are paying, said Geist. The culprit for this perception is television, tele-vision, he said, but added that customer service is the easiest way to differentiate one business from the next. Businesses in Park City need to adopt the concept that they are not competing with a similar business down the street, but with businesses in other resort towns and with entire experiences around the world, said Geist. Because of this, businesses need to look at what they offer and see what they can create that people have not seen before. Resting on what has worked in the past will make a business, town or destination stale very quickly, said Geist. "It's about being unique," he said. Geist offered several ways to improve customer service beyond "the customer is always right." The key for business is not to have a satisfied customer because there is no reaction, said Geist. The key is to have a customer so impressed that they become evangelical about your business. Customer loyalty is the goal, customer satisfaction is easily stolen, he said. Smiling is still one of the most important impor-tant tools in customer service, said Geist. A customer has a more difficult time nailing nail-ing every angry tendency on an employee who presents herself as upbeat and smiling. smil-ing. "It's really hard to unload on somebody some-body that's that perky," said Geist. Another proven tool is to encourage employees to S.I.N. - solve it now. By giving giv-ing employees the authority to solve a problem themselves instead of getting a manager, the employee has a greater stake in the company and the process and customer satisfaction increases significantly. signifi-cantly. Signs are also an important way to resonate res-onate with customers, make them feel more comfortable ajid spend more money, said Geist. As an example, he held up two signs. One was hand written on a piece of scrap cardboard, the other, a professionally designed and lettered message on a perfectly per-fectly square piece of metal. They both read "Fresh eggs." The handwritten sign resonates better with a driver on a country road looking for a mom and pop farm for Eggs, he said. When the same signs read "Flying Lessons," however, the reaction is the Please see Create, B-10 WWW.DEERVALLEY.COM (435-649-lOOo) |
