Mike Bartasuis and Ira Riklis credit part of the success of their Charter Sports group of ski shops to how they view and treat their customers. To be sure, the skiers who come to their shops for rentals and merchandising are their end customers. But in some respects their true customers are the resorts. Skiers don’t come to Vail or Beaver Creek just to rent from Charter Sports. And if they have a bad time on their vacation, they don’t go home and blame the rental shops.
So the skiers are really the customers of the resorts. And as Ira Riklis will tell you, it’s the job of the resorts to put “butts in beds” (or BIBs in industry parlance). Once a BIB is in place, then the Charter Sports shops have the opportunity to meet their needs and make their ski excursions a bit more enjoyable. And by keeping the resorts’ customers happy, they encourage repeat visits, and that makes everyone involved happy.