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Steamboat Springs — When it comes to setting Steamboat's ski resort apart from its competition, nothing, not even champagne powder is as important as sincerity, a ski area executive said this week.

"The key is our genuine friendly service," Andy Wirth told an audience at the Steamboat Grand last week. "I guarantee you this is the one that has put Steamboat on the map."

Wirth is the ski area's vice president of marketing. He was speaking to about 20 people in the service industry during the final of three follow-up sessions to last fall's "Service Summit."

Wirth said his staff's research has identified a number of brand elements that make up the "Steamboat experience." Many people might think it is Steamboat's unmatched tree skiing or its Kids Ski Free Program that sets the resort apart, Wirth said. But all the research shows it's a less tangible quality that comes down to an unscripted friendly attitude on the part of locals and resort workers.

Kris Hagenbuch, who wears two hats as a business owner and as a longtime ski instructor, conceived this winter's series of meetings on resort service. He conducts many private lessons during the course of a winter.

Hagenbuch said many of his clients have become personal friends over the years. He is personally motivated to foster a "culture of service" in Steamboat Springs.

Wirth said he's certain there are still many examples of resort workers providing the unusually friendly service Steamboat is known for. He's also aware that the ski area's record is not unblemished.

"Certainly, we're not perfect," Wirth said. "We have success stories and we have challenges."

The challenge, he said, is to convince employees to make the personal decision to go beyond the basics, and extend themselves to guests. And beyond that, the challenge is to strive for consistency.

Based on anecdotal conversations with people in Steamboat, Wirth believes the range of deviation from desirable service levels is on the rise.

"People who come here might have 58 touch points (significant human contacts) during their vacation," Wirth said. "It might be that 57 of them are either average or good. But it's the one that is significantly above or below the line -- that's the one they remember."

Kathy Coates of the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association said she is already booked to give an orientation session for new seasonal workers at Steamboat Lake State Park early this summer. She's unsure of how to rapidly indoctrinate them in Steamboat's culture of Western friendliness.

"What are we going to tell them?" she asked the group.

Win Dermody, who manages the van drivers and bell staff for Mountain Resorts, said it's all about repeated training sessions supported by a system of rewards.

"You've got to train them all every year and pretty soon they catch on," Dermody said.

Dermody, a semi-retired business owner and holder of an MBA, urges his staff to first acknowledge the guest, and then go on to build a rapport over the course of their four to five day visit. The desired behavior is rewarded with cash when vacationers turn in guest comment cards singling out employees for their warm service.

"We get thousands of cards in every season and many of them say, 'Boy, people are friendly!'" Dermody said.

Others in the audience suggested Steamboat resort workers are friendly because they are responding to acts of kindness shown to them. One man said he believes rewards for providing good service are ineffective and even "cheesey." He said people don't really modify their behavior simply because they might get a bonus down the road.

Wirth said it's important to distinguish between the kind of automatic friendly service that guests experience at some resorts, and the "genuine friendliness" that turns Steamboat visitors on.

Ritz Carlton employees are famous for impeccable service, but they have the principles of service drilled into them, he said. Disney World, where employees are known as "cast members," is famous for friendly service. However, cast members are clearly following the script, he said.

Wirth would assert that the difference in Steamboat is that acts of kindness among townsfolk, resort workers and guests are not forced.

Wirth, who lives in rural Routt County, said he has formed a strong attachment to the area. However, it took him about five years after moving here in the early 1980s, to realize that the qualities that made him want to settle down here are the same characteristics exerting a pull on vacationers.

"One of the primary goals should be to take the emotions and attachment somebody feels if their family has been here for three or four generations," Wirth said, "and transfer that onto someone who has been here three or four days."