Tom's Story
Tom’s Story - From Guest Experience to Head of Operations
I look after the some of the most inspiring and dynamic people I’ve ever met and I am forever striving to get the best out of everyone every single day as collectively we deliver amazing experiences to our guests. Together, we look after our Call Centre, Guest Reception, Equipment Hire, Changing Facilities, as well as managing Birthday Parties, Corporate Events, Snow Fun Activities, Main Slope operations and Slope Patrol, the occasional First Aid incident and of course all of our skiing and snowboarding lessons! There’s so much going on and every day is so very different.
I joined Chill Factore in 2007. I had completed several seasons over in the French Alps and came back to Manchester to ‘find a career’, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. Chill Factore was just being built at the time and I thought it would be the perfect place for me to start my career whilst I figured out what I wanted to do. I had plenty of experience delivering great guest service and I was passionate about going the extra mile so Chill Factore seemed to be the perfect place for me. When I started, the building was still being finished and we hadn’t even started producing the snow! It was a really exciting time to join.
Since working at Chill Factore, I’ve developed so much. I started out as a full time team member with Guest Services – welcoming guests, providing advice, encouragement, directions, taking care of their bookings and tickets, looking after any difficulties or challenges they faced and so on - anything and everything really which is what made it so enjoyable! Being directly involved in their great experiences rubs off on you. You work hard, of course but you feel like you’re enjoying it just like they are. Within a few months, I was promoted to the supervisor team. This involved looking after the Guest Services team and helping them with any challenges they faced.
As a supervisor, my career progressed via a number of different departmental routes from Assistant Manager to Manager level roles. I worked beneath a number of different senior leaders and learnt a significant amount from all of them, both professionally and personally.
Interestingly (and perhaps surprisingly), I learnt just as much from the dynamic and passionate individuals for whom I was responsible.
What I love the most about working at Chill Factore is the people. 100%. Working in such a unique environment seems to bring people together from all ages and backgrounds. We all work so hard across all areas of the business – both for each other and our guests. The reward is worth it though and it brings me back day after day. I love it! I’m sure others will too.
