One of the questions we at Hill Hiker hear most from people regarding our product is “What’s it called?”.
It’s a difficult question to answer—because through our many years of experience working in the industry, the correct answer is: there is no one definitive answer.
Our systems can be called a number of different things, and trust us, we’ve heard them all!
Outdoor enthusiasts might call it things like hill climber elevator, outdoor lift, outdoor tram, or an outdoor elevator. Waterfront cabin owners might refer to it as a lakeside lift, lakeside elevator, lakeshore tram, high bank lift, or waterfront elevator. People in the elevator industry often times call it an inclined elevator, incline tram, commercial hill lift, hillside home elevator, custom hill elevator, or a hillavator.
Recently, we put out an online survey to try to figure out which keywords or phrases were most often used to describe Hill Hiker systems. True to form, the survey results came back with a wide array of responses. Some of the respondents used words we were familiar with—or had at least heard before (hillside elevator, hillside lift, hillside tram, incline elevators, tramway, cable car). Others preferred naming the Hill Hiker system by simply describing what they saw (we’re looking at you, “automatic people movers”).
So, does it make targeting and promoting our business a little more difficult? Sure, it can at times, but we wouldn’t want it any other way. Our product is unique to us and the people who use it, so it’s only fitting that the names and ways to describe a Hill Hiker system are just as unique as the product itself.
