Great Customer Service. The Universal Language Spoken Everywhere.

John Enticknap, Charlie Bodnar and Ron Jackson with Euro Jet agents in Prague

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson
Aviation Business Strategies Group

Recently we were approached by Charlie Bodnar, the CEO of Euro Jet, to see if we might be interested in teaching our Don’t Forget the Cheese!© FBO customer service training program at their Global Network Forum scheduled for January in Prague. Euro Jet is a leading international provider of both flight and ground support services.

At first, we were a little concerned our Americanized content would possibly lose some meaning half way around the world in a very different culture. However, our fears were quickly erased as Charlie explained that more than 60 percent of Euro Jet’s customers were U.S. based flight crews.

“It may sound crazy teaching our people American service standards,” Charlie asserted when we met in October at the Annual NBAA meeting in Orlando. “But this market is very important to us and we want to make sure we meet our customer’s expectations.” 

So on Jan. 12 we packed our bags and headed to Prague. We were still a little unsure if we would be able to adequately communicate the principles of our program that’s been popular in various parts of the good old U.S. of A. but had never stood the international test on the other side of the pond.

Upon arrival, we met with Zaneta Balochova who handles marketing at Euro Jet. She was quick to put us at ease as we were given a preview of the room in which we would be teaching at the historic Boscolo Hotel near Prague’s Old Town.  As the agents began to filter into the room, we started to chit chat a little and practiced pronouncing their names.

There was Ulrika from Estonia, Marian from Bulgaria, Eugenijus from Lithuania and Robert from Macedonia, among many others. We were immediately impressed by their command of the English language, although not altogether surprising since English is spoken throughout the international aviation community. Still, the little nuances that started to creep into our mini conversations gave us encouragement that we would be understood well beyond the basics.

What was most interesting is how these agents, some 70 of them from 20 countries in Europe and Asia, learned to speak English. Several we talked to said they watched and studied subtitled American movies, repeatedly, practicing the English dialogue over and over again. Now that’s dedication!

However, the universal language that brought us all together was customer service. Here we found middle ground, striking a common chord that resonated throughout the entire room.

The agents quickly understood that the objective of providing excellent customer service was to gain a long-term, profitable customer relationship. Just as we teach in our NATA FBO Success Seminar, they promptly recognized that the surest way to differentiate their brand from the competition was by offering a great customer service experience.

They also embraced enthusiastically the true test of whether a great customer service experience was achieved by asking one simple question of the customer upon departure: “Would you recommend us?”

We can tell you, unequivocally, that we would recommend the good folks at Euro Jet … in a heartbeat. Not because we were their guests and taught them the American way. Rather, and most importantly, it’s because they got it. They intuitively understood that providing great customer service is a universal language, appreciated and understood by loyal customers anywhere in the world.

For a compelling Euro Jet perspective of our training experience in Prague, we invite to read a companion blog written by Gareth Danker, Director of Global Sales and Marketing. Please click here for content.

About the bloggers:

John Enticknap has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience. Ron Jackson is co-founder of Aviation Business Strategies Group and president of The Jackson Group, a PR agency specializing in FBO marketing and customer service training. For more background, visit the biography page or www.absggroup.com.

Flight Training Programs Benefit from Out-of-the-Box Thinking

By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group

- Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

This article from the archives analyzes how FBOs with flight training programs can make the most of their flight schools as aviation services become more specialized and while the pilot population is declining. It was originally published on March 24, 2011.—Ed.

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

Friedrich Nietzsche, a controversial philosopher for his time, made this statement before the Wright Brothers even flew, so we may assume he was not referring to the business of training people to fly. However, this quote has much relevance to our FBO flight training activities today.

It wasn’t that many years ago that the majority of FBOs were defined as “full-service companies” offering flight school training, new and used aircraft sales, charter, maintenance, hangars, and terminal facilities.

The business model was to market to potential pilots, both professional and recreational, train them, sell them an airplane, hope they would trade up, maintain the airplane, hangar it and, of course, sell them fuel and various services. As the pilot grew in experience and need, the FBO could make a good living by selling the next biggest aircraft.

It was a cradle-to-the-grave concept, and it seemed to work just fine.

The Changing FBO Business Model

However, in the last 30 years, the business of running an FBO has become much more specialized. It has evolved to the point that a full-service FBO is almost nonexistent. We now have businesses that have become SASOs (specialized aviation service organizations) that specialize in primarily fuel, line services and real estate management.

On one hand, I believe this has been a healthy trend for the industry because it allows the owners to specialize in a narrow facet of the FBO business based on their particular talents and knowledge.

On the other hand, this trend has taken the emphasis away from developing a growing pilot population. The growth of aviation is directly tied to maintaining a high interest in training new pilots. The pilot population topped out a number of years ago and has been declining ever since.

We hear all the usual arguments: high cost (by the way, it has always been costly to learn to fly), poor flight instructors, old slow aircraft, etc.

Because many FBOs have chosen not to provide flight school training for whatever reason, an important resource is vanishing in many communities.

That leaves primarily the specialized schools to fill the void. We have a few national chain flight schools, those schools specializing in instrument training and individual schools that target specific market segments. These segments may include foreign students, those interested in recreational flying, Type A business executives with the means and motivation, and colleges, as well as others.

Pilot Retention

Besides attracting new pilots to enter a flight training program, one of the major problems flight schools have is retaining the interest of the pilots throughout the process. Historically, there is a drop-off after soloing and again after finishing training.

When a new pilot, be it a private pilot, recreational pilot or even those who are starting a piloting career, passes the final flight check, the big challenge for the flight school is to keep this new pilot coming back for more advanced training. This is when the flight school owner, instructors, staff — the whole team — needs to think outside the box and get creative in the area of retention.

In other words, they need a dynamic marketing plan to develop pilot-specific programs to grow the new pilot, keep the interest level up, improve skills and generally have fun. Remember, for the most part, you are competing for discretionary dollars, which can go for flying, boating, golf, sport cars, etc. Here are some ideas for keeping pilots at your flight school:

• Have pilots join the Wings Program, a pilot proficiency program that can be taken online as well as flying. Sign up at www.FAASafety.gov to create your own account, and educate your flight instructors. See the new Advisory Circular AC 61-91-J.
• Tail Wheel endorsement: This will make your new pilot a better pilot.
• Trip to ATC Facilities: Great for IFR and instrument rating trainees.
• Trip to Altitude Chamber: This is good for all pilots.
• Flight Reviews: Both VFR and Instrument Proficiently Check. Find the Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) Guidance publication at  www.FAASafety.gov.
• Weekend Ground Schools.

What’s most important is how you market these programs. You need to have a customer base from your existing pilots, a database of the existing pilot population from a radius of 200-300 hundred miles, advertising in the local/regional aviation publications, an e-newsletter campaign, social media presence and a sustained community outreach to the interested pilot population. All this should be part of your original business and marketing plan.

So what can Friedrich Nietzsche teach us? For all successful business enterprises, we “must first learn to stand and walk and run and dance” before we can fly. And how do we fly? We develop and use a well-matured business plan, spend some time thinking creatively with the team and remember to add a little fun along the way.

About the bloggers:

John Enticknap
John Enticknap has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience and has served as president/CEO of Mercury Air Centers, a network of FBOs he grew from four facilities to 21 locations. He has international FBO experience including opening the Royal Aviation Terminal in Kuwait. John has held executive management positions with DynAir Fueling and CSX Becket Aviation and holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial management from Northeastern University. He teaches the acclaimed FBO Success Seminar for the National Aviation Transportation Association (NATA) and is an NATA certified safety auditor. John is the co-author of the forthcoming book FBO Survival! Keeping Your Operation Lean, Mean & Profitable. He also writes an industry blog titled FBO Connection for Penton‘s B&CA Digest. He is an active ATP and CFI rated pilot with more than 8,100 flight hours; certified in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft. jenticknap@bellsouth.net, Ph: 404-867-5518, www.absggroup.com

Ron Jackson
Ron Jackson is co-founder of Aviation Business Strategies Group and president of The Jackson Group, a PR agency specializing in FBO marketing and customer service training. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft, Fairchild Aircraft and Bozell Advertising. Ron developed the strategic marketing communication plan and programs for Mercury Air Centers and consults with numerous FBOs in areas of marketing, promotions and customer service training. He is the author of Don’t Forget the Cheese! The Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience. and co-author of the forthcoming book FBO Survival! Keeping Your Operation Lean, Mean & Profitable. He is a journalist and co-developed NATA’s acclaimed FBO Success Seminar Series. Ron writes an industry blog for Penton’s B&CA Digest titled: The FBO Connection.  Ron@thejacksongroup.biz,  Ph: 972-979-6566, www.absggroup.com

Originally Published on March 24, 2011.

Flight Schools: Time to Think Outside the Box

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

Friedrich Nietzsche, a controversial philosopher for his time, made this statement before the Wright Brothers even flew, so we may assume he was not referring to the business of training people to fly. However, this quote has much relevance to our FBO flight training activities today.

It wasn’t that many years ago that the majority of FBOs were defined as “full-service companies” offering flight school training, new and used aircraft sales, charter, maintenance, hangars, and terminal facilities.

The business model was to market to potential pilots, both professional and recreational, train them, sell them an airplane, hope they would trade up, maintain the airplane, hangar it and, of course, sell them fuel and various services. As the pilot grew in experience and need, the FBO could make a good living by selling the next biggest aircraft.

It was a cradle-to-the-grave concept, and it seemed to work just fine.

The Changing FBO Business Model

However, in the last 30 years, the business of running an FBO has become much more specialized. It has evolved to the point that a full-service FBO is almost nonexistent. We now have businesses that have become SASOs (specialized aviation service organizations) that specialize in primarily fuel, line services and real estate management.

On one hand, I believe this has been a healthy trend for the industry because it allows the owners to specialize in a narrow facet of the FBO business based on their particular talents and knowledge.

On the other hand, this trend has taken the emphasis away from developing a growing pilot population. The growth of aviation is directly tied to maintaining a high interest in training new pilots. The pilot population topped out a number of years ago and has been declining ever since.

We hear all the usual arguments: high cost (by the way, it has always been costly to learn to fly), poor flight instructors, old slow aircraft, etc. AOPA recently completed a study of the student pilot dropout rate, so there will be more talk of that in the near future. That is a subject for another time.

Because many FBOs have chosen not to provide flight school training for whatever reason, an important resource is vanishing in many communities across the nation.

That leaves primarily the specialized schools to fill the void. We have a few national chain flight schools, those schools specializing in instrument training and individual schools that target specific market segments. These segments may include foreign students, those interested in recreational flying, Type A business executives with the means and motivation, and colleges, as well as others.

Pilot Retention

Besides attracting new pilots to enter a flight training program, one of the major problems flight schools have is retaining the interest of the pilots throughout the process. Historically, there is a drop-off after soloing and again after finishing training.

When a new pilot, be it a private pilot, recreational pilot or even those who are starting a piloting career, passes the final flight check, the big challenge for the flight school is to keep this new pilot coming back for more advanced training! This is when the flight school owner, instructors, staff — the whole team — needs to think outside the box and get creative in the area of retention.

In other words, they need a dynamic marketing plan to develop pilot-specific programs to grow the new pilot, keep the interest level up, improve skills and generally have fun. Remember, for the most part, you are competing for discretionary dollars, which can go for flying, boating, golf, sport cars, etc. Here are some ideas for keeping pilots at your flight school:

• Have pilots join the Wings Program, a pilot proficiency program that can be taken online as well as flying. Sign up at www.FAASafety.gov to create your own account, and educate your flight instructors. See the new Advisory Circular AC 61-91-J.
• Tail Wheel endorsement: This will make your new pilot a better pilot.
• Trip to ATC Facilities: Great for IFR and instrument rating trainees.
• Trip to Altitude Chamber: This is good for all pilots.
• Flight Reviews: Both VFR and Instrument Proficiently Check. Find the Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) Guidance publication at  www.FAASafety.gov.
• Weekend Ground Schools.

What’s most important is how you market these programs. You need to have a customer base from your existing pilots, a database of the existing pilot population from a radius of 200-300 hundred miles, advertising in the local/regional aviation publications, an e-newsletter campaign, social media presence and a sustained community outreach to the interested pilot population. All this should be part of your original business and marketing plan.

So what can Friedrich Nietzsche teach us? For all successful business enterprises, we “must first learn to stand and walk and run and dance” before we can fly. And how do we fly? We develop and use a well-matured business plan, spend some time thinking creatively with the team and remember to add a little fun along the way.

If you’ve had success developing a flight training retention program, I’d like to hear from you. Email me at jenticknap@bellsouth.net.

John Enticknap

John Enticknap founded Aviation Business Strategies Group in 2006 following a distinguished career in aviation fueling and FBO management, including as president of Mercury Air Centers. He is the author of 10 Steps to Building a Profitable FBO and developed NATA’s acclaimed FBO Success Seminar Series.