By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals, Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG)
The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) is breaking new ground by developing a CSR Certification program designed to strengthen the core competencies of key FBO personnel who seek to deliver a better customer service experience.
We believe this strategy is spot on. As we have written in previous blogs, FBOs who compete on customer service don't have to compete on fuel price in order to attract new customers. While some aircraft operators will always look for the lowest fuel price, the majority of loyal customers will choose FBOs that provide both a good value and a great customer service experience.
The goal of this new CSR certification program is to provide a course curriculum that results in a well-rounded FBO employee who is capable of being a team leader by demonstrating exceptional customer service skills.
Over the last two decades, NATA has led the industry with its popular Safety 1st Line Service Training curriculum. Just as FBOs don't condone accidents on the ramp, they are becoming more conscious of preventing customer service miscues that can cause a loyal customer to defect. This was the impetus for developing this new certificated program.
The new NATA CSR Certification Program contains five modules that need to be completed in order for an individual to become a Certified Customer Service Representative (CCSR). The first module is completed online and covers all the fundamentals of working in an FBO or aviation services industry environment including operational procedures and best practices.
The next four modules are completed at a two-day CSR Certification Workshop. We will be speaking during these workshops. The first workshop is scheduled for September 27-28 at the AirFlight, Inc., facility in Long Beach, Calif. This inaugural workshop costs $275 for NATA members and $400 for nonmembers. This price includes both the fundamental online course as well as the two-day workshop.
For more information, please visit the NATA website.
Please leave a comment on this subject below. If you have any questions, please give us a call or send us an email: jenticknap@bellsouth.com, 404-867-5518; ronjacksongroup@gmail.com, 972-979-6566.
ABOUT THE BLOGGERS:
John Enticknap has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience and is an IS-BAH Accredited auditor. 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. Visit the biography page or absggroup.com for more background.
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“‘The proof is in the pudding’ is a popular figure of speech meaning ‘the quality, effectiveness or truth of something can only be judged by putting it into action or to its intended use.’” – The Word Detective
We’ve all heard the phrase, the proof is in the pudding. This expression dates back to the early 1600s and is really a derivative of an expanded phrase: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
This, of course, makes perfect sense because tasting the pudding determines whether it is good or bad.
And so it is with delivering a great FBO customer service experience. You start with the best ingredients and follow the recipe to success. The recipe is very simple:
Mix completely, and serve.
Now, all you have to do is ask your customers to find out if your pudding — or their experience — is to their liking. That’s why you should have a good way to collect feedback from your customers through a short customer service survey.
When I say short, I’m talking about a maximum of five direct questions regarding your deliverables. Here are some examples:
Always add what I call the bonus question: Would you recommend our FBO?
This question is really the most important. It is a key customer service metric, and, if you’d like, it is the litmus test of whether your pudding — the customer service experience — hits the mark or needs some extra ingredients.
Of course, customers can be too nice at times and might not want to offend you by being overly critical in a survey.
You should also look at a more definitive metric to see if your hard work at delivering an exceptional customer service experience is really paying off.
A loyal, happy customer remains a customer for a greater length of time. So you should be tracking your customers to make sure they are coming back to your facility every time they travel to your destination. You can use a flight tracking service to monitor incoming flights.
Your line service personnel should become familiar with regular customers’ aircraft registration numbers and be alert when tracking inbound flights to your airport and surrounding airports.
If you haven’t seen a regular customer in a while, pick up the phone and call to learn why. If your line service personnel notices a regular customer going to a competitor, again, pick up the phone and find out what you might have done wrong.
Source: Strativity Group, in partnership with Customer Service Experts.Research shows that most unsatisfied customers won’t tell you there is a problem before they jump ship. They simply change their buying habits. So you need to know why they made a change and why they became unhappy with your service.
As the chart indicates, a happy customer is a loyal customer and stays with you for a longer period of time. A satisfied customer also tends to spend more and, thus, take on more fuel at your facility.
And oddly enough, a satisfied customer does not need incentives or discounts to continue being loyal. In fact, they do not mind paying a small premium to be treated well.
In the end, the payoff for delivering a truly memorable customer service experience is a contingent of loyal, highly engaged advocates who will recommend you at the drop of a hat.
So it really does pay to include quality ingredients in delivering a good customer service experience. The proof is in the pudding!
If you have some good customer service ingredients you’d like to share, please email me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.
Note: This blog was inspired in part by a Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services article titled How to Achieve a Great — and Profitable — Customer Service Experience.
Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group, a public relations agency specializing in aviation and FBO marketing. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft and Bozell Advertising and is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.
I have returned from a much needed vacation to the Canadian outback where I enjoyed a week of fishing with no phone, TV or newspaper.
Every year, I travel to the far western reaches of Ontario for our annual fish camp outing that has been a part of my family tradition since 1961, when my father first went with his buddies to the same waters we fish today. I started going with my dad in 1984, and now his 16-year-old great-grandson, my grand nephew, is representing the fourth generation to wet a line in these great Northern waters.
On this most recent outing, I started to think about writing a blog post based on the similarities between fishing for dinner and casting a net for new FBO customers.
As many times as I have gone on this fishing trip, there is still a fair amount of planning to do. Same goes for developing a sound marketing plan to increase your FBO business.
Blogger Ron Jackson and 16-year-old grand nephew Chas holding a 20-inch Walleye on a Canadian fishing trip.As author Stephen Covey says in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you have to begin with the end in mind. Because I’ve been on this trip before and have had success in hauling in some nice fish, I can visualize my goal: A 29-inch, 10-pound Walleye!
Same goes for the FBO business. You know the type of valued customer you want to attract, so you should visualize reaching your goal, whether it’s five more new customers or 50. And you should be updating these goals annually.
Research shows that a business can lose up to 30 percent of its customer base annually due to attrition or churn in the marketplace. Factors include companies downsizing and selling their aircraft; companies going out of business; mergers and acquisitions; new flight destinations; and the worst case scenario, defection — losing a valued customer to a competing FBO.
New customers are paramount to keeping a healthy balance sheet.
You have set your goals, you have written your business and marketing plan, and you have followed your map to your destination. Now you have to ask yourself, “Are you going to fish or cut bait?”
Sometimes we can take planning and strategizing too far. We can call too many meetings and second-guess our way to being highly ineffective. As one of my bosses at a Fortune 500 company years ago said, “If you don’t get started, you’ll never finish.”
And so it is with catching fish or a new customer. If you don’t get your pole in the water, nothing will happen.
Years ago, I read a book titled Bunkhouse Logic by Ben Stein. The premise was about the same. You can’t win at anything unless you first get started. You’ve got to start the cattle drive and you’ve got to finish the cattle drive, point A to point B. Also, if you want to win at poker, you first have to get yourself to the table. In other words, you have to get your feet wet and sometimes force yourself to get started.
Catching a good customer on your terms is a far better scenario than catching a customer on his or her terms. Remember the blog I wrote titled Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part 2: Do You Feel Lucky?
In this post, we discussed the danger of attracting the wrong customer by subjectively lowering the price of fuel. Remember, you have to use the right bait in attracting the right profitable customers if you want to keep them for the long-term.
You have to give them a reason for choosing your FBO by providing them with a sense of delivering a real customer value proposition (CVP). For instance, done properly, the CVP can be the right combination of clean and attractive facilities, fair fuel prices and a knock your socks off customer service experience.
Now that is baiting your hook with something more than corn from a can.
When a person goes to a fish camp in Canada, he is there for primarily one reason: catching fish. So the fisherman is up at the crack of dawn and fishes all morning and then from late afternoon until sunset, which is usually after 9:30 p.m. this far North.
Therefore, having a live well in the boat is a great asset so the fish stay fresh.
So it is with attracting new customers to your facility and keeping them. You have to figure out a way to keep them happy and satisfied while they are in your facility.
In my post Building Long-term Customer Relationships, Part 3: Don’t Forget the Cheese! I talk about delivering a memorable customer service experience that will keep your customers coming back for more. Here is a recap:
The use of Cheese in our proprietary customer service training course serves as a key reminder to CSRs, as well as other employees, to practice exceptional customer service. A few fundamentals of great customer service are:
If you’ve had success in casting your net for customers, I’d like to hear from you. Please email me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.
Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group, a public relations agency specializing in aviation and FBO marketing. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft and Bozell Advertising and is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.
“Maybe because I've hit a million balls? … And maybe because I'm dedicated and want it more.” – Vijay Singh, professional golfer ranked No. 1 in the world, 2004-05
Recently, I was reading a newspaper article about the practice habits of professional golfer Vijay Singh, and I thought this would be a good basis for a blog post on delivering the ultimate FBO customer service experience. Perhaps this seems a little disjointed, so allow me to explain.
Whether you follow golf or any other sport, I’m sure you’ve run across articles and have heard TV announcers remark about the successes and failures of professional athletes. Frankly, I like to learn about the elements of success, rather than the failures, so when I read this article on Singh, it reminded me of his breakout year in 2004.
As you may recall, Tiger Woods had vaulted to the top of the world ranking and looked invincible. Then came Singh, playing like a man possessed, and he eventually replaced Woods as the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, at least for a period of time. He openly admitted that his goal was to become the No. 1 golfer in the world, thus replacing Woods, and he knew it would take long hours of practice.
Even Madison Avenue took notice that year. Singh appeared in a TV commercial where he was shown practicing putting on a frozen lake in Alaska while native Eskimos looked on in bewilderment.
And what was the message the commercial was trying to drive home? What made Singh so successful?
The answer, of course, is being good at what you do by practicing your craft. In Singh’s case, it wasn’t just an hour here and an hour there but a wholesale dedication to improving his game through countless hours of practicing, practicing and still more practicing.
Everyone in the golf world was talking about it. Other players took notice, and his work ethic became legendary. As the old joke says, if you looked up the word practice in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Vijay Singh.
As part of our NATA-sponsored FBO Success Seminar, we teach a course on delivering the ultimate customer service experience. Called ”Don’t Forget the Cheese!” we use what we call Cheese Bites to help illustrate various good customer service habits.
One of these Cheese Bites is Practice Your Craft. Like an actor who must perform well on a stage, customer service staff are also on stage every time they put on their uniform and enter the FBO terminal arena or greet an aircraft on the ramp.
The whole process of delivering a great customer service experience needs to be a well-orchestrated performance, practiced over and over to ensure the safety of not only the customers, but the FBO staff as well.
At Aviation Business Strategies Group, we’ve conducted many FBO surveys to find out what pilots and dispatchers want most from an FBO. What pilots say is they know whether or not an FBO will deliver a good customer service experience the moment they pull off the taxiway and onto the ramp. If the line service personnel are not on the ball and looking sharp, they know the rest of the turn will be disappointing.
It’s called a first impression, and if an FBO is not practicing the art of delivering a good first impression, the rest of the customer service deliverable is lost!
It all starts with the way the line service crew ushers in an aircraft. Here’s where practice comes to bear. First comes a firm grasp of the wands, followed by crisp movements of the arms and a precise motion signaling the pilot to stop the aircraft at a designated spot on the ramp.
Then, the rest of the crew springs into action by carefully placing orange safety cones according to the SOP manual. Once the passengers disembark, the baggage is swiftly unloaded and placed into the waiting limo, which is then safely escorted off the premises.
At the proper moment, the lead line service person (or CSR, depending on how you’re organized), approaches the pilot in command and reads back the order information previously sent to the FBO by either a phone message, fax or email. What pilots don’t want to hear is: “Howdy, how can I help ya?” Especially if they took the time to send in an order for service ahead of time.
While at the driving range with with another golfer who had grown frustrated with practicing, Singh admonished the other golfer. “That's your problem,” Singh said. “You won't work at your game enough to be as good as you could be.”
No matter if you are a professional athlete, a line service technician or a customer service representative, practicing your craft is an important element to having a successful career. Remember, when you put on your uniform and hit the deck, you’re on stage, and every customer is watching how you, and your FBO, perform.
If you have any tips or stories to pass along on delivering a great customer service experience, please email me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.
Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group, a public relations agency specializing in aviation and FBO marketing. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft and Bozell Advertising and is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.
“Start early, and begin raising the bar throughout the day.” –Bruce Jenner, Olympic athlete
Is the level of customer service expectation set high enough at your FBO? Does it meet or exceed the standards of the industry, or are you doing just enough to get by?
Recently, I was reading a customer service-related blog titled: “Did You Know You’re Competing with Apple?” The premise piqued my interest. Could it be possible the level of service a customer expects to receive at an FBO can be properly compared with the expectation of service offered by the top brands in their respective industries — companies like Apple, Virgin America and Amazon?
I was hooked on the notion. So I read on, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Customers who walk into any FBO have already been exposed to the highest level of customer service possible because they are all consumers. They probably have been exposed to how Apple can make the mobile computing experience easy. Or to the way Amazon aids online customers in the selection process and then delivers the product in the blink of an eye.
I was on board when the blogger mentioned how Virgin America can customize the in-air experience by delivering food and in-flight entertainment the way you want it when you want it. So I reasoned, why can’t professional pilots and crew members expect a similar level of service when they deliver a CEO to his or her destination?
Remember, your customers, the pilots and crew members, have customers of their own. They’re the VIP passengers who are often the most well-heeled, high-net-worth individuals on the face of the planet.
You think an FBO manager’s job can be tough? Try keeping track of what each passenger likes to read, eat, listen to and watch. And, oh, by the way, remember to be the passenger’s confidant, and know their family history and names of children and pets. And while you’re at it, fly the airplane flawlessly!
Passengers on business aircraft are used to receiving the highest levels of service available. They dine at the finest restaurants, golf at the nicest country clubs and vacation at the swankiest resorts. Do you think their customer service bar is set high?
So once the world’s movers and shakers are carefully transferred from the comforts of the jet cabin to the perfect 72° interior of a waiting limo, what level of customer service should the crew expect when they set foot inside the FBO?
Hopefully the answer is the same level of service they just gave their passengers. Anything less is simply unacceptable.
As an FBO owner or operator, you can do several things to instill in your employees the level of service you would like to see and customers expect. One suggestion is to take small groups of employees, on occasion, out to eat at a very upscale restaurant. Let them see firsthand how a high level of service is delivered.
Maybe once a month, or once a quarter, reward an employee and his or her spouse with a night at the best hotel in the area. Have them take mental notes of the level of service and share their experience with the rest of the customer service team.
Occasionally issue a gift certificate to a deserving employee for a day at a spa at an upscale resort. The experience will probably transform the employee in a positive way.
What are you doing to raise the bar of customer service expectation at your FBO? I’d like to hear from you. Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.
Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group, a public relations agency specializing in aviation and FBO marketing. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft and Bozell Advertising and is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.
In part one of this three-part series, Are You the Restaurant Owner? we talked about what makes a customer loyal and taking a hands-on approach to customer service. In part two, Do You Feel Lucky? we discussed the perils of lowering the price of fuel to attract new customers.
The following is the third installment:
“Here is a simple but powerful rule, always give people more than what they expect to get.” – Nelson Boswell
In the quest to build long-term profitable customer relationships, we can’t overlook the basic foundation of delivering exceptional customer service. At the end of the day, if you can’t walk up to a customer preparing to depart your FBO with confidence and ask the question, “Would you recommend us?” then please read on.
At Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG), we have analyzed various customer service training programs that help teach the basics. Many new customer service employees are not that familiar with general and business aviation and need a good understanding of the FBO business basics as well as the airport environment and flight operations. Mostly, these basic training videos and interactive teaching aids do a very good job of instruction on the mechanics of the job.
However, if your goal is to provide The Ultimate Customer Service Experience, you need to take your customer service training to a whole different level.
While I was working my way through college, one of my jobs was at a restaurant that primarily served hamburgers. We always did a great takeout business, and one day a loyal customer stormed back into the restaurant with his sack of hamburgers in hand.
“I can understand not putting in napkins or forgetting the salt and pepper,” he huffed. “But when I order a cheeseburger, it would be really nice if there was cheese on it.”
Needless to say, we were all embarrassed, and the owner came out and apologized for the oversight and the inconvenience it caused. A few minutes later, the customer left with cheese on his cheeseburgers and a couple of coupons for a return visit.
Later that day, when we had a shift change, the owner pulled everyone together and made his point about carefully checking a customer’s order, especially the takeout orders. Lesson learned, as they say.
Then, as the first shift started to leave, a buddy yelled back to the cook and said: “Hey Charlie, don’t forget the cheese!” That comment kind of lightened up the mood and became our battle cry for the rest of the summer.
This experience stuck with me over the years, and when it came time to develop an advance customer service program for one of our client FBOs, it just seemed natural to brand it: Don’t Forget the Cheese!©.
There are several necessary elements in developing a good customer service program for your organization. Here are few:
The use of Cheese in our proprietary customer service training course also serves as key reminders to CSRs, as well as other employees, to practice exceptional customer service. Here are just a few of the fundamentals to great customer service:
For our sustainable part of the Don’t Forget the Cheese! program, we use Cheese Bites© that are little reminders of some of the principles of good customer service. These are sent periodically to employees electronically by e-mail or through the use of social media by the FBO.
If you would like to share a customer service tip, please send them to me, and I’ll publish them in a future blog post. Send them to Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.
©The terms/phrases Don’t Forget the Cheese! and Cheese Bites are proprietary in their intended use and considered intellectual property of Aviation Business Strategies Group.
Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group, a public relations agency specializing in aviation and FBO marketing. He has held management positions with Cessna Aircraft and Bozell Advertising and is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the Ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.
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