Use Good Customer Service Ingredients, and the Proof Is in the Pudding

“‘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:

• An ounce of sweetness in the form of a sincere smile
• Two heaping tablespoons  of caring
• One generous cup of reliability and dependability
• And a pound of perceived value

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:

1. Quality and reliability of line service
2. Accuracy  and dependability of the customer service representatives (CSRs)
3. Timeliness of response to customer service requests
4. Cleanliness of the facilities, especially the bathrooms
5. Evaluation of the value received

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.

Another Way to Test Your Pudding

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.

Loyal Customers Lead to Financial Rewards

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

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.

Lessons of $1 Hot Dogs Help FBOs Cut the Mustard

Frankly Speaking, FBO Customers Must Relish Their Surroundings, Be Happy and Perceive Fair Value

As a red-blooded American, I love hot dogs, apple pie and baseball. Being from the Dallas area, I’ve been following the Texas Rangers through thick and thin for more than 20 years. Mostly it has been thin, though the Rangers made it all the way to the World Series last year for the first time in franchise history.

When the newspaper hits my driveway at 6 a.m., I read the sports section from stem to stern and go over the box scores and team stats.

Recently, I read a sidebar article about Dollar Hot Dog Night at the Rangers’ stadium. On Wednesdays when the Rangers are in town, they cook some 65,000 hot dogs for hungry patrons. At a buck each, the promotion attracts a lot of families to the game, and the conies are quickly snatched up!

The Art of the Deal

I’m sure you have your favorite sport, and if it’s baseball, you know how a hot dog with your favorite beverage tastes on a warm summer night around the diamond. It hits the spot! But something else is going on at the ballpark.

In the article, the writer asks a university professor for his opinion on why a $1 hot dog attracts so many to a game when patrons can have all the hot dogs they want for a lot less money by buying them at a supermarket and eating them at home.

His answer, posted in the Dallas Morning News, is what spurred me into writing this blog post.

According to Ernan Haruvy, a management professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, a perceived deal, such as the $1 hot dog, depends on several factors, including:

1. Your physical surroundings
2. The customer’s mood
3. What the customer believes is a fair value for the transaction

OK, that all sounds logical because the customer is at the ballpark; therefore, the surroundings are fun. Secondly, because a day watching baseball is better than a day at work, the customer is probably in a pretty good mood. And lastly, $1 for a dog that usually costs $4 seems like a relatively fair value.

But what does this have to do with an FBO?

Play Ball!

In previous blog posts, Are You the Restaurant Owner; Do You Feel Lucky; and Don’t Forget the Cheese, we discuss what is important to customers when they choose a particular FBO.

First of all, the physical surroundings need to be pleasant enough that they don’t cause a distraction. The ramp and equipment need to be neat and tidy. Line-service personnel should use crisp ushering techniques to guide the aircraft. The facilities, particularly the bathrooms, need to be as clean and sparkling as possible.

Next, from the time the customer comes onto the ramp to the time for departure, it’s everyone’s job to create an atmosphere that keeps the customer in a good mood throughout the transaction. Customers who fly on private and business aircraft are used to getting good service wherever they go.

And finally, when the customer goes to pay the ticket, it’s important that he or she truly believes it represents a fair value. Remember, just because you may have offered a volume fuel discount doesn’t mean the customer flies away feeling like he or she received a fair value.  

For the type of customer that you want to attract and keep, receiving a fair fuel price is just part of the equation. If you failed to deliver an exceptional customer service experience, chances are your facility will not be remembered, and you will not get a recommendation.

So the next time you bite into a red hot coney, remember these three simple principles of pleasing a customer:

1. Maintain good physical surroundings.
2. Keep the customer in a good mood.
3. Give the customer a fair value.

If you have had success in pleasing a customer, please let me know the particulars by emailing me at Ron@TheJacksonGroup.biz.

Ron Jackson

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.

Reeling in Customers: Either Fish, or Cut Bait

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.

Planning the Trip

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.

Fish or Cut Bait

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.

Using the Right Bait

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. 

Keeping Your Fish Healthy and Happy

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:

• Smile. Remember to say, “Cheese,” to yourself, as if someone were taking your photo. Even when answering the phone, put on a smile, and the customer on the other end will sense they are talking to a happy person.
• Add a little extra when delivering customer service. Cheese represents the added touch, the little extra that puts a smile on the customer’s face and makes them keep coming back.
• Remember a customer’s name. In the FBO environment, adding cheese can be as simple as remembering a customer’s name. Most people react positively to being called by their name and are impressed when you remember. Are you the restaurant owner?
• Go the extra mile. Going the extra mile could be something as simple as showing the customer where the pilot lounge is located instead of pointing in the general direction.

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

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.

Coaching Provides Valuable Seasoned Advice

At some point in our lives, we all need a little coaching to get through the task ahead of us.

I remember when my dad took the training wheels off my bike and encouraged me to keep the handlebars straight as he ran alongside on my first solo ride.

High school football and baseball coaches shaped the way I performed on the field and taught me valuable lessons about life along the way.

As a student pilot, my instructor coached me through turns and stalls and built up my confidence for the eventual solo flight.

After a couple of decades of developing marketing plans for companies such as Cessna and Fairchild Aircraft, I had the opportunity in the year 2000 to create a public relations campaign for the grand opening of a Mercury Air Center location in Burbank, Calif. My client was John Enticknap, who served as president of the 21-location FBO chain. 

I didn’t have a lot of experience in the FBO business back then, but under John’s tutelage, I’ve been spending the last 11 years soaking up his vast knowledge of the FBO business.

When John and I discussed starting an FBO consulting business together, I knew I had a partner that had a lot to offer the FBO community. So in 2006, John laid the groundwork for Aviation Business Strategies Group by outlining his vision for the fledgling company.

Vision of Helping FBOs

He told me he wanted to start a business that would help aviation service companies, FBOs in particular, become more profitable. His vision was to provide an affordable resource to the FBO industry through sharing, teaching and coaching.

As a basis for the new business, I suggested we put together a list of initiatives that would help FBOs run their businesses better and ultimately become more profitable.  There were several marketing projects that John and I worked on together for the Mercury Air Center chain that would make great white papers and teaching strategies.

The result was what we called 10 Steps to FBO Success. It was way more than “FBO Business 101.” It was the essence of years of real-life experience seeking solutions to problems that arise from operating an FBO.

One problem we attacked was the high cost of FBO insurance. After the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, insurance companies began dramatically raising FBOs’ premiums. Mercury’s insurance premiums for the 21 FBO locations were escalating exponentially.

We decided to create a strategy for lowering the insurance premiums by developing a better insurance story for the insurance brokers to evaluate. (This is one of the 10 Steps to FBO Success and a subject of one of the sessions we teach at the NATA-sponsored FBO Success Seminar.)

Under John’s coaching, I absorbed what insurance underwriters were looking for in terms of safety and security of all FBO operations. We took this information and built a comprehensive safety audit program. Part of this initiative raised awareness among FBO employees for the need for two wing walkers, especially for aircraft movements inside hangars.

We created some large banners and posters for display in the hangars and then conducted safety classes for employees on a regular basis. One of the banners exclaimed, “Don’t Get into a Tow Jam!” and a supporting poster listed all the steps to safely tow an aircraft.

As a result of this industry coaching initiative, hangar rash went way down, the level of safety went way up, and customers actually liked seeing the banners and posters as a reminder of how carefully the FBOs were treating their aircraft. And, by the way, insurance premiums started to come down.

The business coaching John gave me helped me in understanding what I needed to do to get my job done. It also helped FBO employees improve and FBO owners control insurance costs.

Who Can Benefit from Business Coaching?

Over the past several years, business coaching has come to mean a lot of different things. What I’m talking about is not a personal life coach, which is different from what a savvy business coach can offer an FBO.

FBO owners, operators and managers can benefit from a little or a lot of FBO business coaching. The best candidates for such coaching services are:

• Those seeking to improve FBO business performance and earn a better return on their capital investment.
• Those who are committed to improving the FBO operations and are thus unsatisfied with the status quo.

Working with a coach is normal for many. Musicians, tennis players and golfers, to name a few, work regularly with coaches to improve their performances. In the mainstream population, hiring a personal trainer is not uncommon.

Business coaching can be found through various channels. Find a mentor in your business you can bounce ideas off of, attend seminars and workshops, or even hire a professional coach. The goal is to improve the way we manage and to seek solutions to problems that plague the efficiency of an FBO operation.

Learning Opportunities

If you are interested in some seminars specifically for FBO owners, operators and managers, here are some opportunities:

Florida Aviation Trades Association Annual Meeting

On June 14, John will be a guest speaker at the annual convention for the Florida Aviation Trades Association (FATA) in Sarasota, Fla. Working pro bono, John will be teaching two sessions:

• Session 1: Risk Management & Claims Avoidance Through Better Operating Practices
• Session 2: Developing Your Own Third-Party Fuel Pricing Strategy

FBO Success Seminar

Those seminars are also part of the three-day FBO Success Seminar we will be teaching Nov. 8-10 in Atlanta during the NATA’s first FBO Fuel Summit. 

If you can attend either or both of these seminars, I would encourage doing so. These are opportunities to get some good advice from a seasoned professional.

If you would like to share a teaching or coaching story, please email me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.

Ron Jackson

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.

Deliver Great Customer Service by Practicing Your Craft

“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?

Dedication to Practice

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.

What Pilots Want from an FBO

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.

Remember, You’re On Stage

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

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.

FBO Marketing, Part 2: Affordable Promotions

As any FBO owner or operator knows, attracting new customers and keeping current customers is the lifeblood of your business.

In previous blog posts, we have discussed the aspects of keeping current customers by providing an exceptional customer service experience: Be the restaurant owner, and don’t forget the cheese!

In this multipart series, we talk about attracting new customers with little or no cost. In Part 1, Low- or No-Cost Promotions, we discussed the basics of promoting your FBO on a limited budget. In this post, we’ll talk about public and media relations as an affordable promotion that will help extend your brand reach even further.

Public and Media Relations

Writing and distributing a news release is a cost-effective communications tool. However, there are some basic guidelines that FBOs need to follow in order to ensure their announcements make their way to the selected media.

1. Ask yourself if the news is newsworthy.

Many companies, including FBOs, will send a news release out on everything that happens at their place of business. Trouble is, most of it is not newsworthy and, therefore, gets ignored. If you do too many of these, there is a chance that when you have something that is truly newsworthy, it may get passed over because of your past history. 

Editors and writers keep very busy, so only offer announcements that are at least potentially newsworthy. Here are a few ideas that most editors find of interest:

• New facilities or expansion of current facilities
• Any significant renovations
• Acquisitions of other facilities on your airport or other FBOs
• Key personnel changes to your organizations

Here are some things editors would rather not see:

• Announcements about a new web site
• Releases that are not timely or current
• News that is completely off target and irrelevant to the industry

2. Be clear and concise.

In journalism school, you learn to write in an "inverted pyramid" style. In other words, say what is most important in the first sentence or paragraph.

• Then support the main information with other facts and figures. Think of the five “Ws”: Who, what, where, when and why?
• Include a relevant quote by a key manager or employee
• Follow up with what we call a “boilerplate” that is a concise overview of your company information, the services you provide and your contact information.
• Keep the information as short as possible, and don’t use flowery language.

3. Include a photo if possible.

• Use a fairly good camera. Make sure the photos are in focus and of high resolution. Most publications request a resolution of 300 dpi.
• Frame your photo so you are not too far from your subject.
• Watch out for background clutter. This is particularly important when you shoot a photo of an employee for what we call a ‘head shot’. I’ve seen photos taken against a wall with a clock in the background, pictures, bright colored paintings and even model aircraft that look like the airplane is flying right out of the person’s head.

4. Timely and relevant: Think outside the box!

Earlier, we talked about being timely and relevant with your information. A couple of years ago, I worked with one of my clients on a short news release relating to the popular green movement. They had just replaced all their gas powered ramp courtesy carts/golf carts with state-of-the art electric carts. They also invested in a new ramp sweeper to pick up FOD.

For this announcement, I took a photo of their new cars along with the ramp sweeper, and framed it with an aircraft in the background to add relevance to the aviation market. I also used their distinctive terminal building with company logo as a backdrop. As they say, a photo is worth a thousand words.

Then I issued the photo with a photo caption only, not as a long news release. Of course I included details about “going green” on the ramp. This announcement was picked up by many on the media database.

Media Database

Now that you’ve crafted your new release, it’s time to send it out to a qualified database. First of all, you should always send it out to your local media, including newspapers and business journals. Also include local TV and radio if possible. You never know when someone needs a story like the one you send in or maybe just a filler story.

Also, you should build a list of aviation writers and editors. You can find these contacts in the front part of magazines and newspapers in what they call the masthead. Also, for most media, you can go to their web sites and get either specific email addresses or a generic one that goes to their news department. 

And don’t forget the electronic newsletters, like acukwikalert.com. They’ll be happy to review your release for posting.

In addition, you should give a courtesy call to a few of the selected media to make sure they received the information.

Electronic and Social Media

All news releases should be published on your Web site as well. Services like Google send out crawlers that search for keywords that help push your news item to the top of a search. Speaking of keywords, your release should use key industry words and phrases in both headlines and the body of your copy.

Also, post a link on your company’s Facebook page to your news release on your Web site, and issue a tweet to your followers.

If you have any questions regarding writing or issuing a news release, please contact me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.

Ron Jackson

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.

FBO Marketing, Part 1: Low- and No-Cost Promotion

Did you know there are ways you can market your FBO with little or no out-of-pocket expense?

At our NATA FBO Success Seminars, we examine various aspects of marketing for an FBO. One of the most popular sessions is Marketing and Communications for Any Size FBO.

Many FBOs that attend our seminars believe they can’t compete with the big FBO chains because they don’t have the money and resources. To that, I kindly say, “Bunk”. There are plenty of ways you can “shake hands” with your customers or potential customers without breaking your budget or robbing your kids’ piggy bank.

Getting Down to Basics

In the business of running an FBO, there are basically two ways to increase your business and, thus, the amount of fuel you sell.

1. Increase the number of base customers you service.
2. Increase the number of transient customers you service.

For the purpose of this blog post, we will concentrate on the second item of reaching out to the transient customer. However, if you are having trouble filling your hangars and think you can do a better job of increasing your base customer population, read on. There are tips for you as well.

Here is what I call the Level One, or Basic Communications, Checklist. You might be already doing these, but they are worth the review. These are not all free, but we’ll get to those shortly:

• A listing in a major FBO directory and Web site, such as AC-U-KWIK and acukwik.com. There are various listings and offerings to choose — some at little or no cost. You need to create some kind of awareness at the most basic level.
• Fuel supplier listing. Most FBOs have a relationship with a major fuel supplier. Make sure you are listed accurately in everything they produce, including their Web site and other promotions.
• Basic Web site. By now, most FBOs have built at least a basic Web site. Believe it or not, though, some companies forget to put their phone numbers up front to make it easy for the customer to make contact. Instead they bury it on an obscure page.

You must remember the most basic reason for a Web site is to provide information quickly. Therefore, you don’t need a lot moving pieces, fancy graphics, etc. Also, you should test the viability of your Web site in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) by doing a Google search of keywords for your area and business segment. Keep in mind keywords a customer would use to do a Web search. Some keywords for the fueling side of the business are obvious:

• FBO Dallas, TX (Your City and State) and FBO DAL (Your airport identifier)
• FBO Dallas Fort Worth (or) FBO North Texas
• Aviation Fuel Dallas, TX (or) Jet A Dallas, TX (or) Avfuel/Jet A DAL

Note: If your facility does not appear at or near the top after keyword searches, you need to look into rewriting the copy for your Web site to include keywords and phrases for your business segment and geographic locations. There are numerous free articles on the internet that can help you.

Web Site Tip: Refresh your copy on a regular basis. Keep keywords and phrases intact, but create something new that will be of interest. And don’t forget to post any press releases or news articles that may have been published. Look for ways to post your press releases to the free aviation sites, such as acukwik.com. Do some research, and create a PR database to which you may send your news.

• Get Social! Create a business Facebook page, list with LinkedIn, and investigate Twitter but only if you are serious about keeping social networks active and up to date with frequent posts.
• Giveaways. Don’t be afraid to put out a bunch of low-cost pens or other freebies at the customer service desk or in the pilots’ lounge. What’s the worst thing that could happen? So what if they disappear? That’s a good thing. They just might get back to the customer’s home base where a dispatcher gets a hold of one and, presto, your brand is right there, top of mind!

The Really Free Stuff

As mentioned, there are a number of things you can do that really don’t cost anything except some time and effort.

• I Spy Program. One of the techniques we teach at the FBO Success Seminars is creating your own I Spy Program. This is simply building a database of potential customers by tracking the transient customers who use your airport, or surrounding airports, but don’t come to your facility.

In the old days, you would simply use a pair of binoculars and scope out your competitor’s ramp and record the aircraft registration numbers. Now there are a number of electronic programs you can access that track flights into and out of your area. Usually a registration number is associated with the flight, and you can then cross-reference this registration number with a database of aircraft owners and operators. Some of these databases do cost money, but most that use these services do find them to be worthwhile.

Once you’ve started to build your database, send out a postcard to the potential customer offering an incentive to come to your facility on the next occasion. Incentives can be a one-time fuel discount, lav cleaning, interior cleaning, a fruit tray, etc. Note: Most of the time, one contact will not do the job. You need to be consistent and aggressive in making frequent contacts.

• Pick up the phone. Sounds simple, but if you can track a potential customer with an address, you should be able to get a phone number. Don’t be afraid to ask for their business.
• Be aware of customers who haven’t been back in a while. Getting customers to come back is like finding new customers. Again, pick up the phone, and find out why they haven’t been back. Ask them if you did something wrong, and offer an incentive to get them back in the fold.
• Be aware when a new customer does come in. Have your line service personnel and CSRs become aware when you do attract a new customer. Then be the restaurant owner. Meet, greet, thank him or her for the business, etc. And don’t forget the cheese!
• Write hand-written notes. It doesn’t cost anything to write a note thanking customers for their business. Anytime you can keep a customer coming back time and time again is one fewer customer you have to replace.
• Network, and be a part of the community. FBO owners, operators and general managers should use opportunities for community involvement, which will strengthen local aircraft owners and operators’ and their flight department staff’s awareness of your business. There are usually high-profile clubs, fellowships and nonprofit organizations that rely on volunteers that include high net worth individuals. Moving in the right circles can strengthen these relationships and help provide referrals. This is a great way to increase your base customer prospect list.

And because business aviation is such a small niche market, you never know who a pilot for a new base customer knows. Chances are they know more pilots at other companies who just might give you a try.

These are just a few strategies and tactics we teach at our FBO Success Seminars. If you have something that works for your FBO, please let me know by emailing me at Ron@thejacksongroup.biz.

Ron Jackson

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.



FBO Customer Expectations: How High Should You Set the Bar?

“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?

What Pilots and Passengers Expect

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

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.

Measuring Your FBO Customer Service Experience

What’s Your CQ™ (Customer Quotient)?

In the recent series on Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, we talked about what makes a customer loyal (Are You the Restaurant Owner?); the perils of competing on fuel price (Do You Feel Lucky?); and finally, how to deliver the best customer service experience (Don’t Forget the Cheese!)

Now it’s time to measure the effectiveness of all your good work to improve the Customer Service Experience!

Just as a good measure of one’s intellect is the Intelligence Quotient or IQ test, at Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG), we have developed the means to test your FBO’s Customer Quotient or CQ™. The results of determining your CQ™ is a good measure on the overall effectiveness of your FBO customer service initiatives.

The Customer Service Survey Tool

The first step in the process of understanding your CQ™ is to develop an accessible and meaningful customer service survey tool. By accessible, we are talking about the convenience of the customer’s access to the survey.

Obviously, you should have it in a printed form and accessible at your customer service desk and perhaps in the crew lounge. For the printed version, make sure the survey is formatted so it can be easily mailed, including a No Postage Necessary Business Reply indicia.

For further convenience, put up a survey box near the exit to the ramp where customers can drop the completed printed survey so they don’t need to carry it with them for mailing at a later date.
In addition to having the survey available at the locations mentioned above, consider including it as part of a customer receipt envelope or holder, similar to the kind of money holder you get when you cash a check at a bank.

Lastly, make the survey accessible online through your company Web site. Just make sure there is a space for the customer to enter the date of service and perhaps a customer transaction number if there is one on the receipt. This will help you determine the validity of the information.

Make the Survey Meaningful

Here are some basic tips to make the survey easy for the customer to fill out and meaningful to you as a true measure of the customer service experience.

1. Keep it simple and logical. Don’t overthink the questions.
2. Make the questions relevant. Ask only questions about the service experience.
3. Keep it short. If you have more than five or six questions, your response rate will be way down.
4. Make sure you ask the ultimate question: “Would you recommend our FBO?”

The last thing you should do is put together a point value system for each question so you can convert the results into a metric that can be plotted over time. For instance, say you wanted to measure the following where 1 is a low score and 10 is the high score:

• Quality of line service: Rate 1 to 10 points.
• Friendliness of staff: Rate 1 to10 points.
• Cleanliness of facility/restrooms: Rate 1 to 10  points.
• Pilot amenities: Rate 1 to 10 points.
• Passenger amenities: Rate1 to 10 points.

With this section of your survey, you could have a potentially high score of 50 points if your customers rated all these items at 10 points each.

Now, let’s throw one last question into the mix. It’s really the most important, so we give it a value of 50 points. Yes, it’s that important! It’s either yes or no. All or nothing!

• Would you recommend? Yes/No?
  • Yes = 50 Points.

  • No = 0 Points.

The Sum of All Parts

In a perfect world, your customer service experience could potentially score 100 points. In keeping score over time, create a chart using the data obtained for the first five questions.

You may want to do a chart on a weekly basis at first. However, creating a monthly snapshot over a 12-month period will probably give you the best idea of the way your customer service experience is trending.

Then, do a separate chart to keep track of the Would you recommend? question. State the results as a percentage of the amount of customer service surveys returned.

The last thing you may want to do is post the results for all your employees to see. Follow-up with an employee team meeting and encourage feedback from both your customers and your employees regarding how to improve your customer service experience.

©The terms/phrases “Customer Quotient™” and “CQ™” are propriety in their intended use and considered intellectual property of Aviation Business Strategies Group.

Ron Jackson

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.

Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part 3: Don't Forget the Cheese!

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:

Part 3: Don't Forget the Cheese!

“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.

The Origin of “Don’t Forget the Cheese!”

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!©.

Key Elements to Great Customer Service Training

There are several necessary elements in developing a good customer service program for your organization. Here are few:

• Make it memorable. By branding a program with a memorable phrase, it promotes buy-in from the employees.
• Make it fun. Let’s face it, customer service training can potentially be very boring.You can liven up the atmosphere with a little tongue-in-cheek humor to keep everyone focused and awake.
• Make it relevant. Include some real-life customer service experiences that happened at your FBO. Use these in role-playing sessions.
• Use three-dimensional teaching aids. For our Don’t Forget the Cheese! © on-site training, we have fun by introducing a variety of cheeses and of course crackers as well.
• Make it sustainable. Does your current customer service program have any legs? In other words, are elements built into the program to serve as occasional reminders that make it sustainable over time? After the initial customer service training is complete, most employees operate in the halo effect of something new. However, that halo can fade over time, so make sure you have a vehicle to keep the elements of your program top-of-mind.

The Fundamentals

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:

• Smile. Remember to say, “Cheese,” to yourself, as if someone were taking your photo. Even when answering the phone, put on a smile and the customer on the other end will sense they are talking to a happy person.
• Add a little extra when delivering customer service. Because cheese is often used as a condiment, it represents the added touch, the little extra that puts a smile on the customer’s face and makes them keep coming back.
• Remember a customer’s name. In the FBO environment, adding cheese can be as simple as remembering a customer’s name. Most people react positively to being called by their name and are impressed when you remember. Are you the restaurant owner?
• Go the extra mile. Going the extra mile could be something as simple as showing the customer where the pilot lounge is located instead of pointing in the general direction.

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

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.

Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part 2: Do You Feel Lucky?

While my business partner, John Enticknap, reveals in his blog posts the methods and tools used in building a more profitable FBO, I’ll be writing about the often overlooked but equally important process of building long-term profitable customer relationships.

My first blog on this subject, Part 1: Are You the Restaurant Owner? was published on Feb. 10.

The following is the second installment:

Part 2: Do You Feel Lucky?

We’ve all seen Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry scene when he aims his seemingly empty .44 Magnum, “the most powerful handgun in the world,” in the face of the bank robber and taunts, “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well do ya, punk?”

FBOs shouldn’t have to feel lucky when putting together their marketing plans to attract new customers, yet during our NATA FBO Success Seminars, I often sense the frustration FBO owners and operators verbalize when we discuss this very subject.  

Over the years, FBOs have tried all sorts of things to attract customers. Wine, steaks, bobblehead dolls, free this and free that. Sometimes they get lucky, but mostly they’re just shooting blanks!

Many FBOs, when facing seemingly stiff competition, have done the unthinkable to attract customers. They resort to lowering their price of fuel beyond reason. Yikes! 

To be sure, an FBO should always manage its fuel price in order to be competitive and as a component to provide a customer value proposition (CVP). However, nothing good happens when you subjectively lower the price of fuel just to attract customers.

Attracting the Wrong Customer

Besides messing up your profit margin when you arbitrarily lower your price of fuel, you ultimately attract the wrong customer.

Are there really wrong customers in this trusty world of general and business aviation? You bet your .44 Magnum there are.

In my first blog, I wrote that the lifeblood of any FBO is building loyal customer relationships. The success of these relationships can be measured in two ways:

1. Are they long-term, and
2. Are they profitable?

When you randomly lower fuel prices you get neither long-term customers, nor profitable customers. What you get are bottom feeders, looking for the deal of the day. They tend to flit from one deal to the next. Sure, you may increase your fuel volume for a short period of time, but over the long haul, you’ll be scratching your head, wondering where these newfound customers went.

If you divide your available customer base into thirds, you’ll probably find the following:

• Upper third: Extremely loyal, likes your FBO, knows a good value and pays a fair price for fuel.
• Middle third: Although loyal, is value-conscious, wants a good deal and keeps you on your toes to make sure this value is received.
• Lower third: Bottom feeders. Price is everything. Complains about everything. Flits from one FBO to the next. Famous catch phrase: “What have you done for me lately?”

So where should your focus be? Which piece of the pie do you want?

First of all, getting Loyal customers to leave their present FBO is probably not going to happen in the short term. You may flirt with them a little, but getting a loyal customer to try something new is very difficult. An FBO competitor would have to stub its toe pretty hard to get a loyal customer to leave.

(Note: If you currently have a core of loyal customers, make sure you don’t lose them. Remember why they came to your FBO in the first place, and do everything you can to take care of their needs, wants and desires. Be the restaurant owner.)

Second, more than likely, you’ll get most of your customers from the Somewhat Loyal group. If you are looking to expand your loyal customer base, go fishing in the green pond, not the Bottom Feeder pond.

The Customer Value Proposition (CVP)

So how do you attract these Somewhat Loyal customers to your FBO? Give them a sense of delivering a real customer value proposition (CVP). Done properly, the CVP is the right combination of clean and attractive facilities, fair fuel prices/fees, and good old-fashioned knock-your-socks-off customer service. (We’ll further explore the CVP in another blog post.)

Lastly, it’s critical you get the word out about your CVP. And the way to do that is to deliver it consistently to every customer with whom you have contact. Let them soak it up and remember it, and they will faithfully spread the word.

The general aviation industry is relatively small compared to other industries. Word-of-mouth is a very strong channel of communications, and if you are “lucky” enough to have a customer recommend your FBO to another potential customer, you’re on your way.

Someone once told me you create your own luck, that luck is really the result of working hard, of doing something right consistently over the long haul.

I think that’s pretty good advice.

Next Blog: Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part 3: Don't Forget the Cheese!

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 CSR training. He is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.

Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part 1: Are You the Restaurant Owner?

As part of the FBO Success Seminars we conduct for the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), we discuss how to attract the right kind of customers and how to keep them coming back. 

While my business partner, John Enticknap, reveals in his blog posts the methods and tools used in building a more profitable FBO, I’ll be writing about the often overlooked but equally important process of building long-term profitable customer relationships.

The following is the first installment:

Part 1: Are You the Restaurant Owner?

The lifeblood of any FBO is building loyal customer relationships. The success of these relationships can be measured in two ways:

Are they long-term, and are they profitable?

Studies on consumer behavior show a loyal customer:

• Keeps coming back
• Is willing to pay more, thus providing better margins
• Loves your FBO and tells other pilots, aircraft owners/operators
• Lowers your customer “churn” rate — you don’t have to replace a satisfied loyal customer
• Boosts your long-term revenue and prevents profit erosion so you outperform your competitors

In the end, the effort we put into building these kinds of relationships will pay high dividends year after year, so let’s examine the process.

Company Culture and Service Deliverables

Every FBO is unique in its approach to delivering its own brand of customer experience. You should have an idea of your company culture, which is the tone and demeanor by which your customer service is delivered.

Are you warm and fuzzy; cold and unapproachable; or somewhere in between?

Your customer service deliverables are the things you do every day to ensure a great customer service experience, including a provision for the safety and security of the customer and its aircraft.

And it’s not just having these policies and procedures in place. It’s how you choose to carry out the delivery to your customers. Thus, your corporate culture dictates how you deliver services to your customer.

Draw from Your Own Experience

Observe the workings of your favorite local restaurant — not the chains. If you frequent one particular restaurant, chances are the host or hostess knows your name, and the server knows your favorite drink and meal. “The usual, Mr. Jones?”

Chances are the owner or manager is on site and makes the rounds to the tables, checks on the quality of food and service, and personally thanks the customers for their loyalty.

And chances are you have a consistent dining experience and recommend the restaurant to your friends.

Another experience to draw from is when someone moves into your neighborhood. Chances are you or someone will recommend the following:

• Favorite barber/beautician
• Favorite car mechanic or service station
• Personal doctor/hospital system
• Favorite grocery, hardware store or clothing store
• Plumber, electrician, pest control company
• Church or social club

Why Do We Recommend?

Never underestimate the power of recommendation. We do it all the time without really paying much attention to the impact it has on our lives and the decisions we make.

For most of us, when we recommend a product or service, it’s really a way of validating our own process of selection. We all think we make good choices, and having someone else follow our recommendation is affirmation — it boosts our ego, makes us feel good!

We recommend product and service providers because:

• Their product or service is excellent
• We’ve always had a good experience
• We trust them; they offer good value
• They boost our ego; they know our name
• They may even know our children’s names, their birthdays
• We might even consider them a friend

That’s how we should view and nurture every FBO customer relationship we cherish. Know each customer has the power to cast a vote, the power to recommend.

An Investment in Time

Building long-term customer relationships is a process. It’s an investment in time. It’s hands-on customer care and a commitment to understanding a customer’s needs, wants and desires.

At the end of the day, ask yourself, are you the restaurant owner?  Have you made the rounds to the customer lounges, asked if everything is all right, thanked the customer for the business? Have you taken the time to check your FBO for cleanliness, listened to how your employees treat a customer and walked the flight line?

Lead by example. If your employees see you do this, then chances are they will also take ownership — ownership of the customer service experience — thus helping build long-term profitable customer relationships.

Ultimately, you should be able to go up to any customer and ask the question, “Would you recommend our FBO to other pilots, aircraft owners/operators, and schedulers and dispatchers?”

If the customer is hesitant to answer the question and doesn’t say yes right off the bat, you have some work to do.

Next Blog: Building Long-Term Profitable Customer Relationships, Part II: Do You Feel Lucky?

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 CSR training. He is the author of Mission Marketing: Creating Brand Value and co-author of Don’t Forget the Cheese!, the ultimate FBO Customer Service Experience.