AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2017 - 16

WAYPOINTS

The customer experience

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

We all have a role in helping general aviation succeed

Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES learned
to fly in northwestern Pennsylvania,
when he wasn't
pumping gas or
bagging groceries.

16 | AOPA PILOT July 2017

AS A KID who grew up working in retail, I've always been
interested in the consumer experience and the ways
companies strive to make shopping more pleasant and
easier for customers. It's not altruistic. A happy customer will come back again and buy more the next time.
At Haines Superette (yes, a real place, once) in the
megalopolis of Clarks Mills, Pennsylvania (population,
about 80), I was working the cash register at an age when
I had to stand on a box to reach the cash drawer; counting
change back to customers by age 10. The country store
included gas pumps out front, a full line of hardware on
one side, groceries on the other, and the post office in the
back corner. Today, we'd call it a convenience store; back
then it was the mainstay of the community.
The store closed permanently not long after my parents sold it after I graduated from high school. It didn't
close for lack of service on our part, as we had mastered
the nuance of asking a customer "Is there anything else?"
as opposed to "Is that all?" Special orders didn't upset us.
We were happy to ask the bread man to bring you a loaf
of dyed bread for the finger sandwiches for the ladies'
auxiliary. Whatever oddball hardware need you had was
only a phone call away, delivered next week.
The era of the full-service grocery store, big-box
hardware stores, and convenient roads to "town"
spelled the end of such places.
When, at age 15, I began working at the McDonald's
"in town," I learned a whole new set of tactics regarding
customer service. There they actually paid me for my
time, money that helped fund my flight training. Other
techniques were learned in college when I worked at a
swimming pool supply store.
And, so, when I go to flight schools or think about
the flight training experience, I do so through the
lens of the customer experience. Some schools get it
right-their facilities are pleasant, their airplanes clean
and presentable. Their high student completion rates
reflect their dedication to supporting the customer.
Many such schools end up getting recognized through
the AOPA Flight Training Excellence Awards program.
The 2017 awards program is open through August 14.
Nominate your favorite flight school or flight instructor via AOPA's website (www.aopa.org/ftsurvey).
Too many schools, though, don't get it when it
comes to customer service. They lack decent facilities;
their airplanes may be mechanically sound, but the cosmetics don't inspire confidence; the front desk staff is

detached, uninterested, or simply not helpful to customer inquiries. When 80 percent of students drop out,
something is wrong with the product or the customer
experience or both.
I've become a fan of Steve Dennis' Blog (https://
stevenpdennis.com). Dennis has decades of experience
in retail sales, some of it in retail chains that imploded
because they couldn't adapt to changing technology
and customer expectations. His blog posts challenge
retailers to constantly assess their operations, their
business models, and their ability to meet or exceed
customer expectations. How we shop has changed
dramatically in the past decade. How we consume
information, including flight training ground school
information, has changed even more. Any flight school
that does business the way it did a decade ago is headed
for the same future as Montgomery Ward.
Recognizing the challenges facing flight schools
and the context of the declining pilot population, AOPA
started the Flight Training Excellence Awards after our
landmark 2010 survey about the flight training experience. The awards recognize the schools and CFIs who
do it right. The next phase in our work to support flight
schools is underway as a part of the You Can Fly initiative,
which will offer schools and CFIs in-person and online
training in customer service, marketing, and promotion,
as well as a host of other services to help them succeed.
Meanwhile, the You Can Fly team, entirely supported
by donations to the AOPA Foundation, is working every
day to grow the flying club network-launching nearly a
dozen new clubs already this year and supporting hundreds more; hosting hundreds of Rusty Pilots programs
across the country; and creating nationally accredited
high school STEM curricula with an aviation emphasis.
The You Can Fly initiatives all have the common goal
of helping current pilots succeed and bringing in new
pilots. Customer service is an important part of that. As
pilots, we have a role to play, whether it's providing a great
first flight experience to a friend or family member, ushering back a lapsed pilot, encouraging a high school student
in a career choice, or pointing a prospective pilot to a quality flight school. In all cases, providing a good "customer"
experience will help general aviation thrive.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org
SOCIAL

Follow on twitter @tomhaines29

http://www.stevenpdennis.com http://www.stevenpdennis.com http://www.aopa.org/ftsurvey

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2017