Tip of the Week: Give Customers Your Best Cheese!

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

At the recent NATA FBO Success Seminar, we had a roundtable discussion where attendees shared their best practices in delivering a good customer service experience.

We called the session “What’s Your Cheese?”

If you are a regular reader of our AC-U-KWIK FBO Connection blog, you know we’ve developed a customer service training program called Don’t Forget the Cheese!©. It’s a fun, memorable program developed specifically for aviation service companies who want to improve their service experience.  (Click here for the link to a past blog which explains the origins of the program and provides further background.)

As part of the training, we challenge FBOs to compete on customer service, not on price. One of the best ways to compete on customer service is to make your customer service experience uniquely unique. In other words, no one else can duplicate exactly what you do in the way that you do it. It’s unique to your style, your very own way in which your FBO delivers your customer service experience.

In a way, it’s your exclamation point! And it’s the answer to the question, “What’s Your Cheese?”

Threaded below is a sampling of what the NATA FBO Success Seminar attendees shared when asked, “What’s Your Cheese?”  Here’s what they said:

  • Our crew cars are unique. We even have an old police cruiser that’s very popular. A lot of get up and go!
  • Our cheese is developing a home atmosphere, relaxed and comfortable.
  • We send hand-written thank you notes and remember our customer’s birthdays.
  • Customers, as well as employees, look forward to our quarterly barbecues.
  • Our flying Santa is our cheese. It’s unique to us. Each Christmas we tow it around.
  • We have a GPS in every crew car, preloaded with eating and entertainment destinations.
  • The piano in our lobby is a good example of our cheese and providing something extra. We invite musicians to play for the entertainment of our customers during a busy ski season.
  • Repeat customers are greeted with a big hello and we make it a practice to remember their names. That’s adding some good cheese.

To further this discussion, we’d like challenge you to share "what’s your cheese." Simply give us your best cheese at the end of this blog and check back often to see what others have written.

About the bloggers:

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

Tip of the Week: Make Your FBO Data Driven

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

Just as pilots rely on the instrument panel to keep up and stay ahead of potential problems, FBOs should rely on data-driven dashboards to do the same thing.

Operational and financial data fed on a regular basis to the FBO operator is an essential element of running a successful business. They’re a quick snapshot you scan to make sure the engine of your company is running smoothly.

Setting up a dashboard is similar to a pilot setting up waypoints. You preselect the data you want to see and have it delivered to your desktop on a daily basis.

Here are some suggested data points to set up on your dashboard:

Line Service Business

  • Review your previous day’s retail fuel sales.
  • Contract Fuel Sales.
  • Airline Fuel Uplift.
  • Month-to-Date retail fuel sales.
  • MTD Contract Fuel Sales.
  • MTD Airline Fuel Uplift.
  • Budget retail fuel sales, contract and airline fuel sales.
  • Number of Customer Contacts Yesterday.

Maintenance Business

  • Mechanic Hours Billed yesterday.
  • Mechanic hours of vacation, paid leave.
  • Mechanic hours paid.
  • Yesterday Mechanic Productivity.
  • Month-to-Date Productivity.
  • Budget Productivity.
  • Parts Sales Dollars.
  • Budget Parts Sales.
  • Support Staff hours paid.
  • Number of Customer Contacts.
  •  Number of annuals/100 hr./inspections bid.

Flight Operations

  • Flight Instructor hours billed yesterday.
  • Flight Instructors hours paid.
  • Flight Instructor Productivity.
  • Charter hours billed.
  • Charter hours available.
  • Charter Productivity.
  • Customer Contact - Flight Instruction.
  • Sale Contacts for Charter.

You’ll notice we are getting sales data, labor data and marketing data. After cost of sales, labor is your biggest expense. Labor hours must be reviewed and managed to assure you maximize productivity.

Also, you must keep track of your marketing activity. This is something you should touch on daily, focusing on both retention of existing customers and obtaining new customers. We know this is stating the obvious, but if you don’t grow, you go out of business. Every year there can be as much as a 30 percent churn in turnover of base customers and regular transient customers.

In setting up your dashboard data requirements, make the adjustments with your accounting personnel as well as department managers to collect this data.

If you are uncertain as to how to set up a dashboard properly as well as the interpretation of the data, we suggest you attend an NATA FBO Success Seminar. The next seminar is scheduled for March 9-10 in Las Vegas. At these seminars we suggest a number of simple strategies and tactics to assist you with data management.

FBO Success Seminar: Take Time to Sharpen Your Axe

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

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

          -Abraham Lincoln

FBO operators, managers and supervisors often find themselves dealing on a daily basis with situations that need immediate attention. These are the bugs and gnats that creep into our schedule unannounced and take away from quality time needed for planning, preparation and, quite frankly, sharpening the axe.

As Abraham Lincoln so wisely put it, work goes a lot easier if you take time to hone your tools. In the case of the FBO manager and supervisor, that’s time spent in keeping abreast of the FBO industry by learning new strategies and tactics that will move your business forward and help you focus on the things that matter most. 

That’s why we’ve dedicated this blog to providing tips that help in three key areas of FBO operations:

  • Maximizing Profits.
  • Reducing Expenses.
  • Improving FBO Productivity & Bottom-Line Performance.

In 2008, we teamed with the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) to develop a comprehensive two-day FBO success seminar. The original training syllabus was based on our proprietary 10 Steps to Building a More Profitable FBO.

Now we are starting our eighth year in conducting this seminar, which has evolved over time and provides an opportunity to sharpen the axe.

A key session is titled Don’t Give it Away! In a nutshell, this means that FBO operations need to take a close look at all the things they are giving away on top of demands from customers and third-party fuel providers to discount fuel prices.  

An important takeaway is that every aircraft operator that arrives on your ramp must contribute to your revenue stream, even if they don’t buy fuel. That’s why we are seeing an emergence of facility fees and other fees to help FBO operations become and stay profitable.

Please take time to sharpen your axe and join us at our next NATA FBO Success Seminar, March 9-10 in Las Vegas, as we discuss these types of key issues in detail.

About the bloggers:

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

Results of Our Annual FBO Industry Survey Predict 2.5% Average Fuel Sales Increase for 2015

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By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
- Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 

This week at the NBAA Schedulers and Dispatchers (S&D) Convention in San Jose, CA, we will release the results of our Annual FBO Industry Survey and Forecast for 2015.

We are happy to report that for the first time in several years, we’re seeing a glimmer of optimism amongst the majority of FBO owners and operators we encounter and are included in the survey. In a nutshell, the results indicate a current market that has yet to catch any real traction but also one that is being approached with guarded optimism with more than 60 percent predicting an average increase in fuel sales of at least 2.5 percent. (See related chart.)

This projection follows another year when fuel sales were depressed with the majority reporting an actual decrease in sales in 2014.

Overall, the outlook for 2015 shows a perceptible increase in optimism compared to the results from the 2014 survey where the majority of respondents predicted at least a breakeven marketplace with only about 40 percent projecting an increase in fuel sales volume.

Conversely, in our 2015 survey, more than 60 percent predicted an increase in fuel sales, which represents a positive upswing of 20 percent.

As far as forecasting confidence in the economy, the majority of survey respondents moved from having little or no confidence in 2014 to a comfortable middle ground position in 2015. Last year, the majority said the economy was not moving in the right direction. For 2015, most said they are undecided. Again, we see this is an indication of guarded optimism.

In what we call our high-water benchmark, 18 percent of those surveyed this year said they predicted an increase in fuel sales of 5 to 8 percent. This compares to 10 percent responding to the same question in 2014. And for the really strong performers, 8 percent of respondents said they expect an increase in fuel sales of more than 8 percent, which is the same result for last year’s survey.

An added question to this year’s survey queried respondents on whether the recent decrease in oil prices has affected the number of aircraft flying into their FBO. An overwhelming majority said the amount of traffic has remained about the same.

What we saw in the comment section of our survey is a general observation that piston aircraft owners and, in particular, the weekend enthusiasts are starting to fly more with lower posted avgas prices. Also, many who responded indicated that aviation fuel prices will not come down as quickly as auto gas because there is still a lot of higher priced fuel in inventory at airport storage facilities.

In looking at flight hours flown by general aviation and business aircraft, which we know is a key statistic linked to potential FBO fuel sales, the numbers continued to be flat in 2014. As a result, we really don’t see flight hours increasing in the short term, even though fuel prices are coming down.

Based on our survey findings, we forecast aviation fuel prices continuing to drop throughout 2015 with no appreciable increase in flight activity until the third quarter.

If you are attending the S&D Conference, we would like to see you so please stop by the ACUWKIK Booth #1723. Also, please attend our special Exhibitor Session at 5:15 pm in the Exhibit Hall.

In addition, there will be a drawing at the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) booth #1511 for a free registration for our next NATA FBO Success Seminar scheduled for March 9-10 in Las Vegas. Registrants will receive a free copy of our new book, FBO Survival! 10 Tips to Keep Your Operation Lean, Mean and Profitable. The free registration and book are valued at more than $700.

About the bloggers:

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

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

Visit FBO Connection Bloggers at 2015 Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference

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By John L. Enticknap and Ron R. Jackson, Principals of Aviation Business Strategies Group
- Facilitators of NATA’s FBO Success Seminar and Authors of the forthcoming book: FBO Survival: 10 Tips to Keep Your Operations Lean, Mean & Profitable

 

The team at Aviation Business Strategies Group and FBO Connection bloggers, John Enticknap and Ron Jackson, will be attending the 2015 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference next week in San Jose, Calif., and would love to touch base.

We’ll be conducting the Preconference Exhibitor Session on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 5:15 p.m. in the Convention Center Exhibit Hall that will include a brief overview of our Annual FBO Industry Survey for 2015. Many of you have participated in this survey, and we thank you very much. We think you will be a little surprised at the results, so we encourage you to attend.

During the S&D Conference, please visit the AC-U-KWIK booth — 1723, 1725 and 1727 — and take a peek at our new ebook that is coming out: FBO Survival! 10 Tips to Keep Your Operation Lean, Mean and Profitable.

Also, please save the dates of March 9-10 for our acclaimed NATA FBO Success Seminar at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. We hope to see you there as well.

Lastly, we’d like to thank the good folks at Euro Jet for having us as guest speakers at their training event in Prague on January 14 and 15. They are a great group of people, and we enjoyed bringing our Don’t Forget the Cheese! customer service training program to this part of the world.

See you at SDC2015.

John and Ron

About the bloggers:

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

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