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.

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.