Coaching Provides Valuable Seasoned Advice

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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.

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

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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.

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Optimizing Your FBO, Part 1: Pay Your Front Line Employees More

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Often, when FBOs, and other businesses for that matter, are faced with an economic downturn, one of the first places they look to make cuts is their payroll. That might work if you are operating a clothing or grocery store, but take a moment and think about the time that has been invested in training your employees, especially the ones who are out there on what I call The Front Line, marshalling, fueling, and, most importantly, meeting and greeting customers.

These are the employees who have built a relationship with your customers. There is a certain amount of trust and comfort that a flight crew feels when someone familiar is handling the company’s most prized possession, the corporate jet. And if you are looking to increase your fuel sales at the point of transaction, who is in a better position to positively influence the sale: you or the line service technician or CSR?

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

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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.

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FBO Fuel Pricing: Seeking a Silver Bullet

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Ever since the Lone Ranger first loaded his trusty six-shooter with silver bullets, I’ve been intrigued with the idea of formulating a single straightforward solution for pricing fuel at FBO operations I’ve managed over the years.

This search for the silver bullet is a subject we discuss at our FBO Success Seminars, and FBO managers in attendance often voice their concerns about how to effectively price fuel. On one hand, they’re concerned about the bottom line. On the other hand, they don’t want to price themselves out of the market and lose valuable customers in the process.

Indeed, it’s a two-edge sword. The trick is to maximize both cutting edges. Let me explain.

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Welcome to AC-U-KWIK's FBO Connection Blog

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We would like to welcome you to AC-U-KWIK’s FBO Connection, a source for discussion, ideas and general conversation on the FBO business. Here you’ll find weekly contributions from seasoned FBO professionals, sprinkled with bits of wisdom and peppered occasionally with some hot topics. We like to call it “Sage Advice for the FBO Community.”
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