And it worked. The school burned through the first summer like a wild fire. There were enough flight students for all the instructors to work eight-hour days, with some left over on a waiting list. And the airplanes, well, they flew so much that maintenance became - a problem.
When do you do the 100-hour inspection on an airplane that can rack up 80 hours in two and one-half weeks and is booked straight through the end of the month? Being located at a small airport, it was difficult to find a mechanic willing to work the midnight shift. The airplanes, all new, had their share of other wear-and-tear problems, and suddenly it was hard for customers to get an airplane to go fly in. A few switched over to another flight school on the field because its airplanes, tried-and-true Piper Warriors, though not so new, seemed to be more reliable.
Sensing the problem, the owner went out on a limb and acquired a few more airplanes, including some different models. The gamble worked, and customers hung in there with him because they saw that he was trying to make things right.
About this time another problem cropped up. The flight school's receptionist/dispatcher, a competent, polite college student who had comfortably taken on all the middle-management tasks required in the day-to-day running of the school, had to go back to her studies. Her departure left a gaping void in the flight school's front office.
With a countywide unemployment rate hovering around 2.6 percent, the owner found it difficult to replace her. At first he tried to do the job, but he simply couldn't run in all those different directions at once. Then he tried having his other flight instructors answer the telephone and handle scheduling-no go. When a flight instructor has to get up and answer the telephone in the middle of a ground briefing, the client he or she is with becomes secondary-a violation of the primary rule of business: The client you are with that moment is always first. Finally he resorted to an answering machine. He put a perky message on about "if we aren't answering the phone, we're out flying. Come join us!"
The message may have been delightful, but an answering machine simply cannot clinch a sale or schedule a lesson. Business dropped off because, frankly, business came, was not accommodated, and left. In desperation, the owner dropped his high expectations for the position and hired the next warm body who answered his advertisement. He sat the new receptionist/dispatcher in her chair, spent an hour briefing her on the ins and outs of the flight school business, and then went out to fly. The bewildered woman did her best, but she didn't know much about airplanes. Even with an armful of marketing materials at her fingertips, she knew so little that she could do no more than take messages and fill out the flight schedule. Was that better than an answering machine?
A few months later the flight school, its brilliant burst of startup energy dissipating, began to succumb. But to what? It wasn't a downturn in the industry or even a downturn in the economy that did this little speck of light in. In the end, it was a misplaced sense of priorities that ran this business into the rough. When customers cannot get service, it does not matter how new your airplanes are or how wonderful your facilities may be.
Let this be a lesson to you, customers, employees, and owners alike. The successes in general aviation are nearly always the result of good business planning that has been executed well. And one more thing - the successes put extra energy into their people - the receptionists, dispatchers, mechanics, and flight instructors who make "first contact" with all the potential clients who call or walk through the door. Those are the people who make a business go. Owners: Hire with care and take good care of what you've got. Only then can you assure your customers "love at first sight."
