Waypoints: The customer experience

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.

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