Don’t forget to communicate

During the coronavirus pandemic, you need to manage your flight school and navigate through uncertain economic conditions. But, unlike in an in-flight emergency, this time you shouldn’t skip the third step. You must communicate with your customers and your staff, and you must continue to do so, whether you are open or closed.

Keith West, AOPA senior director of flight school business support, on April 9 shared some strategies to keep the lines of communications open. You can access the entire webinar recording here.

“Hopefully you’ve been building an email list,” West said, or at least collecting emails and putting them into one location. An email service such as Constant Contact can help you reach out to students and employees, depending on the number of employees you have, he said.

Facebook is a way to reach the public and post updates. Any form of social media can keep you in your customers’ minds, but remember that part of remaining relevant is to post new content. This can be in the form of regular weekly updates, short chair flying guides, training tips, or even webinars of your own. “Anything to give them a reason to keep them coming back,” West said.

How do you help students maintain progress? “If you can’t get them into an airplane or [the] school it’s tough, but there are ways,” West said. He mentioned free tools such as Zoom, Skype, and GoToWebinar; these can be used to host online ground schools, small group seminars, or even virtual events where you can celebrate a success, mention a milestone, or discuss tips for taking a practical exam.

“These will help your students stay connected to you and keep a sense of optimism that they’re maintaining their progress and not going backward,” West said. “That will keep them engaged so that when you can fly again, they’ll be ready to go.”

Don’t forget to recommend free or almost-free online resources, such as Sporty’s Study Buddy, to prepare for knowledge tests. “I have been working with two students and one of them is right on the verge of solo when we had to shut down our program,” West said. “It’s a perfect time to get ready for his written. Hopefully soon we’ll be up and going again, but he’ll be that much farther along.”

Don’t overlook home simulation programs such as X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator, West said. “I highly recommend these…because it’s a wealth of learning [students] can get out of that. If you can fly these home simulators well, there’s good transference of learning to the aircraft.” Not so much in how the airplane feels, but in terms of procedures, timing, flows, and other aspects of flying, West said.