FREDA - How about don't start an airfield if you don't want people to land on it?
This happened not long ago in a pub:
Me: I'd Like two pints of Guinness please.
Pub: 7 quid.
Me: Can I pay with card?
Pub: Minimum of 10 pounds.
Me: OK, we're going to drink more than these, can I start a tab? *hands over card*
Pub: No, we don't start tabs.
Me: ?
Pub: You have to buy a third pint if you want to pay with card.
All very insignificant, but ultimately after watching a pint turn stale on the bar that we'd have been forced to buy to satisfy a nonsensical publicans whim, we moved onto a pub where they would start a tab. Sure, it's his pub and he can do what he wants. But who in their right mind would want to?
Same here. I'm in the air. I change my plans on a whim, or my destination's weather has deteriorated or I had developed a technical fault. I call up field and they say "we only accept PPR by phone" and refuse landing. I go somewhere else where they don't have silly rules, half hoping the engine will quit and declare an emergency just to inconvenience them.
Some people are just hell bent on driving themselves out of business. What's it to me? Well, I've been in business for myself since I was 19 and it just drives me crazy that bad customer service not only is so prevalent, but even encouraged by many. If you're in the business of running an airfield, collecting landing fee's and providing the best support for your tenants on the field, be it a cafe or a maintenance facility, don't you owe it to them and your customers to be accessible and welcoming?
Once again, I'm not talking about small private airfield, 28-day rules etc - that's a different thing. But licensed and incorporated airfields in the business of airfielding. I just don't get it. Even if you lose only one customer because of it, that's one customer. He will tell all and sundry that this field is a PITA.
Just help me understand why this is good practice?
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 27th January 2012 at 14:24.