What flight schools do that students hate?
Flying schools that tell students who "forget" they had a lesson that day that they really should give the instructor some cash, otherwise he/she will starve.
Flying schools that give students a row for turning up late so that, if the full lesson is to be flown, then the instructor will lose their break or other students will have to wait.
Flying schools that pull aside students who have a couple of university degrees yet turn up for a cross-country flight without any preparation and planning "because I was very busy last night", and say: that is not good enough.
Flying schools who point out that they get less money in the bank for a given £100 if paid using a credit card, so would the student like to pay a 3% excess to make up for that - since they can't pay cash, write a cheque or use internet/telephone banking.
Flying schools put up with a lot of grief from their customers - like all customer-focused businesses do.
Fortunately, we try not to show it!
Yes, quite. But that was not what this thread was about. You're working for a flight school yourself and you're just trying to hijack a - thus far - interesting discussion. Poor DD then gets carried away in the discussion, but lets focus on those things that flight schools do wrong and their students hate.
As for a thread on what flight schools hate about students, well, that should just be a matter of clear understandings and credit/cash management, not much different from how you deal with customers in the (equipment) rental business or the leasure business. If you're incapable of loving your customers and enjoying their business, you should probably go work for the civil service - maybe give EASA a try !
I think CFI hit the nail on the head saying that at quite a few RFs and ATOs the basic customer service idea is either lacking or just given lip service.
I think flight schools should have a darn hard look at themselves and ask them if they
really provide better
value to their clients than a dedicated instructor and his own plane - otherwise referred to on this forum as "teaching from the boot of a car".
From experience, there is very little justification to all this "Approved Training Organisation" nonsense (at least when talking PPL; CPL and ATPL is another matter). Lots of regulations, admin costs and job protection (well at least until the crisis bites).