Are Shoreham flying schools so busy.........
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Heston,
With an attitude such as portrayed in this thread - how are you still in business?Do you manage to survive on a bunch of 'old boys' who did their PPL back when you first opened the school, to take an occasional flight with an instructor for renewal / an occasional local trip? Surely that type of attitude cannot possibly get you any new business!
It doesn't take long to be nice to them, explain to them how it works, and get them booked in for a trial flight! Convert prospect to business in order to convert a failing to a prosperous business. A whole 10minutes and you've got yourself a potential recurrent customer who will spend £10k+ with you over the next year!
Again - in your garage, why do you need to delay the works on the paying customer's car? It only takes a few minutes and you don't get many new customers through the door!
I agree with Capt Kremmen on this.
With an attitude such as portrayed in this thread - how are you still in business?Do you manage to survive on a bunch of 'old boys' who did their PPL back when you first opened the school, to take an occasional flight with an instructor for renewal / an occasional local trip? Surely that type of attitude cannot possibly get you any new business!
It doesn't take long to be nice to them, explain to them how it works, and get them booked in for a trial flight! Convert prospect to business in order to convert a failing to a prosperous business. A whole 10minutes and you've got yourself a potential recurrent customer who will spend £10k+ with you over the next year!
Again - in your garage, why do you need to delay the works on the paying customer's car? It only takes a few minutes and you don't get many new customers through the door!
I agree with Capt Kremmen on this.
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Many moons ago, it was habitual at the gliding club where I flew to slot in trial flights (air-ex, whichever) as soon as was humanly possible. Club members were inconvenienced a little, but most recognised the logic and as WKW has said, could be usefully deployed as well. Results: money for club, good PR and new members, obviously at a conversion rate concomitant with many such experiences.
It wasn't a really a walk-in sort of place, being, like many gliding sites, far from the beaten track, but booked flights would arrive with family or friends and it was these that often led to the increased membership.
The important thing, whoever walked through the door, was a warm welcome and at least being shown the gliders if the day was poor. We didn't have many members like our Polish chap who was driving along the main road, saw a glider in the air and followed his nose to find the field.
It wasn't a really a walk-in sort of place, being, like many gliding sites, far from the beaten track, but booked flights would arrive with family or friends and it was these that often led to the increased membership.
The important thing, whoever walked through the door, was a warm welcome and at least being shown the gliders if the day was poor. We didn't have many members like our Polish chap who was driving along the main road, saw a glider in the air and followed his nose to find the field.
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When supply is much greater than demand, buyers try to take advantage of this, and test all possible options to see where they can gain the lowest price with highest quality. So they will constantly walk in and out of all the shops available to them, sometimes repetitively, yet, they will only purchase in one shop. This is when some people make themselves prospects and get treated differently from customers. (Not necessarily in an unpolite way, but certainly on a different track.)
Sorry for being a little off-topic here, but this connects well to the statement about contracting / shrinking General Aviation scene.
rrizoli
I hope that I don't offend you when I comment that you and I appear to be speaking different languages. In ordinary commercial practice - which is what we're discussing - the term customer, has a single,simple meaning. A customer is important and merits every consideration. No amount of semantics can change that.
According to some opinion on this subject, a 'prospect' is to suffer the indignity of being 'graded' in terms of priority and importance according to the whim and staffing availability of the business !
No wonder GA continues to shrink.
I hope that I don't offend you when I comment that you and I appear to be speaking different languages. In ordinary commercial practice - which is what we're discussing - the term customer, has a single,simple meaning. A customer is important and merits every consideration. No amount of semantics can change that.
According to some opinion on this subject, a 'prospect' is to suffer the indignity of being 'graded' in terms of priority and importance according to the whim and staffing availability of the business !
No wonder GA continues to shrink.
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Nothing changes.
In 1972 I went to Biggin Hill to learn to fly, having done some homework I selected and went to a club offering the tailwheel training I required. An unfriendly welcome ensued and I remember the CFI didn't even get out of his chair on the other side of the clubroom. He just talked loudly at me through the other people. The impression I received from him was, 'why should I waste my time talking to this 17 year old kid?'. I eventually ended up in Air Touring's clubhouse. They were friendly and professional, and took me seriously; so I learned to fly with them. I was paying £8.65p per hour which was actually more than the unfriendly club; but it was worth it as a customer!
The commercial rules and standards in the flying game have always been - well - different.
In 1972 I went to Biggin Hill to learn to fly, having done some homework I selected and went to a club offering the tailwheel training I required. An unfriendly welcome ensued and I remember the CFI didn't even get out of his chair on the other side of the clubroom. He just talked loudly at me through the other people. The impression I received from him was, 'why should I waste my time talking to this 17 year old kid?'. I eventually ended up in Air Touring's clubhouse. They were friendly and professional, and took me seriously; so I learned to fly with them. I was paying £8.65p per hour which was actually more than the unfriendly club; but it was worth it as a customer!
The commercial rules and standards in the flying game have always been - well - different.
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I just have to confess, that I am one of those opportunistic bastards, who wasted several CFI's precious hours with my never-ending questions and in the end I chose to train somewhere else. I always went in with a naive smile, asked questions from pre-written notes, booked time for additional discussions (NOT flights!), so I looked very serious, but when everyone thought they "bagged" or "pawned" me, I chose the one that suited my interests best for the goal, and left the others somewhat disappointed for sure. I was bordering on being a parasyte, but it was OK for me, because in my work, I am doing something similar (unfortunately). But I certainly didn't get offended, when I wasn't offered any cofee! Nevertheless, when someone asked me recently, which school I recommend for his initial training out of the 2 I tried already, I told him honestly the advantages/disadvantages, and then straight away recommended him to book introduction flights with both. With literally waving his money, he was greeted with wide open arms in both places, he paid for both intro flights, and made a consious decision, which he still is happy about.
Moral of my story: if someone behaves like a very serious, goal-focused person, he/she will get a much more serious and devoted reception, than someone who is just appearing "slightly curious". We can say this is right, we can say this is wrong, but this is how it has always been, and will be for a long time to come.
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Pure sexism. They just could not get it into their heads that a boy had been sent out to do the grocery shopping. In the end my mother turned up to find out why I'd been taking so long.
Well, that "Ladder of Loyalty" makes it pretty clear why a street-smart, savvy business will realise that a prospect is not commercially deserving of much courtesy.
Milton Friedman famously said that "the business of business is business". No room for sentimentality or charity, no "niceness" except that which is likely to increase profit. A business (according to Friedman) has no social responsibility except to make money.
However, businesses are run by humans, and one hopes that humans might display some humanity: courtesy, friendliness and so on. Or should that be suppressed during working time in the interests of the business?
Milton Friedman famously said that "the business of business is business". No room for sentimentality or charity, no "niceness" except that which is likely to increase profit. A business (according to Friedman) has no social responsibility except to make money.
However, businesses are run by humans, and one hopes that humans might display some humanity: courtesy, friendliness and so on. Or should that be suppressed during working time in the interests of the business?
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Well, that "Ladder of Loyalty" makes it pretty clear why a street-smart, savvy business will realise that a prospect is not commercially deserving of much courtesy.
But what it does tell you is that a loyal client, or supporter, or advocate deserves the loyalty of the business in return - indeed they are entitled to expect it.
That means that if I'm standing at the reception desk of the flight school in a ten minute break and two people arrive at the same time to speak to me, one is a stranger and one is a student half way through their training lets say, then spending time talking to the stranger because they might just possibly become a student while I ignore the existing student because I've already got their business and it doesn't matter if I fob them off - is wrong. WRONG.
What I should do is quickly find out what the stranger wants and then politely ask them to come back another time, or whatever is most appropriate, so that I can deal with the issue that the existing student wants to raise. Because they have paid for my loyalty to them.
I do not understand how this is being discourteous to anybody.
Well, it is certainly prioritising even if that prioritising is plainly wrong from a business point of view. You're arguing your point in the teeth of a lot of opposition. We can't all be wrong !
...spending time talking to the stranger because they might just possibly become a student while I ignore the existing student because I've already got their business and it doesn't matter if I fob them off - is wrong. WRONG.
One is obliged to put first the interests of those with whom one has a commercial relationship?
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One is obliged to put first the interests of those with whom one has a commercial relationship?
CK seems to be saying that I should cr*p on my existing customers. I'm sure he's confused as to exactly what his argument is. Plainly he doesn't know what he's talking about and is just trying to annoy me.
My best advice now to you guys is to go read this
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In that case, I would send the student away politely (he is already "locked"), and deal with the newcomer instead. I would also try to convince very kindly and politely the new guy to pay everything up-front, too!
(This would of course destroy my business in a matter of weeks or months, due to the bad references.)
We have a similar dilemma regarding aircraft booking. In every system, there is a risk that the a/c won't return in time for some reason, and the next guy will have his plans ruined and will heavily protest. Who is going to be punished? (The answer: the guy who flies less and makes less profit for the operators, i.e., doesn't depend on being 1st or 2nd.)
Heston,
I recognise intransigence when it hits me on the chin. None of those including me who oppose your rather basic interpretation of customer relations will ever convince you that you might, even to some degree, be wrong.
"Marketing for Dummies" has obviously failed you; you need a new bible, I suggest: "How to Win Friends & Influence People". If nothing else, it might make you a nicer person.
I recognise intransigence when it hits me on the chin. None of those including me who oppose your rather basic interpretation of customer relations will ever convince you that you might, even to some degree, be wrong.
"Marketing for Dummies" has obviously failed you; you need a new bible, I suggest: "How to Win Friends & Influence People". If nothing else, it might make you a nicer person.
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Heston,
No new prospect would expect anyone in the school/club to drop everything they're doing to give undivided attention, thereby inconveniencing current students/members.
What would be good business practise would be to find a colleague who does have time to spare, or to say something along the lines of "listen, I'm just off to take this student flying, but if you want to hang around, have a coffe etc, I'll be back in 40 mins and would like to talk you through this then, or would a later time suit you to meet for a chat?"
Business is about selling. Don't loose the sale, even if it is only the "prospect" of one, and even if you are an instructor or a receptionist. Flying schools need every employee to be a salesman/woman.
And by the way, it will depend on how you treat your prospects & purchasers to determine how high they will go up your ladder!!
But come on, this is BASIC business principles and you know it.
No new prospect would expect anyone in the school/club to drop everything they're doing to give undivided attention, thereby inconveniencing current students/members.
What would be good business practise would be to find a colleague who does have time to spare, or to say something along the lines of "listen, I'm just off to take this student flying, but if you want to hang around, have a coffe etc, I'll be back in 40 mins and would like to talk you through this then, or would a later time suit you to meet for a chat?"
Business is about selling. Don't loose the sale, even if it is only the "prospect" of one, and even if you are an instructor or a receptionist. Flying schools need every employee to be a salesman/woman.
And by the way, it will depend on how you treat your prospects & purchasers to determine how high they will go up your ladder!!
But come on, this is BASIC business principles and you know it.
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But that's precisely my point all along! The OP and others did expect everything to be dropped for them.
Business is about providing great customer service - which sells itself with the help of a little communication effort.
Now I really am out of here.
Business is about providing great customer service - which sells itself with the help of a little communication effort.
Now I really am out of here.