Posts Tagged ‘flight training’
What the Flight Training World Can Learn from Zappos
In the New York times bestselling book, Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) chronicles the rise of Zappos .com from obscurity to profitability and finally to its now infamous 1.2 billion dollar acquisition by Amazon.com . He outlines Zappos’ legendary focus on customer service and corporate culture. As I read Hsieh’s book, I couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities and implications for those of us who love flying and aviation related businesses.
In the introduction, Hsieh, takes us into his thoughts as he prepares to announce to Zappos’ employees that Amazon was acquiring the company. While the media was focused on the sheer size of the deal, Hsieh’s thoughts were elsewhere:
“To all of us in the room, we knew it wasn’t just about the money. Together, we had built a business that combined profits, passion, and purpose. And we knew that it wasn’t just about building a business. It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone, including ourselves.”1
There are several things noteworthy in this quote. One is the sense of team that you feel. Hsieh speaks in terms of “us” and “together”. Clearly the focus is on something more than the bottom line. Words such as “passion”, “purpose”, “lifestyle” and “happiness” all speak to the company’s core values and goals. Hsieh notes later that, “We decided that we wanted to build our brand to be about the very best customer service and the very best customer experience.” 2 What Zappos discovered was that by creating a culture centered on these values and expectations, profitability developed.
Zappo’s Rabid Dedication to the Customer & Employee
As I read, I would often seek out my wife to read her passages (some guys read poetry to their wives…so much for romance!) I would begin with saying, “Can you believe that a company would do this?” Here are a few examples:
- Customer service that includes free, unannounced upgrades in shipping. You place an order for shoes that should take 4 days to arrive and without warning –for free—they’re on your doorstep the next day.
- A reward system for employees for pursuing personal development. A lending library of the best personal growth books was created in the lobby to do just this.
- Free shipping on all orders…and if the shoes don’t fit you can send them back for free!
- If they don’t have the shoe in stock, they will research three competitor’s websites and will direct the customer to the competitor.
- In 2008, Zappo’s was faced with making a round of layoffs. Instead of the standard 2-week severance, they offered to pay each employee through the end of the year (which at the time was about 2 months). They paid an additional amount for those who had been with the company 3 or more years. They reimbursed laid-off employees for 6 months of COBRA payments.
This made me want to buy shoes, just to have the Zappos experience. Which is exactly the point- the experience.
The Zappos Experience- Happiness
In 2009 Zappos inserted a simple statement into their vision that reflects the underlying core value that is at the heart of their company. It says, “Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world.”3
Hsieh and Zappos are not talking about some “fuzzy” notion of happiness, which many people equate with silly giddiness. Instead, Hsieh studied the concept of what makes people happy and investigated ways to integrate his findings into his company. In his book, he offers several frameworks to consider, such as our need for perceived control in our lives (having a say in our future and in our work), perceived progress (we can see that we are going somewhere—don’t we all hate “dead-end” jobs?), connectedness (being in relationships that are truly fulfilling) and meaning/vision (being a part of something larger than ourselves that we believe in).
This type of corporate emphasis helped develop a company culture that focused on amazing customer service, which aimed ultimately at customer happiness. While Zappos was certainly concerned with profitability and bottom line, they managed to never lose sight of the crucial importance of what they were delivering, but how. I think this begins to intersect and have application for the aviation industry.
What if a flight school moved into the realm of radical customer service?
As an industry it simply doesn’t appear that we’re asking the customer experience question. And yet, in some ways, flying is all about experience. It’s built into the act of flying. But what isn’t built in is how we attract and retain customers by giving them an experience of service.
For instance, let’s consider flight training. How do we attract and engage the customer before they officially become a customer? What could we do to serve them before we’re asking for their money?
- How about having a pleasant lobby area and facilities that are well kept? (Seriously, the urinal that overflows regularly should be fixed. Gross.)
- How about having snacks available for free?
- Coupons (have any Flight Schools tried Groupon.com) for flights?
- Free airplane rides. Publicize well, donate a couple of hours on a Saturday to give rides to the community.
- Flight training material professionally produced and ready to be given to the new student.
- Aircraft that are clean, up-to-date, and well-maintained. (If your preflight involves duct-tape, think again.)
As a customer, what kind of experience might we give our customers if we:
- Randomly chose a student to receive a free hour of instruction? They come in from the flight line only to discover they owe nothing.
- Instead of having them buy more and more books and videos, develop a lending library
- If you have access to a twin or jet and space permits, let your student go for a ride
- Quarterly celebrations for new solos and new licenses. Could be as simple as a cookout at the airport in honor of these new pilots.
- Encouraged lifelong learning by giving seminars and offering guest speakers to the larger aviation community
What about instructors?
- Incentives for recruiting (Bonus for giving 5 or more discovery flights…extra for each one who begins training)
- Bonus for each student who successfully receives their license
- Reward for longevity (create a stable base of instructors)
- Instructor dinners and socializing
- Opportunities for adding new ratings at reduced cost and free recurrency training.
These are just ideas, some of which might be difficult to employ. How refreshing it would be to potential pilots and employees to discover a flight school with a culture that was geared to providing the best possible service and create what Hsieh calls a “WOW” factor.
Whether we’re talking about flight schools or maintenance departments or FBO’s, I believe there is something to be learned from Zappos. Imagine, tomorrow, what it would be like to be “WOWED” by your company in its relationship with you. Imagine what it would be like to WOW your customers and the transformed relationship with them. Imagine the impact of those combined experiences, the word of mouth that would ensue, and the absolute fun of being in the flying business.
It begins with a commitment to developing or changing the culture and embracing a foundational shift towards clearly defined values and competencies that will shape the entire organization. It is about delivering an experience that is first class and recognizing that our happiness is found not only in profits (which is certainly needed) but in living with passion and purpose.
If Hsieh and Zappos can do it with shoes, I believe we can certainly do it with airplanes.
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, New York: NY, 2010
1. Page 11
2. Page 121
3. Page 177
Earning My Wings (Part 5)
With a new year ahead, it seems a majority of us are reflecting on the past year, and perhaps deciding to make some changes in our lives. Whether the change involves exercising more, quitting a bad habit, or something more life changing, like starting a family or new job, one thing is certain, change can be daunting, and downright scary for some. What does this have to do with my learning to fly, you ask?
My last blog was about waiting - having patience. I was not able to fly because of poor weather conditions, my aircraft being in maintenance, and my plans to spent three wonderful weeks on vacation in my homeland of Australia. This blog is about CHANGE - quite fitting considering it’s the beginning of a new year, and I’m already making some changes in my personal life. What’s one more, right?
So, the Cessna 152 went down for maintenance – an engine overhaul to be exact. This left me without an aircraft to fly. So the questions I have to answer are: do I wait the possible weeks it takes for engine overhaul, or do I change aircraft? I have the option to change from the Cessna 152 to a Diamond Katana (DA20). The aircraft are quite different – one high-winged, the other low-winged. One has a yoke, the other a stick. The different cockpit, and overall feel of the airplane. Honestly, I was really disappointed that I was unable to solo in the 152 before I left for my vacation in Australia; but, I’m now quite excited at the prospect of switching aircraft. Flying a different airplane altogether will be a great challenge. I’ve never really been afraid of change; so (no surprise), I’m making the chage and I’m really excited about it.
However, this means I will have to learn a new Pilot Operating Handbook, DA20 aircraft speeds, instrument panel, how to land with a completely different view of the runway. One thing won’t change:I will still have to rub elbows with Kirk. It’s a tiny trainer!
Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful, it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful, it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident, it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better. So, to those reading this blog, I encourage you to embrace change in your life. Because one thing is certain, change is inevitable.
