Professional Pilot, October 2017

Attendees at our convention this year will be encouraged to come by the NBAA booth C8949 on the exhibit floor where we will have designated tablets available for contacting elected officials Even for those who wont be with us in Las Vegas using NBAAs Contact Congress tool is as easy as picking up your smartphone iPad or laptop typing nbaa org action into your browser and sending your message to lawmakers We are at a critical point one that could determine the very future of our industry We have fought hard but we know we must do more That means we need Professional Pilot readers and everyone in general to contact their federal elected officials through social media email and phone calls We need everyone to encourage their coworkers families and friends to do likewise If you have contacted your elected officials I request that you contact them again they need to know their constituents oppose ATC privatization and that we are watching this issue carefully Now is the time for our industrys resounding voice to be heard Reed Pigman Founder Pres CEO Texas Jet What customers want Now in our 40th year of business as a top US independent FBO at FTW Fort Worth Meacham TX we still keep asking What do our customers want How can we build long lasting relationships We know that we must continually improve in each area to remain competitive Texas jets Culture of Excellence focuses on transforming our customers into passionate advocates to the point that they cannot imagine a world without Texas Jet To accomplish this we must understand the needs of flightcrews and business aircraft passengers so let me list and explain our basic tenets 1 Be safe Our customers want to know that their aircraft and passengers will be safe with Texas Jet and that we can fuel and move their aircraft without damaging anything So how do we fulfill their need for safety Much of this involves having an adequate number of things such as LSTs fuel trucks tugs towbars GPUs and so on We call this FBO 101 I believe some people who always wanted to be in the FBO business thought that all they needed to do was to acquire these things to be a successful FBO but alas it is not quite that simple The introduction of IS BAH into Texas Jets operations in 2016 raised our Culture of Safety to unprecedented heights We modified at least half of our 45 standard operating procedures and developed nearly 10 new ones to convert tribal knowledge to a written procedure on which we could train document and then train again More and more corporate aviation departments will come to view an FBOs IS BAH status as a prerequisite to even be considered for their business Our managers supervisors and of course I have to follow and enforce every safety rule 100 of the time If we do not we have taught the rest of our team that safety rules are only optional 2 We do what we say we will do Its simple we follow 24 PROFESSIONAL PILOT October 2017 Texas Jet Founder President and CEO Reed Pigman is on the ramp with his award winning team at FTW Fort Worth Meacham TX Texas Jet won Best US FBO honors in the Pro Pilot 2017 PRASE Survey through Have the aircraft ready on time with the proper fuel load Have the catering as ordered Coffee ice papers And we must have a hassle free system for processing charges But who makes sure this all happens like clockwork What if theres a glitch Are our staff members empowered to do whatever it takes to fix the problem without having to get approval from a manager who is somewhere down the hall Our customers count on us to fix it quickly so we train our team to be a lot more than just order takers 3 Be fair Our customers wonder Will Texas Jet treat me fairly and honestly Are our fuel and hangar prices fair Texas Jet has chosen to not charge ramp fees with the hope that the few who dont buy fuel will be outweighed by the many who do because they appreciate our service Some other FBOs take the same approach Wisconsin Aviation President Jeff Baum proudly states The sign on our doors says it all No ramp fees We prefer to earn your business 4 Show respect We must respect our customers time and make it easy for them to do business with us This involves reading their minds to anticipate their needs Does the customer need aircraft cleaning Does the crew need a car to go to lunch or overnight to a hotel 5 Bolster self esteem and pride Our customers think Will I feel good about myself if I do business with Texas Jet Am I proud to be a customer So we must ask ourselves Do we reinforce our customers self esteem and pride Are we able to take care of the passengers so well that we make the pilots look really good Do we call our customers by name Do we pay extraordinary attention to the details We are in a continuous state of getting feedback from customers to review how were doing at fulfilling the 5 needs above so we can then have a shot at our ultimate goal 6 Create passion This is the ultimate expression of emotional attachment Our goal every day with every customer is to create such a strong emotional bond that they think Texas Jet is the perfect FBO for me So we must consistently read our customers minds and provide the wonderful unexpected Wow through experiences that turn our customers into passionate advocates of Texas Jet for life A final note the only way we can turn customers into passionate advocates of Texas Jet is for each of our team