Enhancing Customer Satisfaction in Aviation: The Power of Effective Communication

As our aviation industry continues to transform and rebound after COVID-19 and other business impacts, customer expectations and satisfaction are at the highest levels I have seen across the industry. What makes this challenge even more so is the continual pressure on aviation organizations, leadership, and technicians to manage this part of the business.

As we all know and see, our industry is continually faced with staff shortages, continual turnover, and limited technical experiences in people skills, communications, soft people skills, and conflict resolution experience.

Though we always want to ensure the technician's focus is fixing the airplane and all the compliance requirements that entail, it is also paramount that the technician can communicate effectively depending on his role within the organization, up to leadership and direct or indirect communication in all forms with the customer.

Meeting or exceeding customer expectations and experiences is paramount to an organization’s success.

Strategies within the organization must ensure that the customer has only a “one-time experience” that covers all items associated with his business with the organization.

Eliminating those two or three additional calls, interactions, or emails and how the information is communicated will, for the most part, determine the return of their business.

What does it take to get to the point of customer satisfaction and a one-time interaction (positive one) at that? I would ask leadership in their organizations, first and foremost, to take some time and fully assess how they would rate their organization's communications with external as well as internal customers. How does that call/email notice look like when it comes to the part of the organization that fields the call first and then is tasked to find or gather the information that needs to be shared with the customer?

I know that organizations most likely have call centers, etc., but in the highly technical world of aviation and aerospace, at times, some of those types of calls go down to the lowest possible denominator of the organization. It’s there where work needs to be done that ensures that customer interaction is processed, and you would want to be sure it’s handled right the first time, every time.

 "Meeting or exceeding customer expectations and experiences is paramount to an organization’s success"

As the saying goes, in aviation, fix it right the first time. The same consideration goes into dealing with customers. 

In my 40 years of aviation industry experience, it always comes down to the communications process and how it is managed. We know that lack of communication is a “dirty dozen” in Human Factors and being taught how to apply “Safety Nets.” This same mindset needs a high priority, for we know our success is based on customers who pay for our services. The challenge at times we face is due to the highly technical nature of our industry, but some continual common-sense strategies and methods can be employed across all levels. Ask yourself, how many times have you had to triage on a customer complaint that, in the end, all came down to communicating? As I like to say in my role as a leader, “Words matter.” Taking the time to focus on the words and, just as importantly, understanding what’s being said to you makes all the difference to a person and customer and the takeaway from that communication interaction.

In closing, I’m sure all of us think continually about Customer interaction, collaboration, and resolution; it’s the attitude of how we choose to approach it and the benefit to all when it comes to outstanding customer service, loyalty, and intent to re-purchase key products and services that generate bottom line revenue. I encourage my fellow readers to take a moment and self-reflect on this very important aspect of our business and take any additional steps to improve your communications through all aspects of your organization.