2015 Customer Survey Highlights

– We undervalued AOG
– Industry and Supplier Awards was least important when compared to our employees’ view
– Flexibility in adapting to the changing needs of the airline/OEM was very important

 

Great companies know their customers. They look for trends and opinions among their customer base to determine the best and most valuable areas to produce better, faster solutions. They ask themselves, their employees and management teams, are we meeting customer expectations, and needs?

Many businesses say they have values. Aereos put the company’s values into action by adapting quickly to customer needs quickly.

It was with this motivation that Aereos set out in 2015 to survey its employees, and customer base in two separate surveys. We asked employees what they felt was most important, and least important to customers. Conversely, we asked customers what they thought. The results were sometimes surprising.  

Here’s what we learned.

Among 19 major industry-related criteria, including services, practices, pricing and more, we set out to validate the needs of customers by identifying the gaps between what we thought, and what actually was important to customers.

Of all results, one stood out among the others: AOG. As we studied results from the customer perspective, it became more clear to us.

In this business, a grounded aircraft (AOG, Aircraft On Ground) means thousands of lost dollars for airlines and MROs (Aerospace Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul companies).

In the US, average domestic airfare cost around $361 in the first quarter of 2016, according to the United States Department of Transportation. Over the past 20 years, ticket prices have averaged between $275 – $500.

Let’s breakdown the potential gross air fare from a typical flight in the US. We’ll use the much-used Airbus A321, and Boeing 767, as well as the world’s largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, for perspective. This will help illustrate how costly an AOG truly is.

Airbus A321

185 Passenger Capacity

$66,785 Potential Gross air fare

Boeing 767

375 Passenger Capacity

$135,375 Potential Gross air fare

Airbus A380

(The world’s largest commercial aircraft flying today)

544 passengers

$196,384 Potential Gross air fare

When one of these aircraft are grounded, airlines lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s that simple. You can see how important it is, therefore, for repairs on aircraft to happen fast.

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, BTS Air Fares, Origin and Destination Survey

ALSO SEE: The Ultimate “Aircraft-On-Ground” Repair Crew

Adapting to the Needs of Our Customers

Discovering how much our customers value AOG services, we better understand our customer’s challenges. With so much at stake, Aereos is ready to empathize and adapt to what’s important to airlines and OEMs.

Flexibility in adapting to the changing needs of the airline/OEM was one of the most important takeaways from the survey.

Discovering what great customer service means does not happen spontaneously. Businesses must ask, have open ears, and learn what customers want. Customer’s needs are always changing. We have to continually ask and continuously learn and adapt.

As the Aereos family of operating companies moves into the future, it’s committed to improving the most important services and needs of its customers.