Do Your FBO Customers Trust Your Service?
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Do turbine aircraft owners, operators and flight crews have trust concerns when it comes to servicing their aircraft? Many do. Whether it’s the first service at an FBO or the tenth, complete and total trust is rarely given.
After all, this group of customers are putting their multimillion-dollar aircraft in the hands of someone that perhaps they’ve never met before. As one FBO line service technician told us, “Many customers, no matter how many times you’ve worked with them, watch you like a hawk.”
It’s been said that trust is not given freely, rather it’s earned over time. It’s our experience in the FBO environment that this is a true statement. Which begs the question: what is trust and how do you earn it and keep it?
Trust is often characterized as an emotion that is bolstered by collective actions that demonstrate reliability and meeting customer expectations. In the FBO environment, customers are attracted to FBOs through consistent and positive interactions with individuals, as well as service teams. This helps foster a sense of reliance on one another and a sensation of well-being.
When the entire FBO team works in unison, a pervasive sense of trust emerges throughout the enterprise which allows long-term customer relationships the opportunity to form and mature.
In our discovery work with both aircraft owners and FBO employees, we have found that trust is established under the following conditions:
Consistency: The same high-level of service is achieved over time.
Reliability: Follow-thru and follow-up on promises made and kept.
Timeliness: Schedules set, schedules met. There is a reason why aircraft owners have chosen their method of travel.
Exactness: In the FBO environment, there is no room for second guessing. Precision is the operative word.
Safe and Secure: The flight crew and their customers traveling in the back of the aircraft should always feel safe and secure in an FBO setting.
In summation, FBOs can achieve a high degree of customer trust by meeting expectations in all of these areas.
So how do you lose customers? One thing we’ve learned in our discovery work is that trust can be fleeting. One mis-fueling, one scraped wing tip, one broken static wick and even one wrong invoice can effectively jeopardize the circle of trust.
Aircraft owners and operators don’t expect FBO employees to be perfect. But they do expect issues that arise to be handled fairly and promptly.
Experienced customers know that FBOs are going to have their ups and downs, their sunny days and not-so-good days. It’s the basic law of nature and the human condition. Babe Ruth didn’t hit a home run every time he came to the plate, and neither does Shohei Ohtani.
But FBOs can save a disgruntled customer from defecting if they act in a most expeditious way and demonstrate on-the-spot willingness to problem solve. What FBOs do not want to happen is for the disgruntled customer to leave the facility without resolving the issue. In today’s viral world, the customer can post a negative comment about the FBO on multiple social media accounts in a matter of seconds.
A pervasive sense of trust is one of four traits successful FBOs have in common and is part of our series on A well balanced FBO management approach.
The four traits that standout and have shared threads that connect the organization from top to bottom include:
A pervasive sense of trust
A shared passion
In a follow-on blog post, we’ll discuss the final trait successful FBOs have in common: A shared passion.
© 2025 ABSG/TJG
Please leave any comments you have about this blog post below. If you have any questions, please send us an email: John Enticknap, jenticknap@bellsouth.net; Ron Jackson, ronjacksongroup@gmail.com.
ABOUT THE BLOGGERS: John Enticknap is the founder of Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG). He has more than 35 years of aviation fueling and FBO services industry experience and is an IS-BAH Accredited auditor. Ron Jackson is co-founder of ABSG and president of The Jackson Group (TJG), a PR agency specializing in FBO marketing and customer service training. Visit the biography page or absggroup.com for more background.