FBO Relationship Management: Forming the Customer Bond
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Establishing long-term profitable customer relationships in the FBO business is all about forming a bond with the customer that can’t be easily broken. A bond that will withstand the many tests that can challenge the relationship over time.
Building the customer bond is a process that involves everyone in the FBO enterprise. Although the FBO owner or manager plays a key role in setting the tone for the organization and leading by example, it’s the front line employees that ultimately initiate and form the customer bond and, in the process, promote loyalty to the brand.
Therefore, it’s important to train your employees on good customer service habits and empower them to make good customer service decisions at the point of transaction. By empowering your employees, you’ll signal a sign of trust in their ability to make wise decisions.
In our discovery work through engaging with successful FBOs, we have found:
Employees who are empowered with decision making abilities can often diffuse disputes at the point of transaction. This will help any customer dispute from escalating.
Being empowered helps cement a relationship between the customer and the employee. The customer will view the employee as a problem solver.
An employee who is empowered encourages trust and can often turn an ordinary business transaction into a customer transformation. A personal bond is made.
Remember that if you treat an employee as a true stakeholder in the company, you’ll find that the employee becomes naturally empowered by displaying more enthusiasm and a heightened interest to the job or task at hand; more involved and increasingly invested in the outcome of the enterprise.
Further, we find that a customer that has been drawn to form a bond with an FBO has experienced one or more of the following:
Consistency in service
A perceived received value
Employees that listen with empathy
A sense of trust throughout the transactional process
Quick and fair resolve of disputes
A sense of mutual respect
Thoughtful recognition of patronage
Relationship Management is one of the four R’s that are vital to the success of the FBO enterprise.. The four R’s are:
Risk Management
Relationship Management
Refueling Management
Real Estate Management
In our last blog post we discussed Risk Management. Next we’ll delve into the ins and outs of Refueling Management.
© 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.