Value-added emails

The most recent example is from Brunswick Air at Cape Fear Regional Jetport (SUT) in Southport, North Carolina.

The South has been experiencing an uncharacteristically harsh winter, but that hasn’t stopped the flight school from sending out a winter newsletter full of student accomplishments. Even more relevant is the detailed description of upgrades to one of the flight school’s trainers, performed at the most recent annual inspection.

In this instance, the airplane received two Garmin G5 units. “One provides horizon information. The other replaced DG based info with AHARS based information. These two G5s back each other up in the event of failure, with each having a four-hour back-up battery,” Brunswick noted. With dual G5s, the airplane’s vacuum system could be removed.

Additional work included installation of a new turn coordinator and new engine baffling, some elevator and rudder cable pulleys were replaced, and a lot more. Photos of the panel in progress and a nice “after” shot accompanied the story.

Overkill or smart marketing? I think it’s very smart. The upgrade article tells customers a few things:

1. This flight school does not shirk on maintenance. A laundry list of items that were repaired—everything from rewebbing seat belts to polishing out a deep scratch in the glareshield—indicates the flight school pays attention to everything that needs to be fixed.
2. This flight school is keeping up with safety-enhancing technology by installing the electronic attitude indicator and directional gyro, and removing the vacuum-driven system that could fail in IMC. That adds value to the training experience.
3. Maintenance is transparent at this flight school. Brunswick Air wants customers to be knowledgeable in all aspects of flight training, and that includes understanding what happens when a trainer is down for maintenance.

Congratulations, Brunswick Air, for conveying all this to your customers in a single email, and for doing it in a way that is approachable and digestible.