BOURNEMOUTH FLYING CLUB URGES MEMBERS TO TAKE TO THE SKIES WITH PHOENIX
York, England – MAY 21, 2009 - A pioneering flying club has installed a specialist software solution to help manage its business and encourage its members to take to the skies via text message.
Bournemouth Flying Club aims to keep in touch with its members via SMS and track their patterns of usage with Phoenix, the specialist flying club management solution from York-based RedBlack Software.
Bournemouth Flying Club can trace its roots back to the 1930s, before Bournemouth Airfield became Bournemouth Airport. In 2008, a new management team took over and from a limited fleet of aircraft and a few instructors, the club now has a fleet of 10 aircraft, a full complement of full-time and part-time instructors and is reporting record flying figures.
As a result, the flourishing firm was looking for a business management solution that could meet its requirements and provide a platform for future growth. The Phoenix solution was originally developed for Sherburn Aero Club in Leeds, the largest flying club in the North of England. Bournemouth Flying Club's management team visited the historic aeronautical institution to see the software in action.
Phoenix provides a one-point information system for flying clubs and schools. The software processes membership, hire, landing fee, fuel and other sales. It features a front-desk booking management system and integrates with clubs' existing accountancy packages.
Although Bournemouth Flying Club aims to integrate all these functions into its operations, it was the software's potential for customer relationship management that really sealed the deal.
Although Bournemouth Flying Club aims to integrate all these functions into its operations, it was the software's potential for customer relationship management that really sealed the deal.
Class Rating Instructor Simon Birt, Bournemouth Flying Club's general manager, says: "The reason that we wanted the software particularly was for its sales and marketing capabilities. We wanted to be able to communicate with our customers and to be able to send people an email very easily, to be able to filter records the way we wanted them filtered. Ultimately, we will run queries on it saying: 'Anybody that hasn’t flown for 28 days, tell us who they are so that we can send them an email and ask them why not."
Birt comes from a solidly commercial background in the courier business. He makes no bones about the fact that Bournemouth Flying Club is also run as a commercial enterprise.
"Flying 'club' is a bit of a euphemism – they’re always called clubs but it’s a business like any other and it has to run as a business and we need to persuade our customers to part with their money," he says. "So being able to actually generate reports on people’s usage habits and that sort of thing is ultimately what we see would be useful. So, for example, if you noticed that someone used to fly every Tuesday and for some reason they don’t fly on a Tuesday – they miss one – there’s probably a need to investigate."
Birt points out that 70% pilots that gain a licence give up flying within two years. Customer relationship management is therefore key which is why Bournemouth Flying Club asked RedBlack Software to build a mobile phone text messaging function into Phoenix.
"The sort of thing that we might want to do is if we’ve got a nice day and we’ve got aircraft available, we might want to tell people 'Come on down, there’s an aeroplane to fly' because they might just need a little nudge," Birt explains.
Martin Coyle is spearheading sales of RedBlack Software's Phoenix solution. He says: "We pride ourselves on the level of customisation we offer our customers, so we were delighted when the team at Bournemouth Flying Club came up with the idea of adding SMS messaging capabilities to Phoenix. Such innovations add strength to what we consider to be an elegantly-designed software package.
Coyle adds: "Having worked so closely on Phoenix's inception with Sherburn Aero Club and refined its customer relationship management functions with Bournemouth Flying Club, RedBlack is now taking the Phoenix message to flying clubs and schools throughout the UK. We are offering free, no-obligation demonstrations of Phoenix's capabilities either face-to-face or online."
For further information please contact:
Seamus Quinn
Cue Communications
seamusquinn1@yahoo.co.uk
07846 102 192
or
Martin Coyle
RedBlack Software Ltd
martin.coyle@redblacksoftware.co.uk
01904 622888
About RedBlack Software Ltd
Over 100 organisations across the UK rely on our solutions to enhance, automate and control their business processes. We customise our software to our customers’ individual needs and to provide a secure, easy-to-use platform for their future plans. Established in 1995, RedBlack Software also offers a full range of support, training, web development and e-business services. You can find out more about RedBlack Software at http://www.redblacksoftware.co.uk