Long Ridge Gliding Club

1) Evaluate the service to club members and casual flyers by completing a table similar to
Table 3.1.

Club Members Casual Flyers

Products Provision of facilities & Trial Flights
instruction to pursue sport
Customers Enthusiasts Thrill Seekers
Product Range Novice to Expert Short Introductory Flights
Design Changes None Variety
Delivery Club/team Activity Dependable flight
Quality Good flying conditions, Skills Support, care & attention,
Safety
Volume per service type 150 members High numbers
Profit Margins Negligible Mostly profitable

Competitive Factors
Order Winners Product. Quality, Price, Quality, Accessibility,
Dependability Speed
Qualifiers Quality Speed
Less Important

Internal Performance Objective Quality, Flexibility, Speed, Cost, Flexibility, Speed,

Dependability Dependability

2) Chart the five performance objectives to show the differing expectations of club
members and casual flyers and compare these with the actual service delivered.

The Club Members & Casual Flyers have different expectations from the club, but following are the
actual services delivered:

It’s clear that the operation is more accustomed to the needs of the club members as club members run
the gliding club. Many club members see the casual flyers as nuisance who take up their precious air
time and reduce instructor availability with little benefit to the club.

Club members are expected to work for a full day at the club, whereas casual flyers are not required to
help at all.
Members hope to fly sometime during the day, whereas casuals expect to have a flight almost
immediately.
Casuals have paid for their flight and have to be flown but members are not guaranteed a flight.

On some occasions if the weather conditions change for the worse club members do not get to fly at
all. And, as a result:

They feel pushed out of flying by casuals flyers

They consider the club is grabbing money from casuals at the expense of their flying
They feel like cheap labour.

Similarly, the casual flyers perceive about club members:

They see unfriendly and unhelpful people

They feel ignored and loathed

They enjoy the flight but it can be as short as 2 minutes.

They experience very poor service.

3) What advice would you give to the chairman?

End trial flights - This would definitely improve things in the short term for club members.
There would be no casual flyers taking up winch time & more importantly instructor time that
the club members could use. But this will lead in reduction in income as casual flyers are
keeping the club afloat, though most members are blissfully unaware of this.

Create two processes to look after the two types of customers -By devoting staff and
facilities for each customer type i.e. club members and casual members would have their own winch
crews, instructors.
Casual members could have administrative staff that greets them and briefed by the instructor. A
minibus could take them to the launch point for their flights and provide some shelter from the wind.
This appears to be an idealistic solution .However, Long Ridge do not have the staff or finances to
support this approach, although the casual flyers might well see an increase in fees, which might pay
some of the costs.

Amend the process – Lastly I can recommend an amendment in the process to deal better with the
casuals without unjustifiably affecting the members.
Define the product for the casuals, such as meeting and greeting of the casuals, a flight briefing and
an agreed minimum flight time. Inform club members of the (financial) importance of casuals and the
need to give them a good experience.