I pulled up to the canopied entrance at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh to drop off a pile of stuff that I brought from Milwaukee in advance of an overnight TEC meeting.
Waiting to greet me at the entrance were John Dorgan, EAA manager of event sales and service; Caitlin Mason, EAA event coordinator; and a third person who turned out to be the official volunteer EAA receptionist. Dorgan was my original EAA contact. Mason handled the day-to-day specifics of our meeting. Pretty impressive greeting, I thought.
I parked the car in the nearby lot and walked back to the entranceway. My pile of meeting stuff – flip chart, a large brown briefcase packed with meeting folders, a box of speaker handouts and a miscellaneous carry-all bag – were gone when I returned.
My EAA greeters had already delivered it all to the Batten Board Room where our meeting would be held later that morning. At the bottom of the stairs, a large sign in the foyer welcomed TEC and showed the way to the boardroom. Little things, to be sure. But now the level of customer service was getting seriously interesting.
Mason escorted me to the boardroom. She was able to make several changes to our planned meeting agenda on the fly. Lunch was moved forward. The docent-guided museum tour was pushed back. We needed more time for the open cockpit bi-plane rides in the afternoon. The 1929 Travel Air E-4000 could only take one passenger at a time. Mason made it happen.
Based on my initial conversations with Dorgan, it was clear the EAA was looking forward to having us with them. I had the distinct feeling they wanted us there.
I started to wonder what was going on with the people at the EAA.
I had planned and executed dozens of overnight TEC meetings with some pretty impressive venues. The Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton and the Waldorf Astoria in Chicago, for example, were certainly good customer service experiences.
This, however, was a different level of customer service. This was exceptional. These people cared.
Throughout the day, my members and I came in contact with various EAA representatives. Some worked there. Some volunteered. Some were pilots. Others had nothing to do with aviation other than the EAA. My members began to notice and comment on the genuine enthusiasm, attentiveness and care that each person associated with the EAA was exhibiting.
The question was: why? Why would a group of people, many of whom were unpaid and had no affiliation with aviation, work so diligently to ensure we had an exceptional customer experience?
Juxtapose our EAA experience with a recent Harvard University study on why customers leave. An incredible 67 percent of customers who left a supplier reported they quit because of an attitude of indifference from one employee.
Paul Poberezny founded the Experimental Aircraft Association in Hales Corners in 1953. He headed up a group of people who wanted to build their own airplanes. He worked as an unpaid volunteer until the early ’70s, when he retired from the National Guard and took his first paid position with the organization.
When he died in 2013, the EAA had over 180,000 members. The week-long “EAA AirVenture Oshkosh” fly-in at the end of July hosted 12,000 airplanes and attracted 500,000 total visitors. It is the largest annual fly-in event in the world. Over 4,500 volunteers supplemented EAA’s staff of 150 people.
So Poberezny was doing some pretty decent inspiring along the way. His leadership mantra speaks volumes: “Everyone is welcome. Who do we tell to stay away?”
His vision was to, “share the joy of flying and explore the great ocean above us.” He convinced people to, “believe what they were doing was a benefit to all in aviation.” He connected with people. From U.S. presidents to Hollywood movie stars to the maintenance man and volunteer museum receptionist, Poberezny cared and made friends.
Poberezny established a clear vision: “Share the joy of flying.”
He was brilliantly inclusive in enlisting followers: “Everyone is welcome.”
He established a mission that motivated and inspired: “To benefit all in aviation.”
Poberezny also proved that one person has the power to change the world. Leaders do big things sometimes. More often it is the little things … leading a family, a church youth group, or a team in the workplace. We all have opportunities to lead…to make a difference… rather than be indifferent.
Dennis Ellmaurer is a management consultant working primarily as a TEC chairman, leading three CEO mastermind groups in southeastern Wisconsin. He is also a speaker and executive coach. He can be reached at (414) 271-5780 or dennis@globenational.com.
