Drone Flying and Pilot School – Case Study
Background
Whether for work or a new hobby, drone flying can be hugely rewarding and fun but it can also be an expensive business, especially if an accident occurs. With the growth in drone technology there has also been an increase in the need of properly certified courses for both existing pilots and complete beginners.
Our new client runs courses nationwide from PfCO qualified pilots so that candidates can study and work towards gaining their own drone licence or “Permission for Commercial Operations” (PfCO) which is issued in the UK by the Civil Aviation Authority.
A PfCO is required for commercial drone pilots to operate and whilst a PfCO is not currently needed to fly drones for leisure it is well worth the time and effort to help look after some potentially very expensive equipment!
Modest growth hit by Covid lockdown
Our new client’s headquarters are in Leeds however they offer courses all over the country from as far north as Aberdeen to as far south as Portsmouth. During the last few years of growth their main focus had been on finding suitable venues to run training courses, establishing if there was enough demand and also to find and hire suitable pilots with the qualifications and experience necessary.
With operations being run out of a small Leeds office up until late 2019 they had been able to cope with the modest number of phone enquiries but then Covid-19 and lockdown struck and everything stopped. Although furloughed, their receptionist decided to retire for personal reasons and due to the uncertainty in business that the pandemic was causing, they decided not to replace her.
Unfortunately they quickly found that answering all their telephone calls themselves, when restrictions were lifted and business started to pick back up, was no longer feasible.
Could our telephone answering service help?
By September 2020, business and interest in their courses wasn’t just back to pre-lockdown levels but had increased by approximately 50% to 70%.
With admin staff still working from home they had decided to let the lease on their Leeds office lapse a few months earlier. The company was needing some sort of centralisation for their telephone calls as they were still diverting to home workers who didn’t have the technology or time to answer and handle them properly leading to some complaints.
A centralised virtual reception
The school approached Connect with the expectation that we would be able to simply answer their business calls and new enquiries, send a simple message and a member of the home working admin team would be able to call them back when it was convenient.
However, operators at Connect were able to do so much more. Acting as virtual receptionists for the school our operators answer all calls and, following the school’s instructions, transfer calls to the relevant instructor wherever in the country that may be. Once the caller has been transferred our operators then log the message and an email is sent to both the admin team so that they can keep track of a training schools interest and also to the instructor.
If an instructor isn’t available then our operators email the admin team with the callers:
- Full name
- Contact details
- Current experience
- Commercial or leisure interest
- Most suitable training venue
The school has been so impressed with our operators that they are now updating their online booking system so that they can outsource more tasks to us and plan to “pilot” (poor pun alert!) our diary management service.
Page Last Updated: March 8th, 2023