“The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not just to meet them, but to exceed them—preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.”
—Sir Richard Branson
With over 8,000 engines powering business jets worldwide, it would be easy for Rolls-Royce to offer a “one-size-fits-all” customer support solution. Instead, the company is committed to leading the industry through an array of solutions that consistently deliver truly differentiating customer experiences.
When you look back on the technologies that have enabled the growth of business around the world, it all comes down to the availability of reliable transportation. And that’s probably never been more evident than it is today.
While global travel restrictions have brought commercial aviation to a literal standstill, business travelers still need to, well, travel. Now, more than ever, their choice for reliable transportation is private aviation.
And, to that end, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation has strengthened the original commitment it made when entering the fledgling business aviation market in 1958: to deliver products and services that help its business aircraft customers achieve “100 percent aircraft availability.”
“While other manufacturers have an aviation division that mixes business and commercial aviation into one group, Rolls-Royce has a dedicated business aviation organization,” explains Andrew “Andy” Robinson, SVP Customers and Services, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation. “Early on, we recognized that a business aviation customer is unique. The airplane is a valuable asset that they are focused on having available 100-percent of the time.”
“That’s our goal,” he says. “We have designed our services and our organization around providing services that deliver on their expectations.”
Of course, before you can meet an expectation, you have to know what it is. And with business aircraft owner/operators, in particular, no two are the same. One of the major channels for hearing the customer’s voice is Rolls-Royce’s Corporate Customer Council (C3).
“We start by listening to what our customers want and expect from us. We take that feedback to heart and use it to create and implement strategies and changes that will benefit the customer ,” says James Prater, VP Customer Support, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation. “I think that is one of our key differentiators in the business aviation market.”
Adds Robinson: “We host events where we bring our C3 group together to talk about current operational issues and what new services we can offer that will be of interest to them going forward..”
One example of how the Corporate Customer Council has helped shape Rolls-Royce’s service offerings is C3’s impact on developing and implementing the company’s CorporateCare Enhanced program.
“CorporateCare Enhanced removes all the limitations as to what is covered on the engine, if we provide it we cover it,” Robinson says. “Customers also wanted coverage for the entire nacelle which includes thrust-reverser, cowl doors, inlet, everything. Customers said they wanted it and how much they were willing to pay for it.”
Along with added coverages, another huge benefit of the CorporateCare and CorporateCare Enhanced programs is the operator’s ability to know what their maintenance expenses will be years out. As an added plus, the increased value provided by the Rolls-Royce programs have also been recognized by leading aircraft appraisers.
Robinson says that aircraft covered byRolls-Royce programs are routinely appraised for hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions, more than those not covered. That’s an unexpected surprise any owner/operator will enjoy.
“We spent a couple of years putting CorporateCare Enhanced together with the C3 council, and introduced it in 2019,” Robinson continues. “Today, we have over 2,000 aircraft covered by CorporateCare and over 530 CorporateCare Enhanced contracts in the fleet. I’d say that’s pretty impressive.”
“Operators know that their aircraft is worth more on our program, and they typically sell faster,” he says. “It’s clear that operators see the added value in an aircraft enrolled in a Rolls-Royce CorporateCare program.”
Rolls-Royce applies a local approach to global fleet support.
While selling faster at a higher price is nice, it’s not the only priority with most owner/operators. As we established earlier, their immediate goal is “100-percent aircraft availability,” no matter where they are in the world.
“Right now, we have 75 Rolls-Royce Authorized Service Center facilities, making ours the largest authorized network in business aviation. So it’s much easier for operators to get the service they need wherever they are,” Prater says. “We also have a dedicated ‘on-wing’ service team of over 60 highly-trained technicians that specialize in complex Rolls-Royce issues.”
Robinson adds that as a complement to the authorized network and on-wing specialists, Rolls-Royce has global parts stores strategically located to quickly get parts to AOG aircraft. That’s a key piece in the company’s ability to achieve its goal to return an AOG aircraft to service within 24-hours on engine-related issues.
Of course, when you’ve got the Rolls-Royce legacy to live up to, just being able to quick-fix AOG situations isn’t good enough. The goal is to eliminate them.
A healthy engine makes for a happy customer.
Rolls-Royce has been a pioneer in engine health monitoring (EHM) technologies and has made steady strides in introducing industry-leading advancements for the past decade or so. EHM collects real-time data off key points on the engine and then delivers it to the manufacturer and the operator for analysis.
While it’s a huge step forward, Robinson said that Rolls-Royce is always pushing the EHM’s enhancement forward to get even more information that is critical to eliminating AOG situations.
“We have made a major step-change with our new Pearl-series engines on the Bombardier Global 5500 and 6500, and the Gulfstream G700 aircraft,” he says. “These engines now have what we call a ‘Engine Vibration Health Monitoring Unit.’ It’s capable of collecting and sending around 10,000 engine parameters.”
“As great as that is, the big step is it is the first in business aviation to enable us to also monitor the engine’s accessories,” Robinson continues. “If we see a torque motor in a fuel-metering unit that’s slowing, we can plan on changing it before it causes a problem. We can now be very proactive in the management and monitoring of engine operations.”
Hands-on maintenance training goes virtual.
Now empowered with all this engine intelligence, Rolls-Royce’s global customer support team can pre-emptively alert operators to upcoming mechanical issues. And while that’s great, there’s still the need to have properly trained technicians standing by to make the repair.
Pre-COVID, technicians traveled across the globe to attend Rolls-Royce’s popular series of training classes. While travel restrictions have put a hold on that, the company has a training commitment to fulfill and to meet that need has refocused efforts from in-person to remote training.
“This year, we introduced our new virtual training program for the BR725 engine family. We can ship a laptop and other equipment to the remotely-located students, and then one of our instructors can lead them through that section of the course,” Prater explains. “Right now, we are doing familiarization and line service task training.”
“We’ve already delivered the training to over 40 customers with very positive feedback,” he says. “The students can concentrate on the training with no travel or other distractions.”
Complementing the virtual training program is Rolls-Royce’s investment in upgrading all of its technical publications to now include 3D graphics and full-interactivity with text instructions.
“Technicians can now open multiple tasks in a linear format. Now, it’s much easier to follow a detailed process, which greatly reduces the chance for error due to jumping between instructions,” Prader adds. “The new system also gives technicians the ability to make task notations to share with others within their flight department.”
“The new tech pubs are agnostic, so they work on all types of equipment,” he continues. “You can also download the manuals for use when you’re away from reliable Wi-Fi connectivity. Our customers are very pleased about the direction our new technical publications are heading.”
Promises made. Promises kept.
When you’ve been an integral part of the very fabric of business aviation, you see a lot of “promises” come and go. But no matter how the industry has changed, one thing remains the same: Rolls-Royce’s commitment to steadfastly meeting its customers’ evolving needs.
“From understanding their desire for greater engine reliability and efficiency to paying attention to our industry and its environmental impact, we always have listened to what is important to our customers around the world, and we’ll continue to do so,” Prater concludes. “In everything we do, we are proactively pursuing what is important to our customers.”
