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The Business Behind Skydiving

By adminon - Read 20419 times

Short of going to the moon, skydiving is the greatest adventure life has to offer. Everyday lives are changed & comfort zones blown wide open! Skydiving is therapy and a respite from the grind of life. Having a bad day? Make a jump and see if it's as bad when you land.

An Activity or an Experience?

So, what are DZ's offering? Many DZs sell the experience while others sell an activity. We have all seen these things: Instructors who look as if they just got out of bed, ripped or dirty jumpsuits, staff arriving late, foul language within earshot of students, sexual innuendo or inappropriate jokes about death, the list goes on. We've witnessed it, yet we're not surprised by it. The expression "It's skydiving" is the blanket phrase that's thrown over this behavior. Let it be made clear, It's NOT skydiving, it's a mentality.

The mentality derives from the origins of our sport when DZ's were built on an individual's passion to continue to jump post military service versus the creation of a DZ with a viable business plan. The introduction of tandem skydiving created a sustainable business model which has allowed for major skydiving centers like Chicagoland Skydiving Center, Skydive Spaceland, Skydive Carolina and Skydive Elsinore to thrive. The reality is the sport is still extremely young relative to other sports and we are still finding our way into the mainstream. To get there we must break the mentality that excuses poor service.


Skydiving has evolved from barnstorming DZ's to multi-million dollar facilities


Breaking the Chain

The majority of DZ decision makers hire by plugging in an individual's experience level into the position while forgetting a more important consideration: a passionate personality. If greater significance was placed on one's personality first and years in the sport second, there will be a major shift in the business of skydiving. Having an instructional staff that is passionate about pleasing the customer will benefit the DZ with additional business- GUARANTEED. I'm not suggesting safety be compromised by hiring less experienced instructors. I'm suggesting that DZO's be more selective in the people they hire by weighing personality as heavily as experience.

Customers want to have a relationship with a person not with an organization. Personal touch is what takes a company from good to great. Happy customers will create a word of mouth marketing campaign more valuable than any mass media expenditure from a DZ. Great customer service is a DZ's greatest marketing plan.

All of us are consumers. If we spend more than US$300 for a service (tandem plus video and stills) what would the expectation be for the kind of service we should receive? Add the variable of a high risk activity and we'd like to feel that we are being well taken care of. Negative attitudes cannot coincide with the business side of the sport. Our sport is too good, too fun, too pure, too life changing to be anything other than the greatest experience in the world with the greatest people.

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ForrestJump
I started jumping late October post military. Seemed great during AFF, and then the A lic objectives came into play. I had a hard time even getting success signed off on. I like to think that it was due to tandem volume. Either way i took a two month break realizing four thousand dollars later i was not going to get my lic at the current DZ. I'm very goal driven, never had any issues, and was told i had done great during AFF being i never repeated a step. Once I realized I just wanted to have fun and how much I sincerely love skydiving i took my Dad to watch me skydive for the first time. I was told i had to start over at AFF level three. The money wasnt there and I just didnt understand why this was. I've jumped with all the instructors with no complaints, and with military training i always think procedure and safety, so I never received any negative feedback. I am absolutely have decided i am going to stop jumping for awhile due to the negativity. Could anyone recommend a DZ that is a great student environment for me down the line so that I can make arrangements to visit? Any suggestions are appreciated. I invested 4000 and at least would like to achieve the goal i set and enjoy a good community of skydivers. I was so enthusiastic and the recent events have literally discouraged me. Thanks for any negative or positive feedback. I would think DZ's would want an enthusiastic new skydiver that is reoccurring revenue, at least. Help me understand...

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