An aircraft kit is a big investment, so when a homebuilder ponies up for one, they want to have as smooth of an experience as possible. Unfortunately, many kits are anything but intuitive to assemble, leading to frustration and poor customer experiences. This ultimately results in more calls and emails for your customer support team to deal with – and often, the best way to improve customer support is to focus on improving your kit design.
To create the best aircraft kit possible, you need to include easy-to-follow instructions, clearly labeled parts, and high-quality components that are simple to install. Taking these steps will help you create better builder experiences, mitigate support calls, enhance your reputation, and more.
Why Builder Experience Matters to Kit Manufacturers
While builder experience doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the resulting plane, it does affect how the builder views your brand and offerings. There are a couple of ways this commonly manifests:
More Support Calls from Frustrated Builders
If your airplane kits aren’t easy to assemble, expect to get higher volumes of support calls from upset customers. It’s likely that your support staff will have to be on the phone for long periods of time to explain steps that should’ve been clear from the instructions. This can also develop into a back-and-forth that can quickly become costly.
Impact on Brand Reputation and Repeat Business
The experimental aircraft homebuilding world is small, so even one or two negative comments can have a huge impact. Most homebuilders are looking for kits that simplify the building experience as much as possible, so if they read a comment saying your kits are difficult to work with, they’ll likely steer clear.
Common Kit Design Challenges That Increase Support Requests
All kit manufacturers think about the builder experience, but not all of them manage to actually create good experiences. This often happens due to a lack of thoroughness when building kits. Creating an aircraft kit is inherently complex, but you can’t cut corners – even if it takes extra upfront time or money.
Here are just a few of the issues that many kits have:
Vague or Incomplete Instructions
An unclear set of instructions can undermine even the highest-quality aircraft kit. Even one line of vague or incomplete instructions can add hours onto the already lengthy building experience. Add to that the headaches that come with poor instructions, and you get a recipe for customer frustration.
Poorly Labeled or Hard-to-Identify Parts
While many parts are easy to identify, not all of them are, so you can’t assume builders will just figure things out on their own. As with all areas in kit building, it’s better to be too obvious than too vague. (Poorly labeled parts can be especially aggravating when paired with unclear instructions.)
Complex or Untested Kit Components
Of course, the actual aircraft parts have to be easy to work with. If they’re needlessly complex – or if they haven’t gone through adequate testing – they can present difficulties or even fail during the building process.
How Smarter Kit Design Reduces Support Calls
When you spend more time designing a great aircraft kit, you greatly reduce the amount of customer support you need to provide, which immediately saves you money and resources while also increasing your customer lifetime value.
Here’s how Matco ALS can help you build better kits:
Technical Documentation and Specs from Matco ALS
All of our aircraft parts come with extensive technical documentation and spec sheets that are easy to reference, which can help you write clear, accurate assembly instructions. We also offer world-class technical support for additional installation or maintenance guidance.
Clear Labeling and Part Identification
Our parts arrive with clear labeling, making it easy to quickly identify the full part, its serial number, and other critical information. And because our parts are so well-documented, it’s easy to use the labeled info to look up detailed specs.
Pre-Tested Components for Reliable Assembly
At Matco ALS, all of our aircraft parts are thoroughly tested for safety and performance, ensuring that they’re intuitive to work with during a build – and that they’ll hold up flight after flight.
Benefits for Kit Manufacturers
When your kits have helpful instructions, clear labeling, and reliable components, you enjoy both short- and long-term benefits, including:
Improved Customer Support and Fewer Warranty Issues
A better kit means spending less time and fewer resources on customer support during the build process and beyond. In addition, having rigorously tested components decreases the risk of failure and thus the chance of a customer getting in touch about your warranty.
Increased Builder Satisfaction
When a kit is designed well, it’s a joy to build. This is the best way to wow customers and keep them for life (and maybe even turn them into advocates for your brand).
Partner with Matco ALS to Improve Your Kit Design
Matco ALS specializes in high-quality, reliable aircraft parts that make kit design a breeze. With our comprehensive technical support, you’ll be able to get all your questions answered, so you can focus on delighting your customers with the best aircraft kits they’ve ever used.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Matco ALS can help you improve your kits, contact us today!