Gerry Goguen, Senior Vice President, Customer Service, Dassault Falcon
Dassault Falcon is a world leader in customer support for their operators, many of whom are fiercely loyal. Senior vice president, customer service, Gerry Goguen talks to Aviation Maintenance about the formula Falcon uses to acheive high approval ratings from their users and those who keep Falcon Jets flying. This is the first in a two part series.

AM: Dassault Falcon states that its customer care philosophy is built on several beliefs one of which is creating a bond with your customers. How does Dassault create that bond?

Goguen: Aside from obvious day-to-day interactions with our tech reps and help desk, our customer service managers regularly visit operators, we also have four regional M&O meetings each year, and a large worldwide M&O every other year. This year's seminar had 1400 participants. These seminars provide a forum for our customers to directly communicate and participate with leading Dassault Falcon support and engineering specialist sharing information and ideas. Additionally, we communicate with our customers regularly -- not only through our website and email alerts for service documentation -- but through our monthly "Express News" which keeps all Falcon family members in the loop on the latest happenings in our company. Member boards are also strategic to how we create a bond with our customers.

AM: Another core belief is providing innovative care. What is innovative about the care you provide?

Goguen: Product Lifecycle Management and the use of CATIA in the design of everything from airframe to maintenance procedures has us on the leading edge of technology right now. With the introduction of the Falcon 7X, we're the very first business jet OEM to implement these advances. Also, our involvement on the ATA Spec 2000 committee and vision of the future with IMN (Integrated Maintenance Network) is keeping us shoulder to shoulder with industry innovators. Our FIELD (Falcon Interactive Library by Dassault) DVDs and integrated online documentation standout among the most innovative interfaces for delivering maintenance and operational documentation.

AM: How important is the subsidiary business Dassault Aircraft Services to Dassault? There are only three DAS Service centers. Any plans for more?

Goguen: No other OEM is in the same unique position as Dassault. We have airplanes in operation that were built over forty years ago which have very different service needs from our current production models. We offer service on all of the aircraft we've ever built from complex structural repairs to standard A-checks to routine line maintenance. Servicing these unique needs requires unique solutions.

Our three factory-owned Dassault Service Centers are critically important to the continued growth and health of the global Falcon fleet. Over the past several years, we've rebuilt and expanded both of our service centers in the U.S. (Wilmington, DE and Little Rock, AR) to service both current production and out of production aircraft models. Our employment has grown rapidly during the same time frame while we've added considerably more square footage in Wilmington. In Little Rock, we recently opened up an entirely new service center. We not only encourage our technicians and employees to further their training, we also provide incentive to do so and that's demonstrated by the recent recognition of our Wilmington facility with a NetJets Service Award and the AMT Diamond Awards. At this point, we're committed to growing and improving upon a very successful foundation with our factory-owned facilities They provide a crucial role to ensuring Falcon maintenance over the long term.

We have a very extensive network of Authorized Service Centers with 28 around the globe. We're constantly evaluating emerging markets and the shifting needs of our global fleet. That includes examining the Authorized Service Center network and our Factory Owned Service Center facilities to ensure that we're filling all of the needs of our operators.

AM: How do you measure spares availability?

Goguen: Spare part availability is measured as a function of the customer's need date versus the ship date of the part. We refer to this statistic as service level. Each month we audit all parts shipped. We divide the number of parts shipped on or before the customers need date by the total number of parts shipped. This gives us a Service Level percentage. For the past 36 months, between 97 and 98 percent of all parts shipped have been on or before the customers need date.

In Part 2, Goguen explores other iniatives Falcon is embracing to ensure their status as customer support leader.