When the fate of a kidnapped two-year-old hangs in the balance, there’s no time to waste. In 2014, StandardAero got the call from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office that their helicopter was needed to track a carjacking.
Thanks to StandardAero’s quick delivery on the maintenance turnaround, the result was a helicopter being available for the rescue.
“It was mission ready at the right time,” wrote Paul Bradley, chief pilot at the Sonoma sheriff’s office, in a thank you email to StandardAero after the child was quickly located and brought to safety.
Although customer deadlines come in all shapes and sizes, StandardAero’s dedication to customer service sets it apart in the field of helicopter engine maintenance, repair and overhaul. Focusing on the Rolls-Royce M250, StandardAero’s commitment to this prolific gas turbine began in 1967 at the company’s Winnipeg location.
“We’ve been in the market since the engine’s inception, and we’re in it for a lifetime,” said Brian Hughes, director of sales, marketing and business development for StandardAero helicopter programs. “We’re also really excited about being one of the few companies selected to maintain the Rolls-Royce RR300 engine, which powers the Robinson R66 Turbine powered helicopter.”
StandardAero’s leadership in the service field has been recognized by Rolls-Royce seven years in a row with its Rolls-Royce Customer Satisfaction Award, in part due to StandardAero’s careful tracking of customer feedback in a multi-pronged approach called “voice of the customer.”
The in-house team uses a combination of phone interviews and email surveys to measure on-time delivery, communication during work process, quality of work and invoice accuracy. The most important metric is the “likelihood to recommend” score, where customers can use a one-to-10 scale to rate how likely they would be to recommend StandardAero’s service — whether training, overall maintenance repair work or field service work — to other operators.
“On our overall service level, we’re over 95 percent,” said Cory Waldmo, StandardAero’s director of service and customer programs for helicopters and SACS Canada.
The company’s strict adherence to excellence extends beyond customer service into other facets of its business. As one branch of a large, multinational business with over 3,500 employees and 13 regional support centers across the globe, StandardAero’s helicopter division draws on those resources while providing a unique and tailored experience to each customer.
“We’re a small business within a big business,” said Hughes. “I’ve always felt we’ve built the best engines and our customers have responded to that by giving us the number one market share position because we think that in this industry, people do gravitate to quality.”
Founded in 1911, StandardAero was acquired by New York-based equity firm Veritas Capital in 2015. Today, the company reaches customers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Singapore and Australia through its global service network.
Those resources mean that StandardAero has in-house capabilities to do all necessary repairs without subcontracting.
“How does that benefit the customer? That keeps your turnaround time down and your process controls in check, guaranteeing the quality of every step along the way. It is better to go to a shop that does it all rather than someone who takes your engine apart and sends every part to a different shop,” said Hughes.
“In a time-is-money economy, operators are asking for lengthened intervals between maintenance events, and StandardAero is listening. The company uses an optimal build process to manage fits and clearances to get engines that run cooler and last longer installed in the helicopters, providing the best value and saving operators money on a cost-per-hour basis,” said Hughes.
StandardAero also prides itself on its deep inventory and rental support, with over 50 engine equivalents in its rental and exchange pools.
“We understand that we need to keep operators flying and they are reliant on those lease assets to help them while their engines are being overhauled and serviced,” said Waldmo. “We recognize that the pool is large because of the work that we need to have to support and keep operators flying.”
Although StandardAero has a longstanding reputation, the company isn’t content to rest on its laurels. It brings in engineering, finance and marketing interns from local institutions regularly to infuse fresh new ideas into the company.
Helping and mentoring tomorrow’s generation of aviation is one way that StandardAero shows that the company is in it for the long haul, looking forward each step of the way.
“We’re a 100-year-old company and we hope to do another 100 years,” said Waldmo.
With emergency medical services (EMS) and other government and emergency responders depending on its expertise, StandardAero brings a commitment to the quality of its work, turnaround time and customer service that strives for a new standard every year. After all, when it comes to its customers, StandardAero aims to save the day with each and every engine.
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