Staying personally connected to your customers in the digital age.

As a business owner, staying personally connected with our customers is tough enough with all of the responsibilities that we face. Especially since the dawn of the digital age, more and more people opt to keep others at arms length. Technology advancements in the last decade have made the internet, cellphones and other handheld devices ubiquitous.

Let's face it, the internet and these internet enabled handheld devices are here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle and we aren't getting it back in there. Once people get a sense of freedom from their mobile devices they are off and running. People do everything on these devices these days. The internet has allowed people of all ages to do some of the following on the go:

• Learn about marina software
• Find a date and someday get married
• Shop for our favorite items
• Play games for free
• Stay connected to family
• Send messages about what we are thinking
• Even publish our stories with a single mouse click

How can we help business owners embrace technology, harness this power and even profit from it while still providing personal service?

FullServiceMarina.com is the answer. Our interactive marina software solution provides you with the ability to send personalized email solicitations, personalized marketing emails, a central place for your customers to share their most recent boating and fishing stories and customizable hyperlinks on your boat owners page directing them the resources that they need and use regularly such as local inlet web cams, tides and weather. These resources help provide your marina with that "personal" feel even in the internet age. Lets take a deeper look at each of these items.

Send personalized email solicitations
Our marina software allows you to send personalized solicitations. I personally hate junk mail in my inbox. Our platform give you the ability to add a personalized message on the fly when you attempt to increase sales with interactive solicitations. "Hey Jim, we noticed you have been out a lot lately. Can we fill you up on fuel before you get here?" This is a personalized message with impact from someone I trust! People do business with people they know, like and trust. You are already involved, now it is time to ask for the increased business and sales. Our interactive marina software lets you ask for more business right from day one.

Personalized marketing emails
Our email marketer feature allows you to send personalized email messages to a segment of your customer base. Simply choose the fields that you want to filter with and off you go. You can filter by age and size of boat or motor, or both. You can filter on fuel type, user activity or maybe if they have a facebook page or not. When you have your target customers you can add a personalized message telling them about a boat detailing special or filter change. This can be whatever product or server you want to market your customers with. Seeing this personalized message you customer will think this looks like a coupon or "weekly special". They will see this as a way to save money for products and services they were going to buy anyway. Again, people do business with people they know, like and trust. Your customers already know, like and trust you. Now is the time to ask for more sales. Our interactive marina software facilitates more business right from day one. 

Share their most recent boating and fishing stories
Think of your own favorite personal story. Mine is about my wife catching MY wahoo the day after my birthday. Sharing this story with others is the best part. As a fisherman I like to brag a little when I catch a good fish too. Our integrated forum posts helps create that community feel for your marina customers. Sharing their experiences helps make that bond stronger. Your customers will have more and more incentive to keep coming back. The more they are on, the more opportunity they have to see what you have showcased for them.

Customizable hyperlinks on your boat owners page
As a boater and fisherman myself I have a checklist of websites I hit before each excursion. I look at local marina forecasts, weather, tides and my nearest inlet web cam. You can customize these links for your boat owners to make your boat owner portal pages a one stop shop. Your customers will have more and more incentive to keep coming back. Again, the more they are on, the more opportunity they have to see what you have showcased for them.

Staying connected isn't always the problem either. The quality of that connection and the quality of the experience can be the issue. Taking active steps to enhance the customer experience can be the doorway to creating that personal feel that our customers want.

Our marina software platform can help you, the business owner embrace, harness and allow technology to empower you and your customer base. Used properly, our interactive marina software can help you profit monetarily as well. Partnering with us allows you to provide your customers with a cutting edge product that allows them to make requests on the go, with the personal touch.

Check us out here for more details.

Best regards,

Steve Bowman
and the rest of the www.fullservicemarina.com team.

Improving Marina Customer Service

How www.fullservicemarina.com can help Improve marina Customer Service.

In the next few weeks we will look at how www.fullservicemarina.com can help marinas grow their businesses through using our marina software platform. We have solutions to the key problems that marinas face. One of these problems is customer service.

According to www.wikipedia.com customer service is defined as a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. which you can find here.

Industry experts and novices alike are ringing the bell of customer service and how it can impact your marina business.
Here Jim Frye give a presentation discussing how customer service will be a key differentiator.
Here James talks about customer service and management.

Back to the definition of customer service. While I agree with the first portion of this definition " a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction", I would like to challenge that definition. I believe that just meeting a customers expectation is not good enough. The customer today is savvy. They have a plethora of tools and options readily at their disposal. Wowing customers should be your goal and eventually your expectation.

Let's take a real world example. I love fishing and boating. I am a marina customer. I take my hobbies seriously and in saying that I just admitted that I like expensive toys to go with my hobby. I especially like to go fishing, and I try to get out on blue water as often as possible. Unfortunately as of this writing it has been more than 2 months! Regardless, I spend money on rods and reels. I feel the need for quality equipment. I'm not saying that I am splurging on Penn International 1000's or anything like that but a $120 shimano reel is a sizable investment for me. I happen to use a "Rod Carrier" which hold 4 of my rods and reels. Let's say I left my rods and reels sitting on the hose rack and drove away from the marina. When a dock hand or receptionist found them there would be no way for them to tell that they were mine. Would it be good customer service to wait until the end of the day to find out if someone came back to get them? Would it be good customer service to put them in the office and wait for someone to realize that they were missing? Would it be good customer service to ask around at the marina to see if someone knew who the rods belonged to? What would your expectations be?

I would expect that the marina would ask the receptionist to call customers that had an activity that morning or the previous day to ask if they had forgotten their equipment.

Do you have a process or software that could allow you to easily see who your customer were that had a request submitted today? How about yesterday?

What if you could get the answer with one mouse click? What if the answer looked like this?

 

If they didn't do that, if they just put them in the office or clubhouse would that meet my expectations? Would that have exceeded my expectation? No. This brings me to my point. According to the wikipedia definition meeting your customers expectations is customer service but your customers all have a large degree of variance of expectations. How can you satisfy their expectations?

Free up time for your staff to concentrate on customer service?
Let your customers serve themselves?
Save your customers time or give them time back?
Instantly notify your customer(s) of any event?

Why not all of the above?

The www.fullservicemarina.com marina software platform enables all of these and more. We offer a solution that can free up time for your staff to concentrate on customer service issues by allowing customers to self-serve. your customers can submit their own requests and orders via the internet on any web enabled smartphone, blackberry, tablet or PC. Save your customers time by fulfilling requests such as fueling up or delivering ice, drinks and bait to their vessel. Our marina software enables customers to make requests and your staff to receive these requests immediately on any internet enable device.


As a last note, I want to say that quality customer service is a mindset. Your customers are your most valuable asset. Not only do they provide the revenue to keep the prop turning but they also are a resource that can be farmed. If you know that your customers are spending money for products and services why not get into that game as well if it makes sense for your business. In order to do that you need tools. Tools tht can adapt to your business and your customers needs. We offer that solution.

There are many other ways that www.fullservicemarina.com can help your business. Please take the time to look at all of the ways we can benefit your marina, marine services facility or customer base. You can see the full listing here.

Until next time,

Steve