We are building our
We are building our global marine fast charge network, creating local and regional charging hubs and corridors. If you are looking to offer electric boat supercharging to future-proof technology at no cost to you, providing 24/7 customer care and all compatibility testing. enquiries@aqua-superpower.com www.aqua-superpower.com Mak Marin Managemen plai sailin Manage berth bookings, accounts, customer communications and so much more at your marina, yacht club or boatyard Learn more at pacsoftmms.com
OPERATOR TALK: SMART MOVES Smarter management, happier customers Implementing smart technology is usually a gradual process that delivers positives along the journey. Matt O’Hara, Kevin Lussier, Darrell Barnett and Mark Jaraczewski give operator feedback for Molo, Marina Master and Stellar software systems. Each was asked about how they implemented smart technology; the benefits and problems; customer response; and plans for future smart initiatives. Matt O’Hara, owner, Queen Boat Co – Freedom Boat Club Lake George, USA We bought the marina in 2018 and when we bought it, the former owner did everything very old school: pen, paper and file folders. We were lucky to even have contact info for some customers, let alone service records and work orders. The first thing we decided we needed to change when we got here was that we needed a real system of being able to keep track of customers and of the work we’re doing Matt O’Hara The operations system at Queen Boat Co has moved from pen and paper to singlesystem management and communications. on boats, while having it all in one software system, including inventory and all. We shopped around and found Molo and were happy with what their system was and how easy it was to use. Then we implemented that to handle all our service work orders, all our parts and customer billing, customer interactions, loading insurance and customer vessels. Benefits include all the communication with members; sending invoices and allowing them to pay online. It’s really streamlining these things that have been the benefit. These things were happening before but through multiple different software systems and multiple people. With Molo, we can do all these things internally and customer-facing in one spot. It’s been a big improvement. Any time customers call, we can pull up the service history for their boat in two seconds and let them know what we did and when. It’s been a huge help for our customers to offer them online billings. Sending invoices to customers’ emails, which is what everyone wants now, gives them the ability to pay online versus calling to get credit card numbers. It’s much more streamlined for payments and it’s a much more frictionless experience. The customer interaction with us is just easy and smooth and quick so it’s just made their overall experience with us great. The next smart initiative we are adding is putting in charging stations at our dock to give electric boats the ability to come and charge up at our marina. The smart part of that is that the company has an app, enabling customers to find marinas that have superpower chargers. They then find all their information already loaded into the app, and can make payment through it. We are really excited about this as we will be the first marina with this charger in the northeast and I think the third in the United States. I think in the next few years we are going to see a lot more of these superchargers, but we are really happy to be piloting this in the region. Kevin Lussier CMM, director of operations, Ocean Havens LLC, USA All of our marinas have implemented Marina Master software to streamline the reservation process, send automated emails, build seasonal dockage contracts, and more, with ease. Marina Master software is integrated into our website to enhance the user experience. We even Kevin Lussier developed a loyalty programme to give back to our customers with discounts on fuel, dockage, and more. We use other forms of smart technology beyond our reservation and communication system. To create better security at our facility, we give each customer a key fob that allows them access onto their dock and keeps unauthorised individuals from entering the marina. Our parking lots also use www.marinaworld.com – May/June 2023 53
