Marinas are encouraged to compare their customer loyalty, service quality, and facility quality
To view a free flash demo of the three products available to ABBRA members through Survey Advantage please visit: http://www.surveyadvantage.com/Presentations/index.php?id=Marineservices
As part of its commitment to help marine service providers develop profitable, highly responsive, customer-focused organizations, Survey Advantage and ABBRA has released their 2008 benchmarks for marinas and boatyards. This benchmark report tracks four key areas: facility quality, marine service quality, customer service, and boater loyalty.
“We hope this benchmark report will help marine service providers understand their competitive position in the market and set goals for expansion and improvement. Marine service providers now have the same customer intelligence the hospitality industry has been collecting for years. Any size operation can obtain feedback after jobs, transient stays, or from seasonal and annual customers to drive improvements and referrals.” said Michael Casey, president of Survey Advantage.
The report measures four areas of customer service including responsiveness, reliability, communication, and courtesy. While operations continue to receive high ratings on courtesy, the industry continues to struggle to keep boating customers abreast of service being performed. While the slip areas receive high marks it was surprising that the industry can’t do a better job keeping restrooms and shower areas cleaner and continuously stocked. The highest marks for facilities were in the marina area and ship stores, with gas docks and service desks receiving the lower scores. Customer comments highlight temporary or seasonal help being the reason for ill trained people in these lower performing areas. Nine different service quality areas were benchmarked including engine repair and rigging services. Highest ratings came in the hauling and launching areas while sailboat rigging and electronic repairs received the lowest marks.
Customer or boater loyalty is the most important metric tracked because it helps an operation understand their overall chance of retaining customers and receiving referrals. Measuring a boater’s likelihood to recommend or promote their marina we found 51% promote, 29% are passive supporters of their marina, and 20% are at high risk of leaving and spreading negative word of mouth about their experiences.
The benchmark report is published from collective results from operations surveying using CustomerPulse™ and HealthCheck™, two programs offered through ABBRA and Survey Advantage. The goals of the programs are to:
- Preserve recurring job revenues
- Retain customers at risk
- Identify process breakdowns early
- Respond to dissatisfied customers within minutes
- Identify competitive strengths and weaknesses
- Identify opportunities to expand services
- Set customer focused team goals based on first hand feedback
- Automate testimonial collection
Please submit the ABBRA publications order form for a copy of the full report or visit www.surveyadvantage.com/marine to review case studies and details on CustomerPulse or HealthCheck.
Michael Casey
Survey Advantage
401-560-0311 ext 103
