How to schedule boat rentals
Expecting the unexpected!
Building sufficient buffer time into the daily workings and infrastructure of your business is a brilliant, proactive way to ensure you’re able to deal with the expected and, more often than not, the unexpected. Flexibility is vital for delivering on customer service when things haven’t gone exactly to plan, ensuring that delays are minimized or avoided, and that you’re not compromising on your business values when under a bit more pressure.
Emergencies and equipment malfunction in particular can have knock-on effects, reducing time to clean and sanitize boats and water sports paraphernalia between customers, and to properly welcome people arriving if you rely on an in-person check-in service. With enough buffer time, your business will be able to take emergencies or unexpected events in its stride, maintaining the excellent customer service that keeps them coming.
This article will take you through how buffer time can be used effectively, from covering maintenance and inspection time; to cleaning and sanitization; being prepared for an emergency; and customer education, safety and enjoyment. By learning how and when to incorporate buffer time, your company will maintain its competitive edge and continue to thrive in this fast-paced, innovative industry.
Maintenance and inspection time
When you get your brand-spanking-new boat, it’s hard to imagine it could ever be less than perfect. And, with a bit of TLC there’s no reason why you can’t keep things this way! In fact, maintaining the integrity of the boats in your fleet is a lot easier, cheaper and less time consuming than waiting for an emergency, so it is something you should be doing as regularly as brushing your teeth. Keeping boats in dry storage, scheduling in regular check-ups, and running a log of your boats’ maintenance record can help you keep on top of boat maintenance and avoid emergencies.
One of the many beauties of the boating industry is that there is a whole world of boats out there to explore. And while this helps your company cater to different audiences and maximize profits, it can make boat maintenance that little bit more cumbersome. If you have combustion-engine motorboats in your fleet for example, maintenance will include a routine oil check, while for electric boats, it is necessary to protect the batteries against water, requiring waterproof cases and covers, as well as dry spaces to store your batteries.
Regardless of the type of boat, your fleet will also need to be washed regularly with fresh water to remove any salt build-up, a healthy boat’s worst nightmare. Boat rental companies often play maintenance by ear, but general steps you should be taking include waxing the hull to avoid fiberglass oxidization; lubricating the parts to reduce friction and wear; changing air filters; repairing chipped or damaged propellers; changing oils (we swear by using oils recommended by boat manufacturers); and getting in professionals where necessary.
If boat maintenance is like brushing your teeth, inspection is like going to the dentist. Your regular inspections should include an assessment of the propeller and checking the boat for leaks, as well as a once-over of your hull, engine, mooring, rigging, and any onboard equipment.
You’ll quickly get the hang of all this, but one crucial pro tip: keep a maintenance log! By keeping a log of how often each boat in your fleet requires inspecting and maintaining, it won’t be long before you have worked out a schedule for each boat’s spa time, making buffer time work for you in the best possible way.
Emergency preparedness
No matter how well you maintain your boat, how often you wax the fiberglass, untangle things caught in the propellers, oil the engine (with the correct oil!), and rinse it off after being in seawater, emergencies are inevitable in the boating industry, and have the tricky habit of arriving when you least expect them. Boating is full of risks, and while this is part of the fun for adrenaline-seeking customers, it can be a headache or worse for businesses. Any number of things can escalate into an emergency, whether it’s inclement weather, a malfunction with the equipment, an accident onboard, a late-returning customer, or an issue at the marina. However, with sufficient buffer times between customers and at regular intervals during the day, you can minimize disruption and continue to deliver brilliant experiences to boat enthusiasts.
Life-saving and easy-to-implement measures to increase safety onboard include ensuring there are working navigational lights, maps of the waters customers are navigating, lifeboats, and a fire extinguisher on board. Collecting information about your customers, including next of kin and emergency contacts will help accelerate your reaction to an emergency. And, of course, offering necessary and effective training to all your staff is vital to halt an emergency before it happens or prevent it from escalating where possible.
Customer satisfaction, education, safety, and enjoyment
If you’re anything like us – and we hope you are! – you’ll be all about excellent customer service. It is essential that this customer service isn’t compromised by insufficient buffer times to cater to urgent problems, bad weather, or late returners. An issue with a boat requiring all-hands-on-deck can lead staff and management to forget or rush a client check-in or check-out; while emergencies earlier in the day and a resulting backlog can impact your capacity to carry out smaller tasks such as cleaning and sanitizing the boat between customers. These little details can be the difference between a 5* review and a bad one, and between a positive word-of-mouth referral and a dented reputation. Play it smart by including enough buffer time to deliver on your prized customer service.
If the pandemic did one thing, it was make cleaners out of all us (well, that and bread makers). And while the pandemic is over, our hyperawareness of cleanliness and sanitization has rightly proven stubborn to dislodge.
By disinfecting all high-touch surfaces, including seating areas, railings, and any onboard safety equipment between customers, you’ll easily be able to demonstrate that you notice the small details and think of everything by providing a squeaky-clean, well-looked-after boat.
Finally, and most importantly, leaving enough time for a great check-in cannot be understated. The check-in is your first opportunity to create a relationship with your excited customers, as well as being a necessary touchpoint to brief on safety regulations and make sure they understand local waterway rules. If this is rushed, it can lead to accidents during the excursion, or can leave customers feeling neglected or unsafe. There are no do-overs with first impressions, so incorporate enough time for problems, and make sure you’re there ready and waiting to wow people when they arrive.
Conclusion
The only thing stopping you and your customers from undertaking this fabulous journey together is insufficient time to allow for mishaps, lateness, necessary boat maintenance, and bad weather. While it is your customers’ responsibility to have fun, as a business, it is your responsibility to provide customers with safe and enjoyable experiences on the water. Incorporating buffer times throughout the day is an invisible system of checks and balances in your businesses operations, and this makes the experience your company offers all the more perfect.
A day out on the water should be as seamless as possible; after all, people rent instead of buying to remove all the hassle, stress and mishaps from their experience. Showcase your competence and customer-driven business model by providing a smooth, faultless experience every time.
