Enabling Dealers to Help Builders Improve Build Quality
How Dealers Can Become the Linchpin Between Builders and Owners
November 2015
Yacht builders invest substantial resources into research and development to enhance their build processes so that they can deliver superior quality vessels to buyers. A yacht is an item of pure luxury. Needless to say, when buyers purchase a yacht, they expect a quality product and the highest level of service for the money they spend. Dealers are a key point of contact for buyers for matters related to customer experience. It is the dealers who represent yacht builders and are responsible for connecting them to potential buyers. As such, builders expect their authorized dealers to deliver high client satisfaction at all times.
Dealers represent yacht builders from around the world and they bring newly constructed vessels from the builders’ boatyards directly to buyers. Thus, they act as the linchpin between builders and buyers. Dealers are responsible for taking care of all warranty-related issues and consistently transferring feedback from owners to builders so that they can improve their products.
Although dealers are always striving to provide the highest level of after-sale service to buyers, client dissatisfaction still prevails. This is largely because after-sale service and warranty management is a disorganized and complex affair. Owner-operators, captains and managers do not have appropriate tools and resources to efficiently manage issues related to warranty and maintenance. Dealers strive to offer vessel owners peace of mind through warranty coverage, as newly purchased vessels are generally covered under manufacturer’s warranty for a certain period of time. Buyers can also opt for an extended warranty. Yet, however helpful warranties may be, most owners would much rather face no issues with their vessels and avoid making warranty claims altogether. Nonetheless, with yachts minor—and sometimes more serious—issues inevitably develop. Dealers certainly try to put their best foot forward in resolving warranty-related issues, but for most owners-operators, captains and managers, making warranty claims is a painful experience because the process is so cumbersome.
To counter this problem, VesselWise offers a technology-driven solution. VesselWise is a mobile-ready, cloud-based application that makes warranty management hassle-free. Using VesselWise, owner-operators, captains and managers can record and manage all warranty-related issues and communicate them to their dealer representative or warranty manager in an efficient manner. It brings greater transparency to the dialogue between the owner and the dealer and ensures that all warranty-related issues get duly resolved. This secures the vessel’s safety while also increasing its resale value.
Using the VesselWise ecosystem, dealers can provide clear and consistent feedback to builders about issues that are commonly faced by vessel owners. For instance, if certain components develop faults frequently, or if certain complaints are recurring among many different buyers, dealers can bring such issues to the builder’s attention. With a direct channel to receive feedback from owners, builders know exactly where to focus efforts to improve their vessels.
Dealers can also use the VesselWise app to get consistent feedback from their delivery captains, crew and surveyors. Before a vessel is ready to be docked at the dealer’s showroom for display or delivery, it has to make a long journey from the builder’s boatyard. It may go through many different types of surveys during the course of delivery depending on the dealer’s internal processes. Surveys at the time of offloading, prior to acceptance, at the time of trade-in and prior to sale are common. By providing their delivery captains the VesselWise app to capture and upload issues, dealers can easily gather feedback from their internal surveys at each point. Not only does this minimize time and money losses accruing from surveys and repairs, it also enables dealers to deliver damage-free vessels to buyers, which is sure to bring them delight.
Visit VesselWise to find out more about the app.
