Helping Dealers Deliver Customer Delight
VesselWise for Dealers Improves Service Delivery
October 2015
Dealers bring yachts from vessel manufacturers around the world directly to buyers in their local area. Naturally, this involves a lot of time, money and resources as well as planning and careful management of logistics, transportation, procurement, storage, surveys, inspections, repairs and much more. The particulars depend upon factors like the size of the dealer’s business, their operational reach and their client-base, but large dealers often manage hundreds of vessels at a time. In the process, thousands of issues inevitably develop which have to be identified, logged, processed, approved, repaired and so forth.
Dealers offer vessels of many different sizes, makes and types manufactured in various parts of the country, and, if authorized, also bring vessels from Europe, where some of America’s most popular vessels are manufactured. In addition to a vast selection that includes a wide range of globally manufactured vessels, there are many other distinct advantages buyers get when buying a new, pre-owned or trade-in vessel through a dealer.
Dealerships can offer great financing deals that private sellers and auctioneers cannot. And after the boating season is over, dealers tend to provide heavy discounts and promotional offers on their current-year stock. Another huge benefit that comes with a vessel purchased from a dealer is the warranty. Ultimately, dealers endeavor to offer the best value to buyers, whether it’s from pricing or after-sale service. But despite all these efforts on the dealer’s part, high customer satisfaction often eludes them, raising concerns for boat owners.
Dissatisfaction among buyers stems largely from problematic after-sale service and warranty management. Even brand-new boats can quickly develop faults. And although buyers have the assurance that everything is covered under warranty, actually identifying issues, making warranty claims and getting repairs offers anything but peace of mind. The truth is that dealing with warranty claims can be a nightmare.
Brand-new boats developing faults is also a major concern for dealers, as it can compromise the apparent quality of their service. Unfortunately, despite the dealer’s best efforts to transport the vessel from the manufacturer’s construction site in top condition, many major defects can already be found at the time of delivery.
Looking at a vessel’s journey from the manufacturer’s site to the dealer’s showroom provides a reasonable understanding of why this happens. After leaving the construction site, vessels go through dozens of checkpoints, inspections and surveys before finally arriving at dealerships to be put on display, ready for sale.
Many buyers also ask for custom features, so manufacturers must accommodate special requirements in new builds. This opens the door to more potential problems by further increasing the complexity of the vessel and its various onboard systems, which is why buyers hire surveyors or consultants to manage new-build projects for them. But ultimately, it’s the dealer who has to ensure that the vessel is built according to the buyer’s requirements. If there are any defects, damages or discrepancies, the dealer must correct them before the buyer accepts delivery.
VesselWise offers a technology-driven software solution that helps dealers overcome these critical challenges.
VesselWise facilitates surveys and issues management. With VesselWise, dealers can efficiently capture and manage all issues that arise during the various stages of the vessel’s first voyage. In particular, a vessel gets surveyed repeatedly in its journey from the manufacturer’s site to the dealership. These may include an acceptance survey when the dealer takes charge of the vessel from the builder, an inspection survey when the vessel is offloaded from the transportation ship, a pre-sale survey, a trade-in survey and many more depending on the dealer’s internal processes.
VesselWise enables technicians to easily capture all survey items by recording them while on the vessel using the VesselWise mobile app. The survey items are then uploaded and queued for the survey administrator’s approval. The administrator can also track all open survey items and close them once they’ve been appropriately addressed. VesselWise’s systematized workflow centralizes control over every aspect of the issue resolution process. When combined with the platform’s operations management tools, handling vessels becomes much more efficient. With VesselWise, dealers can deliver vessels to their new owners on time with full confidence that they have been thoroughly inspected and are free from issues.
VesselWise supports after-sale service and warranty management. As dealers continue to take care of any future issues that may arise, the benefits of using VesselWise for dealers continues well after the vessel is delivered to the buyer. VesselWise enables dealers to provide a high level of service for buyers whose vessels are still under warranty by ensuring efficient and well-organized surveys and maintenance as well as a transparent warranty and claims process. With a systematized workflow that is fully tracked by the platform, the dealer can provide buyers with a complete record of their vessel’s service history and warranty claims. This ensures the vessel’s safety while also increasing its resale value, something customers will surely appreciate.
With a strong need for better organization and workflow management for maritime service professionals, VesselWise’s dealer-specific functionality addresses many of the challenges that have prevented them from delivering maximum value to buyers. Customers can rest assured that their valuable assets are managed in the most time- and cost-efficient manner when their dealer uses VesselWise.
To learn more about VesselWise, visit our website, www.vesselwise.com.
