Navigating Through Boat Club Failures
Published on November 12, 2020
The subject line read, “We are not returning to your boat club.” Just the type of email you want to open, right?
The message popped up on my phone and I thought, “seriously, what now…?” It’s just like when you open a bill you receive in the mail, where you slice open the envelope and peek inside to see what horror awaits you. I pressed open and there it was—a four-paragraph email.
Testing the Waters
This family had been amazing members. I remember the first visit during the exploration phase of their shopping adventure. It was back in about April. Remember April 2020? Nothing was going on, so as a result I had a great deal of time to spend with Dad, Mom, and their pre-teen son and daughter.
The son, clearly the one in control of the entire boating movement, wanted a wake board boat. Dad stood behind him with cautious bewilderment. He didn’t roll his eyes, but he was a little more realistic and said, “We are new to boating and we don’t know if we will actually be boaters.”
Now I was curious. They asked about pricing for slips and maintenance for the boat if they instead went down the boat ownership route.
Then we went into our warehouse and looked at our boats on display for the boat club and that was it. The son was up and down the ladders of every boat, he was 100% in on the family boating adventure. As for the daughter, I’ll just say she was very patient with her brother. Mom asked the pertinent questions about logistics and boat availability. She really liked the spontaneous use benefit and the ability to stay in touch with us to “let us know” if plans changed so someone else could use the boat. She said, “That’s just polite.” Then they left.
About four days later Mom and daughter returned just as calm as their first visit. They wanted to sign up as boat club members for the 2020 summer.
All summer I watched this family, completely intrigued. They used every boat in the fleet, over and over. They were actually one of the top three users of their membership.
They were always happy. I think the son actually enjoyed the challenge of carrying the world’s largest inner tube out to their boat—with arms fully extended leaving only six inches of clearance to the ground—one time he accidentally hit our emergency fuel shut off with the gigantic tube.
So what happened? Why are they not returning to our boat club?
Failure Leads to Success
They aren’t returning because they bought a boat. And this is exactly what the marina industry wants and needs and why starting a boat club is the number one best thing you can do for the industry while making money locally. Grow boating customers from within.
We started our boat club in 2009 with one boat and one member. It was a painfully slow growth process. We ended the first season with two members. Then the next season we had 10 members. Membership continued to bounce between 20 and 30 for a couple seasons, which paved the way to our current membership of over 100.
This power of numbers is your friend in a boat club profit center. When we had one boat and one member we generated $3,000 for the season. But when you start to offer a six to seven membership ratio you are actually generating $18,000 to $21,000 for that one boat. Now multiply by 10 boats or 100 members and you’ll see the power of more.
However, this also brings us to “more.” More uses. More members. More boats. You can elevate your profits by sharing resources you already have, such as staff, fuel stations, docks, but this is all “more.” I don’t want to say more hassles… but be prepared for more.
Even when we had one member and one boat, it still took more. We needed to prep contracts, clean the boat, and utilize a slip.
The “more” is the key. But the “more” has pressure points.
When we reached around 30 memberships we needed to automate our reservation system so again, each “more” has more learning. But to generate your own “boat club renewal failures” there is a recipe and I narrow it to two things: one part Loyalty and one part Efficiency.
Loyalty happens when you set expectations and build a team spirit within your membership. For example, it’s 85 degrees with light fluffy clouds. All of the boats are being used, except for the cute pontoon boat. Your phone is ringing off the hook for a spontaneous reservation and there the cute pontoon sits, all day, it never leaves the dock. The member was a “no show.” You’re irritated because it was in your way all day long, so you send a $45 no show penalty fee to the member.
However, there is a better way. When you develop the team spirit—an actual “club” vibe—you design expectations and start sharing the “why” behind your policies.
We have found that when members understand they are part of a team the season runs more smoothly. When they understand that a boat sitting at the dock prevents another member from using it, they start to care about the other members.
We start our member expectations from the very beginning, even at the initial selling phase. We take the time to mention the “no show” policy and how it’s more than a fee. We want you to call in order to prevent the disappointment of fellow members. This will build a bond right away. Remember my “boat club renewal failures?” Mom commented that calling in to report a change in plans was, “polite.”
The other success factor to creating “boat club renewal failures” is efficiency. Streamlining policies and automating processes will reduce the hassle of the club as you scale to more members.
I mentioned our online reservation system. Reducing phone fatigue with your crew eliminates the finger pointing of who “lost” the reservation. It lets them focus on the happy conversations of where a boat club member should spend today’s adventure on the water.
There is something comfortable in doing the same thing the same way every time, especially for new boaters. Ideally, your member arrives and starts their paperwork or checks in at the same location, finds the boat in the same slip, and returns to the dock at the same location, each and every time it will elevate their entire day.
It also will elevate your day. Instead of spending time searching for a boat in a variety of slips, you can spend your time prepping the boat for its time on the water.
Eliminate Hassles
These simple ways to tighten your processes will go a long way in your professionalism. There are many reasons our boaters stop boating. Hassle is one of them.
It’s hard enough for them to plan a day on the water. Our boaters have schedules to coordinate and weather to contend with. Make your boat club destination an oasis. Be ready and be prepared for them.
Start making your own “boat club renewal failures.” It’s one big industry and we all benefit from this kind of failure.
Roxanne Rockvam is the general manager of Rockvam Boat Yards Inc. in Spring Park, Minnesota. She can be reached by email at roxanne@pontoongirl.com or by phone at 952-454-4681.
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