When it comes to the boating industry, things could be better. If we want to offer a fix, first we need to think about how everything fits together.
Here’s a story that might sound familiar: you wake up one morning, and there is a giant obscene graffiti on the building right outside your window. So you call city hall to take care of it, but you get the wrong department, then someone is on vacation, your emails are left unanswered until after months of badgering, and it ends up taking months before the graffiti is gone.
Surely, there is a better way.
For Ben Berkowitz, this was the trigger to find a solution. He founded seeclickfix.com – a website and app where citizens can send issues to their municipal authority along with a picture and GPS coordinates. In the 13 years that passed, SeeClickFix users have reported graffiti, potholes, oil spills, and even subway air conditioning not working.
A similar tale is at the heart of many success stories: recognising a need and then finding or developing the right tools to answer it. This is true for municipal complaints as much as it is true for the recreational boating industry.
Charting for success.
When we first recognised the troubles that marinas face, our first instinct was to figure out what came before us. What types of solutions were out there for marinas? Once we had figured that out, we needed to uncover what we can do to improve things. We took inspiration from many sources: Ben Berkowitz solving his municipal woes, hotels adopting international standards of communication, the shipping industry digitising its operations. There is a common denominator to all of those.
We had an advantage: we knew the boating industry from inside, both the boater-side and the marina-side. We were also aware of another crucial piece of information: the technological solutions to make boating more efficient, accessible and sustainable are readily available.
The problems we identified had a solution waiting for them.
Making it fit.
Knowing what the solution is, is not the same as having one. We still had a lot of hard work ahead of us. We needed to understand the best approach, which technology will have the most impact, and how to adjust it to the industry’s unique needs.
A good example was the issue of trust. Boaters appreciate their freedom and flexibility too much, and rather not commit to a single plan. On the marinas’ side, nearly no one is willing to reservations longer than a few days ahead, leading to all sorts of issues when planning voyages.
Clearly, it’s a matter of communication and meeting expectations. We want to empower boaters and marinas to communicate better. But to do so, all parties need to see the benefits and be willing to change their ways after many years. Simply having the right technology is not enough. There is a human element to consider.
A collaboration, not a gospel.
So we’ve spent a long time making sure we understand the problems that the boating industry faces and that our solution is the correct one. We are the first to try something like this, but we are mostly here to work with marinas, empowering them to do their work optimally. We work together with our marina partners to constantly adapt and hone our solution so that it will be more useful for them.
Working with our partners, we can identify new problems and come up with new solutions. We are on this voyage together, and it’s our commitment and determination that will bring us to our destination. We know what needs to happen for boating to become more accessible, convenient, and sustainable, and seeing the bigger picture, we are making it happen.