Charleston City Marina is best-in-class

Located on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the Charleston City Marina features 19,000 linear feet of dock space covering 40 acres of water. Named "Marina of the Year" in 2005 by Marina Dock Age Magazine, the Charleston City Marina provides state of the art amenities, a floating bathhouse, shuttle service, convenience stores, and numerous local restaurants to choose from. We also have the longest freestanding floating dock in the Southeast, extending 1,530 feet. As one of the leading marinas in the country, we pride ourselves on customer satisfaction, and being a "Marina of the Year" recipient we have a reputation to uphold.

Real-time feedback allows marina to respond in the same day

We have always wanted to gather feedback from our customers, but our hard copy paid postage comment cards were only producing a handful of returns. The Association of Marina Industries (AMI) boater loyalty program, however, gave us a way to survey quickly and easily. We now launch surveys every week to the 50 to 200 visitors staying with us. This provides us with a steady stream of feedback and allows us to respond immediately to problems.

Within the first six months of implementing the system, we received over 400 responses. The graphical and trending reports make it easy for our managers and harbormasters to drill into individual surveys and identify specific problem areas. With the new system, we are now more likely to be aware of facility malfunctions the day they occur, rather than thinking all is well until we happen to hear otherwise. In addition, during the seasonal up-tick in visitors, we have visibility on training issues. We truly have a pulse on customer opinions and can address problems right away.

Surveying provides valuable market research

We have always known that most of our business comes from repeat customers, but we didn't know how customers were initially learning about us. Surveying showed us that referrals and cruising guides accounted for 24% of our visitors. That was valuable information for guiding our marketing spending. Surprisingly, our website accounted for only 4% of customers, even though it receives 5000 to 8000 unique visitors per month. This is a tremendous growth opportunity for us.

Only as good as the last experience

Since 70% of our business comes from repeat customers, we must be alert and make every visit a good one. The point of departure from the marina is a prime opportunity for us to hear from our customers, so we are planning to put a survey link on our wi-fi sign-up page, so we can learn about our guests' experiences right away. We are also going to participate in a benchmarking program to compare our performance to that of our peer group or other marinas. This is another valuable tool that will give us a broader perspective and help us maintain our solid reputation."