Reshaping the marina industry standard

We began our qualitative research with field activities in Croatia, Turkey and Greece, where we conducted individual interviews and observations of customers and stakeholders. On top of that, we launched online surveys in five European countries to collect data from current and potential customers. 

We identified five user personas living in the marinas differently and with different expectations. We tailored every new experience to each of these personas.

We also paired with D-Marin stakeholders to define new opportunities through idea-generation sessions and collaborative workshops. Insights and solutions emerged in response to those identified within the marina's service system.

We prioritised them to create a roadmap for the upcoming years, according to which we would implement solutions to achieve our goals.

First, we created the Experience Steps cards, an output synthesising the previously generated and refined ideas, thus laying the foundations of the new experience. Then, with D-Marin, we created the first rough version of the new vision by assembling the right Experience Steps to generate Service Blueprints for each phase.

As a result of the joint activities and workshops, we designed the entire experience through five blueprints related to five different customer journey phases:

• Welcoming — customers get to the marina for the first time, with a focus on communication through digital tools.
• Long-distance caring — customers are not present within the marina and leave their boats in the hands of the marina employees.
• Leaving the marina — customers leave the marina either for short and medium-term journeys or to return to their home countries.
• Annual contract sales — related to contract management services, berth negotiation, booking management and contract renewal costs.
• Up-selling & cross-selling — opportunity mapping related to the numerous sub-services available across all customer journey phases.

Once we designed the desired experience and condensed it into five detailed blueprints, we only missed the last piece of the process.

We produced a training document and framework executed within ten marinas in 3 different countries (Croatia, Greece and Turkey) under our supervision and with the support of native-speaking associates.

More than 80 people, covering different roles, from sailors to company managers, participated in the training to assimilate the new experience.

To make the new experience even more concrete, we designed several digital deliverables to create an extra-caring service for customers.

• The Welcome Pack (in four languages for ten marinas) is digital and specific to each marina. Customers are given all the information they need for an ideal stay: from a marina map to general rules of services to tourist information on the surroundings.
• The Boat Caring Report is a template through which the Front Office digitally keeps the customer updated on the status of their boat and the marina's news when they're not physically on site.