Icom Licence Free Radio Solution Chosen By Yacht Havens Group
Yacht Havens Group Ltd have chosen Icom PMR446 radio solutions to help with the day to day running of their marinas. Lymington Yacht Haven, one of the largest marinas which boasts 600 pontoon berths as well as space ashore for 230 boats, is manned 24/7 by staff and radio communication is a vital part of their service.
Lymington Yacht Haven was originally founded by Hems W. Kalis in 1972 and has been family owned ever since. The Yacht Haven Group has now amassed nine marinas and dry stacks over their forty years, offering more than 4000 berths across the UK and Netherlands. Lymington Yacht Haven allows 24-hour access with a vast range of services such as washrooms, bike hire, fuel and lifting facilities for boats in the marina as well as other on-site tenants. Offering these services quickly, efficiently and securely means communication is vital.
The onsite staff use
IC-F29SR PMR446 handheld portables to communicate between 20 staff members whilst ship to shore communication with the marina is via the
IC-M323 VHF mounted transceiver in the office. Becki Jackson, the Office Manager at Lymington Yacht Haven said, “Radio communication is very important, from our marine VHF within our team as well as our ability to communicate with boat owners. With boats coming in and out of the marina daily it increases our efficiency being able to communicate effectively. Also, in an emergency the radios allow us to react quickly.”
“The radios also help to keep our staff on schedule. They work on a day to day schedule and the staff in the office may get additional bookings which they will have to communicate what extra jobs may come up. For example, the hoist is being used for about a dozen lifts a day but if they’re ahead of schedule and we get a booking for another boat that needs hoisting then we can get a quick response.”
Jonathan Cook, Group Marketing Manager said, “Over the last bank holiday weekend we had more than 200 visiting boats over a 3-day period. They’ll be requesting a berth from a couple of miles away and if we can’t provide one then they’ll have to go elsewhere. It’s important that we respond back to them as soon as possible. We may actually send one of our site staff out onto the marina to look for an empty berth, if they can or can’t find one, they’ll radio back to the office and we’ll relay that onto the customer.”
He went on to add, “Because we’re a family owned company everything the company does reflects on the family members. The staff are the main point of contact and their customer service must be up to the standard of what the owner would personally expect so it’s vital that we effectively meet our customers’ needs. We want to provide a prompt answer and a professional service that is better than our competitors, whether that is just purely answering the radio or an enquiry from someone at reception. We always try to help our customers whether it is something obscure or niche and its our staffs’ willingness to do that that sets our marina group apart from others and our radios add to our service”.
You can find out more about Yacht Havens Group and their nine other marinas by visiting their website:
www.yachthavens.com.
03/07/2018
