Exciting times for CRM as new system launched by TheYachtMarket.com
A new customer relationship management (CRM) system is about to hit the broker market courtesy of TheYachtMarket.com. It’s called Stantia and has been designed to manage boat inventory, customer relationships, reports etc etc etc.
In build since 2019, it’s unlike generic CRM systems, says Richard Roberts, CEO and founder of TheYachtMarket.com, “Over the past 20 years, we have developed a robust understanding of the challenges faced by brokers and have worked in partnership with the industry to develop a CRM with these needs in mind. Unlike generic CRM systems, Stantia’s industry-first features and easy-to-use interface ensure that brokers can focus on what matters most – selling boats and managing customer relationships effectively.”
Because it’s designed specifically for the marine industry, Roberts says it’ll empower boat brokers, dealers, and sellers by offering a tailored solution to enhance their operations.
The system will be rolled out in two tranches, says Roberts, which are “boat listings management with the CRM features or boat listings management without the CRM features (for those who don’t want to change their existing CRM system). We will be prioritising customers who need the CRM features, and that rollout can start now, but we’re expecting a lot of demand so there may be a short wait. But eventually, the system will completely replace logging into TheYachtMarket.com to manage boat listings.”
The project has taken a great deal of development, he says. “We’re a relatively small team, considering how much development work there has been for this project. And we’ve done this whilst still maintaining and further developing TheYachtMarket.com – our team has done fantastically well to balance all these tasks. Additionally, because this system is designed for brokerages and dealerships of any size, building a system which meets their varying requirements has taken a great deal of planning.
“We’ve been testing each part of the system in-house as we’ve built them, plus an extensive testing-centric phase over the last five months. We’ve also onboarded one customer in July with a limited set of features, which has been extremely useful for external feedback. Since then, we’ve been working on adding and testing the additional features ready for this launch.”
Stantia was built entirely in-house. Roberts says this was to leverage the 20+ years of expertise in this sector and the know-how the business has gained from building a bespoke CRM system for its own use. “If we’d have contracted it out, the developers would have been working without this experience, so it may have taken longer to develop.”
The cloud-based platform, was officially launched today (13 September) at Southampton International Boat Show. The idea is that it’ll integrate seamlessly with TheYachtMarket.com’s existing services and completely replace the pre-existing management hub.
So what does it do? Everything it seems. Key features include boat inventory management (including synchronising listings with TheYachtMarket.com); boat interest matching; task management; analytics and customer relationships – managing leads and contacts and tracking all customer communications.
“TheYachtMarket.com has been an outstanding partner for us from the very beginning,” says Ben Nichols, UK sales director of Clipper Marine. He says he has ‘full confidence’ in the new product remaining at the forefront of CRM technology in the marine sector. “This partnership has been and continues to be a key driver of our success. The team’s professionalism, proactivity, and refreshing sense of humour have consistently set them apart in the industry.”
Privately owned and operated, TheYachtMarket.com says it is currently thriving as a leader in the marine boat brokerage market. The platform attracts over three million visitors annually, generating more than 18 million page views and facilitating over 68,000 sales enquiries. Its global reach has over 1,000 professional yacht brokers and dealers across 60 countries listing more than 25,000 boats for sale or charter.
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