GetMyBoat Sails Into Perfect Booking Customer Experience

GetMyBoat aims to elevate the customer experience via the peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace and wants to change the way the world goes boating. Launched in San Francisco in January 2013, GetMyBoat empowers owners of every type of boat, from kayaks to sailboats to motorboats, to post their watercrafts for rent or charter for free.

GetMyBoat covers anywhere in the world, from California to Croatia. Its users search, find, and book a boat they would like to rent. GetMyBoat even offers an innovative Global Boat Rental Insurance program for all boat rentals (not only for GetMyBoat customers), but for any boat renter, anywhere, with any service.
Loyalty360 caught up with GetMyBoat COO Bryan Petro to learn more about this burgeoning business.

How does your app impact and enhance the Customer Experience?

Petro: The GetMyBoat app for iOS and Android makes it simple and fast to access the boating industry all in one place. With 60,000 boats in 169 countries and all types of on-the-water experiences, boaters can connect with owners to quickly book their dream boat. Our platform allows for simple pre-rental communications, and makes all aspects of the rental transparent, including pricing and what is included. Never before have boaters had as many options to go boating all in one place, and never before has it been easier to book a boat and get out on the water.

Our boat owners can utilize the app to quickly add a boat to the platform, manage their listings, and easily communicate with renters. For them, this mean less time spent coordinating and a booking and with more time to plan the perfect experience for their guests.

How long have you been around and what type of feedback have you gotten?

Petro: GetMyBoat was launched in 2013. We’ve received a very positive response from our community. Owners utilizing GetMyBoat are not only offsetting the cost of ownership, but also renting out their boat enough to make it their main source of income. We’ve also allowed owners the opportunity to buy another watercraft.

What are the biggest opportunities / challenges for brands and marketers today?

Petro: The marine industry is saturated with history and lore and many processes that haven’t been updated in decades. The best thing our boat owners can do is to explore new technology that may not be as comfortable as the “old way” of doing something, but can greatly improve a process by saving time and money. The best example of this in our experience is the traditional booking processes that many of our boats owners use. In the past, it could take more than three months to plan a charter or rental. Now, with the GetMyBoat App for iOS and Android, the same process has greatly diminished to one day and in some cases, even less.

We continue to hear about brands that are looking to create alignment between their customer loyalty efforts and the brand promise. Should all brands try to become the next “Apple” or “Amazon?” Or is it more realistic and/or beneficial for brands to understand their own unique brand identity, and then define objectives, process and programs that align with that unique identity?

Petro: It is integral for brands to understand and create their own unique brand identity. In an era where budding companies are flooding the market, it’s integral to stand out. Innovation, originality, and thinking outside the box is what made tech mongrels what they are today and the same holds true today and for any startup that hopes to stand out among the rest. Not every company will be as huge and Apple or Amazon, or even Google, but the standards of success should be measured individually and can be just as satisfactory.

Can you define what the phrase “customer journey” means to you? What does it mean to brands? And how do you see it changing?

Petro: To GetMyBoat, the customer journey starts and ends with ease of use and satisfaction. Even though GetMyBoat has evolved, our efforts have always been focused on creating the least amount of friction for our users. As our brand evolves we will continue to ensure that from the moment a user finds and books their dream boat on GetMyBoat, straight through till they return it to the docks, the entire process will remain seamless.

As the first and only app that allows users to book or list an on-the-water-adventure via their smartphones, GetMyBoat is an incredibly innovative technology that is addressing many of the pain points that our users experience. As GetMyBoat continues to grow, we will be taking historically manual or arduous activities and working them into our system to simplify and streamline the entire boat booking experience.

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