2023 May June Marina World

Enhancing customer service
across a multi-national portfolio
D-Marin, a leading marina network with marinas in six countries, is on a
continued mission to enhance and expand its digital offerings. Matthias (Matti)
Gehring, responsible for the company’s smart initiatives, gives Marina World
an update.
Q: What principle areas of marina
management do you believe benefit
from digitisation?
A: There are many areas, the principle
being customer convenience,
ensuring we can provide a faster and
more seamless service, improving
communications at all levels of the
business, and doing all we can to make
our customers’ lives effortless.
Our marina management and
customer experience has been
enhanced through digitisation, not least
with our brand-new native app. This
app serves as a centralised platform
for our customers to access all the key
information they need and communicate
with our teams. In many ways, the
native app strengthens the relationship
between our marinas and customers.
D-Marin customers can use the app to
check in and create real time bookings,
as well as pay online and complete the
check in procedures remotely, which in
turn significantly reduces waiting times
and has had a demonstrable return on
maximising marina occupancy.
The digitisation of the experience
through our Smart Pedestal solution
should deliver a direct reduction in
our environmental footprint, allowing
customers to book, monitor and optimise
OPERATOR TALK: SMART MOVES
energy and water consumption to
ensure more efficient and sustainable
use of resources, which will result in
direct savings for our customers.
The roll out of our smart boat sensors
has also seen many benefits to marina
management, enabling us to monitor
and assist our customers even when
they are away from our marinas –
offering remote support and helping to
address any issues or concerns.
We can see many benefits with
digitisation and are committed to
leveraging these current and future
innovations to ensure our customers
enjoy a seamless and enriching
yachting experience.
Q: How have you implemented digital
systems in these areas?
Are these D-Marin specific
and are they integrated
throughout the entire multinational
portfolio?
A: All digital systems
have been implemented
Above: D-Marin Borik is
a top-of-the-line boutique
marina offering 177 berths
in the ancient Croatian city
of Zadar. Right: Turgutreis is
D-Marin’s flagship marina
located just 20km/12.4mi from
Bodrum, Turkey.
across our entire portfolio, allowing
us to offer a consistent and effortless
experience that meets our premium
quality standards. By integrating these
solutions in all our marinas, we can
guarantee that our customers receive
the same exceptional service and
systems in any D-Marin location.
Our approach to digital
implementation is two-fold. Firstly,
we are developing our own D-Marin
proprietary systems, such as our
booking platform, which has been
designed to offer a seamless reservation
process. By utilising our in-house
solutions, we can ensure a high level of
quality control and are agile to adapt the
platform to meet the unique needs of our
customers across different locations.
Secondly, we are actively
collaborating with strategic partners
or integrating world class systems to
bring the best solutions to our marinas.
An example of this is our partnership
with Sense4Boat, a company that
specialises in smart boat sensors. By
integrating its cutting-edge technology
into our digital offering, our customers
can closely monitor the status of their
boat within our marinas, enabling them
and us to proactively address potential
issues and provide the highest level of
care for our customers’ vessels.
Q: When did you first start to look
at your management systems with
a view to digitising them? Did you
inherit very different systems with
each portfolio addition over the years?
Did this encourage you to develop a
standardised system?
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