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Who actually votes for the "Marina of the Year" awards?


Donkey

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In our years of boating we have had the (mainly) pleasure  of mooring up at a variety of marinas. More recently we moved to a Marina that has been "voted" Marina of the year on several occasions. We were "happy" to pay the premium prices they seemd to charge at every slight opportunity, but we had assumed "reasurringly expensive" would also be indicative of a "premium service"? How wrong could we have been! A catalogue of general incompetance and a complete failure of even basic communications when dealing with anything from servicing, boat safety checks and an inability to match invoices with any work actually carried out. (To be fair any engineering work that was carried out was fine, it was the "system" supporting this that seems to have major problems). 

 

I am not sure whether it was a general lack of resources, training or management or a combination of all of them, but a Company that clearly puts profit ahead of customer service, and nothing was actually achieved when these concerns were raised directly with "the management".

 

I fully understand the need for any commercial organisation to make a profit, but I would also expect at least a reasonable level of customer service to go with this, particularly in what is essentially a customer focused business?

 

Perhaps we were just "unlucky"?? (Although speaking to some of the other "locals" suggested that we were not alone with some of our issues).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Customer service is very much a matter of opinion. Presumably most of the berths are taken so they must have a proportion of satisfied customers or they'd have gone elsewhere. 

 

I agree with the thrust of your post though. I suspect these votes are cast by bunch of people who have done nothing more than read the glossy brochures for an afternoon and been paid £30 each for their trouble. I've used many marinas over the years and never been asked to vote in any "Marina of the Year" polls. 

 

Which poll is it, exactly? If you really want an answer to your question, approach the polling firm who did it. 

 

 

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37 minutes ago, Donkey said:

In our years of boating we have had the (mainly) pleasure  of mooring up at a variety of marinas. More recently we moved to a Marina that has been "voted" Marina of the year on several occasions. We were "happy" to pay the premium prices they seemd to charge at every slight opportunity, but we had assumed "reasurringly expensive" would also be indicative of a "premium service"? How wrong could we have been! A catalogue of general incompetance and a complete failure of even basic communications when dealing with anything from servicing, boat safety checks and an inability to match invoices with any work actually carried out. (To be fair any engineering work that was carried out was fine, it was the "system" supporting this that seems to have major problems). 

 

I am not sure whether it was a general lack of resources, training or management or a combination of all of them, but a Company that clearly puts profit ahead of customer service, and nothing was actually achieved when these concerns were raised directly with "the management".

 

I fully understand the need for any commercial organisation to make a profit, but I would also expect at least a reasonable level of customer service to go with this, particularly in what is essentially a customer focused business?

 

Perhaps we were just "unlucky"?? (Although speaking to some of the other "locals" suggested that we were not alone with some of our issues).

 

These sorts of awards are normally not voted upon by jo public but rather like window and conservatory fitting companies and motor dealers kept within the 'trade', and thus pretty meaningless.

 

The events are usually nothing more than an annual pi$$ up for the company directors.

 

 

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Don’t knock these sort of industry awards…they provide me with a good income! 
 

“product of the year”…the ones with the red & white logo once left the industry side of their website accessible…basically the more you paid them decided if you got a gold/silver/bronze award…..

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19 hours ago, Donkey said:

In our years of boating we have had the (mainly) pleasure  of mooring up at a variety of marinas. More recently we moved to a Marina that has been "voted" Marina of the year on several occasions. We were "happy" to pay the premium prices they seemd to charge at every slight opportunity, but we had assumed "reasurringly expensive" would also be indicative of a "premium service"? How wrong could we have been! A catalogue of general incompetance and a complete failure of even basic communications when dealing with anything from servicing, boat safety checks and an inability to match invoices with any work actually carried out. (To be fair any engineering work that was carried out was fine, it was the "system" supporting this that seems to have major problems). 

 

I am not sure whether it was a general lack of resources, training or management or a combination of all of them, but a Company that clearly puts profit ahead of customer service, and nothing was actually achieved when these concerns were raised directly with "the management".

 

I fully understand the need for any commercial organisation to make a profit, but I would also expect at least a reasonable level of customer service to go with this, particularly in what is essentially a customer focused business?

 

Perhaps we were just "unlucky"?? (Although speaking to some of the other "locals" suggested that we were not alone with some of our issues).

 

i

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name and shame, or at least a hint,  so that the rest of us can avoid it

Edited by Idle Days
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We’ve moored there too, and have had similar experiences. The problem is that when these marinas are popular and have a 100% (or near) occupancy rate, the customer service levels suffer because they know that if you leave you can be replaced easily.

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17 hours ago, frangar said:

Don’t knock these sort of industry awards…they provide me with a good income! 
 

“product of the year”…the ones with the red & white logo once left the industry side of their website accessible…basically the more you paid them decided if you got a gold/silver/bronze award…..

 

Proportional Representation. The amount of representation you get is proportional to how much you've paid. 😀

The most common form of democracy.

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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https://www.towergateinsurance.co.uk/boat-insurance/marina-of-the-year

Vote for your 2021 Marina of the Year

The Marina of the Year Awards from The Yacht Harbour Association and sponsored by Towergate Insurance, celebrate the best of over 160 Gold Anchor accredited marinas from around the world, as voted for by berth holders. These awards are the perfect opportunity to give spotlight to those marinas that go above and beyond to offer outstanding quality and service to its berth holders and visitors. There is no better time to show recognition and appreciation for all the hard work that the marinas and their staff put in.

With over 160 Gold Anchor accredited marinas around the world, there were 6 categories up for grabs:

  • Towergate’s UK Coastal Marina of the Year (over 250 berths)
  • Towergate’s UK Coastal Marina of the Year (under 250 berths)
  • Towergate’s UK Inland Marina of the Year
  • Towergate’s Super Yacht Marina of the Year
  • Towergate’s International Marina of the Year
  • Towergate’s Marina Employee of the Year

 

Voting for the 2021 awards opens on April Fools Day.

https://www.tyha.co.uk/marina-awards

Edited by David Mack
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