What does good, trust-building hurricane communication look like?

At the notion of being battered by a storm, marketing isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

Evacuate boats. Secure the marina. Track the weather. Make calls. Track the weather. Secure the marina. Get to safety.

A manager can’t control the storm. But they can control how they help their tenants get through it. At the foundation of the entire business – any business – is the concept of trust. It’s not something where a manager can print out a coupon and throw a “50% off trust” sale.

Trust is the heart of it. The tenant trusts you to provide this service without reproach. Without it, there’s no point in advertisements or sales or marketing newsletters. There’s no greater time to demonstrate your trustworthiness than during a hurricane.

Your tenants and staff will look to you.

How a manager communicates will set a tone for a life-changing hurricane experience. If you show calm professionalism, your staff will follow, and the tenants will be more likely to align with the orderly resolve of your team. The same way a cook staff trains for a kitchen fire, it’s not all about reaching for the nearest fire extinguisher. How to convey emergency actions under duress is an art in itself.

Speak with transparency and frequency.

At the core of it, simply put yourself in your tenant’s shoes. They’re concerned about their property. You may get dozens of calls in a day preceding a storm. A manager can mitigate this mass influx of concern with a few methods:

• Send out a newsletter with status updates to your tenant mailing list as soon as you have news. Provide specific actions that the marina is taking. Provide local governmental and weather updates. Provide an idea of what will be the next steps.

• Utilize an SMS texting service to send your tenants a direct mass text message letting them know what they should do, what you are doing, and how you’ll be proceeding with storm preparation, endurance, and cleanup.

• Provide your tenants with your and your managerial staff’s direct phone numbers. Let them know you’ll respond as you can. You might need to work back through a hundred texts, but it will be a sincere sign that you’re there for your tenants.

Speak with complete specificity.

Much of human fear originates from not knowing. That’s why the scary movies keep their monsters in the dark (at least for a while). Throwing light on specific actions will help boat owners feel like the situation is manageable.

• Provide updates on the storm’s movement, and what actions the marina is taking to be fully prepared.

• If the hurricane has already struck, provide clear next steps for boat assessment, insurance claims, cleanup, and marina operations.

• Imprint clearly how the marina will proceed with opening its grounds for boat assessments. If 80 boat owners roared up in their trucks at once to see if their boat made it through, it’d be logistical chaos. Let them know when the marina will reopen, when they can schedule an appointment, and remind them that their safety is your first priority.

Speak with complete authority.

A manager who uses language like “maybe” or “we don’t know” projects an attitude that the situation has no resolution, or any sense of control at the marina. Only speak to what you can confirm without speculation, and maintain a principle of accuracy. Instead of:

“We don’t know how badly your boat might be damaged. Maybe fine, but maybe it was swallowed by a whale.”

Consider:

“We know the hurricane landed at 8:40 a.m. 90 miles south of here. The boats were removed to the barn well before it made landfall. We are proceeding to inspect the docks at this time. We will contact boaters individually with updates about their vessel.”

A marina that communicates with their community builds trust.

Sorry, Arnold. Unfortunately, there will be no helicopter to whisk tenant vessels away to safety. But a marina team that carries themselves with workmanlike resolve is a team operating from a position of strength.

As hurricanes like Helene brought devastating effects to shorelines, and as many managers have experienced in the past, it can be gut-wrenching to see the power of nature amidst your community. Recovery can be a years-long process. But the opposing force of nature is the resolve of the marina which stood and received the forefront of the storm.  

A boat owner who sees your dedication during an emergency knows:

They’ve got a marina manager who is in it with them.

Article by Hammer and Nail Marketing

WHAT IS HAMMER & NAIL?

Hammer and Nail Marketing is a boutique marketing firm that helps small to mid-sized marinas get noticed by boaters. If you’d like to focus on operating your marina without the additional responsibility of marketing, get in touch with us.

We’re boaters ourselves from a background of operating a family-run marina. From a group of experts who know the water, let Hammer and Nail Marketing help you be the waterfront your local boaters see every time they cast off.