• Sea Tow® Sea Care Six Month Program supports long-term retention and removes one barrier to purchase

Article submission from Sea Tow, an MRAA Platinum Partner

Boater acquisition and retention continue to challenge our industry. Nearly one in four first-time boat buyers leaves boating within four years.
Why? Ownership often turns out to be more costly and challenging on the water than expected. What begins as a dream can quickly become a source of stress—and that anxiety doesn’t just affect current owners. It creates a barrier for prospective buyers, too. Buyers don’t always articulate these concerns about what could go wrong or their uncertainty about how to handle them or get help.
Sea Tow® is taking bold steps to change that.

Strategic B2B Offering Designed to Support New Boaters

As the experts in on-water assistance, we see firsthand the real-world issues that shake a boater’s confidence — dead batteries, fouled props, running aground or running out of fuel. We see it every day; it’s the operator, not the boat. For seasoned boaters, these are manageable setbacks. But for new owners, they can be intimidating enough to abandon boating altogether. None of us want the uncertainty of how to handle these issues to create a barrier to purchase.
That’s why Sea Tow created the Sea Care 6-Month Membership Program — a strategic B2B offering designed to support new boaters from day one. Through this program, dealers cover 6 months (half the cost) of an annual Sea Tow Gold Card membership for the new boat owner.

The best part: Sea Tow provides the 6 months of Gold Card membership to the dealer AT NO COST in exchange for active promotion of the program to potential and new boat owners (a $124.50 value).

Program & Membership Benefits

Including Sea Tow membership with the purchase of a boat:

• Removes one core barrier to purchase
• Strengthens buyer confidence
• Defines the nature of your dealership: “We care about our customers.”
• Elevates the ownership experience, builds loyalty
• Supports long-term retention & lowers used inventory in the market
• Is easy to execute with ZERO cost to the dealer

Sea Tow Gold Card membership means:

• 24/7 priority service
• Unlimited towing with no distance or dollar limits in the member’s home area
• Jump starts, fuel and oil/parts delivery, prop disentanglements, and covered ungroundings
• Service for every boat a member owns, rents, or bareboat charters
  Scheduled dock-to-dock tow coverage to repair facility
• Local navigation tips, referrals and troubleshooting

Help in Troubleshooting

Human error account for 75% of Sea Tow’s service calls. When out on the water, sometimes the engine cut-off switch can get knocked out of place or the boat is not in gear; direct connection to the local Sea Tow Captain can help troubleshoot the issue before even needing a tow. Radios left on all day can lead to dead batteries and needing fuel is a common occurrence; all scenarios are covered by membership and members receive priority service day or night.

Integrate Sea Care at Close

Integrating the Sea Care Six Month Program into the sales and closing process is a seamless effort for any participating dealer or manufacturer to execute. Here’s how it works:

• Sea Tow provides vouchers with unique activation codes valued at $124.50 each, equivalent to six months of membership, at no cost to the dealership.
• Dealer distributes the vouchers to the new boat owner during F&I, warranty walkthrough or sales paperwork review.
• New boat owner uses activation code to purchase annual Sea Tow Gold Card membership at half price.

It’s that easy! Sea Tow also provides support materials including sales team training materials, signage, POP and social media artwork.

Long-Term Retention

The Sea Care Six Month Program supports long-term retention and removes one barrier to purchase. It helps further define the values of your business and build loyalty. Let’s work together to get and keep people boating longer.

To learn more about the program and how to become a participant, contact seacare@seatow.com.