Lining Up Your Ducks: Proactive Boat Storage & Winterization Communication

Do you have all your ducks in a row at your dealership? So often the alignment of your ducks — the process involved in corralling all your customers’ boats for winter service and storage — begins BEFORE it’s time to actually stage them for their frigid naps.

To find service success, you have to have order (service process maps, communication plans, follow-up strategy) before you can create order. And even when you do act in a proactive manner, like my example dealership here today, that certainly doesn’t mean your customers will follow your lead. Hopefully, the majority will take to heart your early messaging and act accordingly and in a timely manner so your service success can contribute to your dealership’s bottom line and profitability.

Your Readiness Makes You More Adaptable

Your team’s flexibility and compassion can then be reserved for handling all those other customers who lag behind or wait until the last minute, hoping to again use your winter storage service. Additionally, your ability to maintain order allows you the space and the flexibility to accommodate new clients — some of whom found you through word of mouth or had a storage situation change and now NEED your services — if your storage program is set up for it. Even though these latter two examples may have your team “quacking” back, your earlier preparation has allowed you to assemble a more controlled order at the finish line.

Premier Effort from Premier Boating

The team at Premier Boating recently sent out its email campaign reminding its customers about its storage program. The whole effort was brilliantly crafted and even arrived on Friday, August 22, about two full months in advance of the dealership’s final pick-up/drop-off date of Friday, October 31.

Customer Psychology — Balancing Needs & Cadence

Before I dig deeper into this great customer communication piece, let’s set the stage. I spoke to Jason Sasso, Marketing Director at Premier Boating. He explained that a recent acquisition of a long-standing dealership located on the same lake has expanded Premier Boating’s customer base and storage capacity. This expansion and customer growth have forced the dealership to better understand and balance its customers’ needs with the cadence of communication.

“Our goal over the last 30-plus years has been to continue to be easier to do business with; and we can’t do that without listening to our customers and figuring out ways to adapt to their needs,” said Sasso. “If our customers are asking for us to move the storage process earlier in the season, we want to respond well. We want to listen to our customers and respond to them with authenticity and make sure our approach for storage communication aligns with what we know about them and their needs.”

Premier received requests for the boat storage form as early as Aug. 1 this year. That surprised Sasso in that the Michigan boating season still offers owners plenty of opportunities to be on the water, but because he understands customer psychology, he knows that some owners will be proactive in their approach to storage season.

Email Assessment

I decided to whip out my verbiage scalpel knife to dissect just what it is this team did well and a few possible opportunities for improvement. Here’s my input on the email campaign.

1. Boating action shot

• The family pontoon ride on the water in late summer adds action to the message and lets the email recipient envision themselves on the lake.

2. Clear messaging establishes expectations

• In bold offset white font on a red banner, it reads, “IT’S TIME TO SCHEDULE YOUR OFFSEASON STORAGE.”Again, a clean and easy reminder to boat owners and one they can understand.
• Call to Action (CTA): The email includes five hyperlinks, including one within the lead photo, to the Premier Boating Fall Storage Form.

3. Listing the final pick-up/drop-off deadline

• Everyone who received this email understands that space is limited so they need to reserve a spot for winterization and storage services. OCTOBER 31, 2025 is evident. Again, this CTA button takes the customer to the Fall Storage Form.

4. Four important notes to help customers comprehend the storage program

• Only online storage requests are accepted.Upon form submission, each customer receives a confirmation follow-up message.The promise that a storage team member will confirm through a phone call the storage form submission/request.
• Direction for the customer to save themselves time and the dealership by awaiting the three-day period BEFORE calling the dealership.

5. Services differentiation

• Next up is a list of 10 Premier Boating storage benefits. These are the details and services that set them apart from the competition.They are spelled out in an easy-to-digest manner that offers answers to frequently asked questions. Customers can clearly see the value at a glance.
• The inclusion of their “Premier Promise” (We stand behind our work, ensuring the highest quality and customer satisfaction.) adds credibility and reassurance to both long-standing and new customers.

Under the Microscope — AI

Aside from the email being a tad long, which forces the reader to scroll to read the important notes and brand differences, I believe the Premier Boating team produced an excellent informational reminder email for its storage customers.

Sasso added that he always considers length and frequency (cadence) when sending communications like this one. This one in particular demanded some further guidance because of the addition of new clients and a storage location and needed additional direction. 

To see if I missed anything, I asked AI to analyze the email and offer a few suggestions to improve this already amazing service/storage marketing effort and boat ownership reminder. It had three small tweaks you could consider if you’re doing a similar effort to Premier Boating.

1. Benefit Framing

• Consider the differentiator list. It may be too long for those who prefer to skim copy, so consider grouping your benefits into broader categories (Expert Service, Quality Products, Extra Protection, Hassle-Free Experience), with supporting details.

2. Emotional Hook

• Boating is emotional, offering your customers freedom, adventure and healthy benefits when on the water. Your dealership could consider adding short emotive sections to connect with boat owners. Consider adding  expressive phrases, like “Protect your investment, avoid spring headaches and enjoy peace of mind all winter long.”

3. Visual Flow

• Watch your tone when offering directions or sharing important notes. You want these tips to serve as friendly, helpful guidance more than strict rules. Your goal is to provide clarity, but help your customers feel nurtured, not just lectured. For example, you could replace the polite notice of “please do not call to confirm” with a more sensitive phrase. Try: “no need to call — we’ll contact you within three business days.”
• The goal is to offer friendly support, but you also have to weigh your team’s customer knowledge and experience with these kinds of communication to get the results YOU need. Premier Boating was direct but also kind, sharing specific guidance (please do not call to confirm) for success.

Continuous Improvement

I applaud Premier Boating for its clean messaging and consider it a golden effort from an MRAA Certified Dealer. In this era of AI — as time allows — consider checking your content to see if you have overlooked anything, can provide clarity to the recipients or can soften your messaging to fit every service customer.

Even Sasso admits that next year’s storage communication will probably be different and that there is no such thing as perfection. “We are constantly trying to improve and ask ‘how do we keep getting better?’ We do that through customer feedback — making sure they are heard and responded to — data and AI,” he explained.

We’ve found that you can’t ‘over-communicate’ processes like storage — customers love their boat and want to protect their summer memories.

He also explained that the direct tone they used this time was not only to provide additional assistance to customers but also to provide relief for his team. He’s done other email campaigns with softer, kinder reminders and says customers weren’t reading them and they chose to call, email and connect with his team, which created more confusion and challenges. So, for 2025’s storage campaign — and due to its dealer and customer acquisition — they chose to balance kindness with more direct management.

“We’ve found that you can’t ‘over-communicate’ processes like storage — customers love their boat and want to protect their summer memories. Ensuring customers get communication that is clear and inspires the proper action while also reducing the time our team has to spend on questions and customer confusion — this is how a busy storage season becomes increasingly manageable for our team,” said Sasso. “In addition, clear communication makes it easier for our customers to do business with us, further entangling them in our dealership and affirming their confidence and loyalty for future purchases.”

What About Your Dealership?

How will you use this insight to help polish and customize your customer communication so you can create improved clarity and find more service success? How does your dealership handle customer messaging/marketing like this? Let me know at jerrod@mraa.com.