CASE STUDIES

Tarbert Harbour

Scenic fishing and leisure port

Located on the shores of Loch Fyne on the west coast of Scotland, Tarbert is a popular cruising destination and historic fishing port.

Tarbert (Loch Fyne) Harbour Authority is a Trust Port established by Act of Parliament in 1912.  It is an independent statutory body governed by its own legislation and guided by Government Code of Practice.

The fishing fleet and fuel dock are located on the south side of the Harbour, with the marina on the north side providing 200 finger berths, plus 600m of alongside pontoon and a few swinging moorings. With Glasgow and the Clyde within a day sail, on a busy holiday weekend, the marina attracts up to 100 visiting leisure boats.

COASTAL

LOCATION

1

SITE

200

BERTHS

6

USERS

WE LIKE BEST

Work from anywhere

Ease of use

Taking & tracking payments

Assign tasks to colleagues

Customer communications

WHY HARBOUR ASSIST

Like many smaller organisations, Tarbert Harbour had been managed successfully over decades using a paper-based system. While functional, the system was labour intensive, with weekly financial reconciliations taking two people a morning to complete. Without a central database, it was impossible to run an effective visitor operation and communicating with regular customers was time-consuming.

As part of a wider review into computing requirements and systems, the Tarbert team considered various management systems before selecting Harbour Assist. Nick and the team were proactive and keen to get us onboard with Harbour Assist explained Pauline Laycock, Office Manager at Tarbert Harbour.

“Harbour Assist does everything we need”

IMPLEMENTATION & SUPPORT

The transition from paper to Harbour Assist was smoother than the team anticipated. Training was delivered remotely via an online screen-share programme, plus all staff had access to a test system for the three months before the ‘go live’ date, providing ample opportunity to learn while refining internal processes.

All new team members are trained in-house. It’s a simple system,” said Pauline Laycock, and customer support is always available if we need a hand.”

11
WEEKS
Target Delivery Time
11
WEEKS
Actual Delivery Time

BENEFITS

Harbour Assist is used for invoicing, occupancy and berth allocation, customer communications and internal messaging. All assets are logged in the system, and asset management is the next phase of implementation.

Friday reconciliations are no more: A quick click and everything is in front of you,” said Pauline Laycock, The reporting feature enables us to do the housekeeping. The occupancy, visitor departure and overdue reports are so helpful.

The customer experience has been improved now that visitors don’t have to keep repeating their details. Once they’re in the system it’s ready for next time,” explained Pauline Laycock. Waiting times in the marina office have been significantly reduced with no queuing on busy weekends – something that will be doubly important due to coronavirus.

Tasks like tracking resident insurance documents, sending WiFi codes or sending operational update emails now take a matter of minutes. Sending emails is just so easy concluded Pauline.

“Customer service has definatley improved”

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