text: Smart Lists and Bulk Emails
  Getting your message out
  Communicating with different groups of customers is more important than ever. With increasing restrictions on work and non-essential travel, marinas and harbours need to send regular tailored messages to customers as the situation unfolds.
  Handling bulk communications has to be easy, so time can be spent on the message, not the process.
  Over the last seven days alone, Harbour Assist has handled 47,100 emails to boat owners, customers, tenants, and stakeholders.
  Cowes Harbour Commission has been busy communicating changes to customers in marinas, on moorings and in the boatyard. Deputy Harbour Master Ed Walker said: “The Smart List emailing functionality has been indispensable in the last week. We have emailed all the various criteria of customers using custom email templates to advise them of changes and it was easy”.
  We are all so bombarded with information and advice from every quarter that we are automatically filtering much out. If you want your customers to hear and act upon your message, then the most important thing is to get the right message to the right audience.
  No-one will take note of a generic email. You need to tailor the contents to the audience – for example, send one message to customers with boats ashore in the boatyard, one to customers with boats in the marina and another to customers who haven’t yet arrived.
  Selecting the audience
  Filter and select your audience using the Smart Lists function. Once the list is saved it will automatically update – handy for future communications.
  Once your list is complete, you can send a bulk email, one-off communication, SMS or letter. All communications are tracked and logged in the customer record.
  “The Smart List emailing functionality has been indispensable in the last week”
  You can check that customers have opened your email by clicking on the Comms tab in the customer record. The status button shows whether the email has been sent, opened or is still pending, and the blue history button drills down to show activity dates.
  Communications by SMS and letter are also displayed under the Comms tab in the customer record, with SMS also showing the sent status.
  How can we help your business?
  If you’d like to talk about how Harbour Assist can help your business to connect with your customers, email Nick direct [email protected]