MDL Marinas Focuses on Improving Customer Experience with £5 Million Investment

Each year MDL Marinas invests millions of pounds to ensure that its 19 UK marinas and boatyards offer the best facilities, both on and off the water, for berth holders, visitors and tenants.

2021 has been no different, with £5m spent on infrastructural maintenance and development. This investment includes £1.2m on replacing and re-decking of pontoons, providing marina users with modern, stable and anti-slip access to their boats throughout the year.

All tides access to MDL’s marinas is guaranteed for another 12-months following over £750K of expenditure in dredging, with a further £500K devoted to refurbishing the onsite toilet and shower facilities, and £400K being allocated to new plant, including forklifts, hoists and boat movers. Everything spent is linked to providing a positive customer experience.

But MDL is aware that it’s people, and not pontoons, who are the key to offering a truly exceptional customer experience and the company goes to great lengths to choose the right people to join the team; talented individuals who share a passion for first-class customer service.   

MDL’s investment in people doesn’t stop, however, once someone comes onboard. It’s a continual process, across all levels of the business. This year, £119K has been spent on staff training, from safety training and plant specific training to First Aid at Work, Powerboat Level 2 and VHF courses, ensuring that each member of MDL’s team has the skills to provide a great service to berth holders as well as exemplary customer service.

And it doesn’t stop there. Always keen to support staff in their career choices, MDL offers bespoke leadership and management training courses, as well as globally recognised marina management qualifications for those wishing to progress within the company. Demonstrating the effectiveness of this investment, five out of the six new marina managers in the last year were from internal promotions.

“Our staff are our biggest asset,” says Kerry Marriott, head of operations at MDL. “It’s the team that makes a difference as to whether we just provide a service or we provide an exceptional service, offering an amazing experience for berth holders, visitors and tenants.”

In addition, MDL is investing £350K in IT systems, including upgrading the WiFi to Wi-Fi 6 across all its marinas, providing berth holders and visitors with a faster internet connection to their boats.

Developments to MDL’s website, and a new CRM system, mean berth holders can renew their berthing agreements online, making the process quicker and easier. Additional services, such as visitor berthing and boatyard services, can now also be requested online. To further improve the experience had at any of MDL’s marinas, changes have also been made to the systems and processes which allow MDL’s marina managers to manage the quality of the marinas and make visible improvements on an ongoing basis.

The new systems will increase efficiency and free up staff to be out and about in the marina, spending more time with customers, vastly improving the experience and enjoyment of a visit.

Kerry continues: “The investment in IT is not visible like the investment we’ve made elsewhere, for example, in the new green initiatives, such as solar panels, waste management and electric charging points, but it is laying a foundation for the marinas to thrive and become even more customer centric. Everything we do is focused on enhancing the experience of our marinas for all.”

To find out more about MDL, its marinas, facilities and services click here.