Strong’s Marine—The Home of Super Service!
Marina of the Year 2002
By Diana Levey and Elizabeth Altick McCarthy

Last summer, Marina Dock Age staff members visited marinas throughout the United States that were vying for MDA’s prestigious Marina of the Year award. We received many impressive applications that demonstrated outstanding customer satisfaction, environmental awareness, training, and other best management practices. This year, as in previous years, our judges faced a painful decision. How do you choose just one marina?

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This year, MDA’s Marina of the Year is Strong’s Marine, “The Home of Super Service.” We were impressed by their superior attention to detail, commitment to high-quality customer service, employee training, and their care for the surrounding environment (habitat). Marinas large and small, urban and rural, can profit from learning about Strong’s internal CSI surveys, weekly meetings, and investment in their waterways.

This marina is also a dealership, making their locations essentially one-stop shopping/service/boating facilities, fulfilling what the Marina Operators Association of America and IMI have stated is a goal for the industry: to provide a seamless boating experience.

family business for three generations, Strong’s has served Eastern Long Island boaters since 1965. The family owns three marinas on the Peconic Bays, offering boaters easy access to the North and South Forks of Long Island. All the facilities offer water-skiing, fishing, cruising, and beaches. Fifteen acres of park-like settings include a playground, horseshoes, volleyball, showers, a pump-out station, and fuel. The 37 full-time employees offer Hi & Dry and in water dockage, winter service and storage, new and used boat sales, and boat rentals. As Steve Libretto, sales consultant. says, Strong’s offers “the entire package. You don’t have to go anywhere else.”

(Strong’s Hi & Dry Premium valet service includes, with an hour’s notice, having the canvas removed, engine warmed up and ready to go. Upon return, the staff hoses down the boat, puts the covers back on and fills it with fuel. They offer unlimited launching seven days a week.)

Strong’s has won sales, service, and customer satisfaction awards from Pursuit, Robalo, Formula, Mercury, Yamaha, and Volvo, and is the largest Pursuit dealer in the Northeast. Strong’s also sells new Pursuit, Formula, Robalo, Bryant, and Sea Hunt boats. A large indoor on-premises shop completed in 1999 enables Strong’s to provide year-round service including mechanical, refurbishing, fiberglass work, canvas, and vinyl restoration.

According to John Dellaria, sales manager, the “entire boating experience” includes “fitting the right person with the right boat and turning first-time boaters into life-time boaters.” Boaters don’t have to go elsewhere for anything from bottom washing, shrink wrapping, winterization, and engine tune-ups. What’s more, Strong’s “Total Prevention and Care Program” keeps customers boats running like new year after year. Their new boat package includes 10 hours of on-water lessons, culminating in a confident boater.

If a customer is unsure of the type of boat to buy, Strong’s also offers membership in their “Boat Club,” wherein they can try out a variety of models for 10 or 15 days.

Environmental responsibility is a hallmark of Strong’s.

Service with a smile

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly judge Strong’s commitment to service by its spotless service center. Every tool is in its place and every drop of oil is wiped up immediately. “Our appearance to the customer is very important,” says Strong’s President Jeffery Strong.

This immaculate attention to detail extends to customer service, what Jeff refers to as “the distinguishing characteristic of the marina.”

No detail too small
Jeff remembers his parents as being very progressive when he was a child. They gave him a lot of responsibility, a lot of room to grow, as he remembers it. At 16, Jeff got out of high school early every day as part of a work/study program. He ran an 800-square-foot store as part of his parents’ marine operation. One wall was covered in high-performance water skis, the other wall with custom sailboat rigging equipment. “They were two completely different kinds of items,” admits Jeff, “but they had one very important thing in common—they both required a high level of service.” He explains that they would offer custom fitting for the water skis, and custom installation of the sail boat riggings. A very valuable lesson was learned: “Anybody could sell supplies, but not just anybody could offer the kind of service that people truly appreciate.”

Every aspect of Strong’s is well-maintained and clean.
Hi & Dry Premium Valet Service is a luxury enjoyed by boaters.

Whether honing his sales skills or spending time in the fiberglass shop, Jeff says he was taught to always put his best foot forward—no matter how big or small the task. Now, his attention to detail spans every aspect of the marina facilities. “When you put your quarters in the soda machine, you’re going to get your soda. When you get here at 5:00 a.m., you have access to bait and ice. When you go to use the pump-out, it’s going to work.” According to Jeff, every detail counts and no detail is too small.

Reflecting that philosophy is the company slogan: “The Home of Super Service.” Strong admits that it takes a lot of courage to say that. “It sets us up,” he says. “We are The Home of Super Service. But when, on occasion, we fall short, we need to address that quickly and completely.”

Jeff says he takes seriously the need to address problems as they occur— and that includes dealing immediately and honestly with customers who feel their service had been anything other than super. “I honestly think that people want desperately for people to tell them the truth. Even when—no, especially when—it’s bad news.” He advocates being straightforward: “If you can’t have the boat ready tomorrow, tell the customer that you can’t have it ready. And then tell them why. And ask them what you can do to make it up.”

Strong’s service motto
is spelled out in its “Pledge of Super Service.”

• “When your total preventive maintenance is done by us, we guarantee: If you need service during the season, your boat will be repaired within five days, regardless of the problem. If for some reason this is not possible, we lend you a boat that fits your needs—free of charge!
• “We service all of Long Island—service calls or pick up, if needed, are free of charge!
• “Our staff is also dedicated to helping you keep your boat looking in tip-top shape. We can help in spring cleaning, simonizing, waxing, and painting.
• “Though you are welcome work you on your own boat, we are always here to help.”

Loud and clear
So much of what makes Strong’s Marine a success is the concerted effort to keep communication lines open—employee to employee, employee to customer, and customer to employee. Employee communication begins with weekly leadership meetings for top management and weekly managerial meetings as well. With three locations and so many different profit centers in each one, Jeff stresses the importance of good communication.

To ensure that customers, too, are kept in the know, Strong’s Marine hosts a comprehensive web site (www. strongsmarine.com) complete with a calendar of events, service and maintenance reminders, and information about new, used, and select pre-owned boats. Lists of services, maps, and directions are posted for prospects just learning about the marina’s many offerings.

But one-way communication is not enough for Jeff, who understands the need to know if customers are as satisfied as they seem. How, then, do you keep your finger on the pulse of your customer base? Jeff’s answer: “Surveying, surveying, and more surveying.” Every customer contact, from the marina, to sales, service, ship’s store, and boat rentals is documented. Then the managerial staff meets once a week to discuss successes and shortcomings. If there’s any dissatisfaction detected, it is rectified immediately.

The marina manages four kinds of customer surveys: an annual survey mailed to in-water dockage customers, specific to their needs; another annual survey mailed to Hi & Dry customers, specific to their needs; one that is a follow-up to every new, used or brokerage boat sale; and one that is a follow-up to all maintenance and repair operations.

Jeff says they make it easy for customers to complete their surveys—return envelopes are provided, and brevity is a given. “We even offer a little incentive like a T-shirt as a thank you.” The result is more than 400 returned surveys a year that are rated and scored by a “marketing and measurements” specialist.

“ The information we get from our surveying is priceless,” says Jeff. “For instance, the service survey gives us great information about every service experience.” As an example, he explains that surveys for service performed on Monday through Saturday may be great, but for customers who received service on a Sunday the results may fall short. That would be valuable information We can use to fix a problem We wouldn’t otherwise have known existed, he says.

“ Real business decisions are based on these answers,” says Jeff. Quarterly performance bonuses for managers are based on these answers as well. He describes the surveying process as A continual learning process—resulting in better service, happier customers.

Save the Bays
Strong’s facilities are situated on a highly sensitive marine environment, Long Island’s Peconic Bays. The estuary has suffered from pollution, erosion, brown algae blooms, and species endangerment.

A healthy respect for the environment, too, came from the Strong’s family ties. Specifically, that respect was borne out of time spent clamming and scalloping in the area with his father. “By doing that, you get a real perspective, a high-level of respect for the environment and an understanding of the importance of protecting it.” Jeff understands that as a marina operator, he’s in a position to make a difference. He says he also understands that if protecting the Long Island waters is a low priority, then it’s hard to justify the expense and programs necessary. But if it’s a high priority, he says, then it’s easy to justify.

Strong’s has been especially proactive with ecological concerns, earning the Save the Peconic Bays Award. This award recognizes Strong’s environmentally responsible building programs, its cleanliness, recycling programs, and natural landscaping to maximize shoreline habitat. In 1995, Strong’s dredged the marina and installed the first environmentally living bulkhead on the south side, and widened the basin by 20 feet.

The environmentally living bulkhead was designed with the assistance of an engineer and Cornell Marine Extension Director Chris Smith and his staff. Three-hundred-thirty feet of cement bulkhead was installed with the top of it at the low tide mark. Then, recycled plastic boards were used to make a matrix to support growth up to the gravel parking lot. Native grasses, floral planting, and wetland grasses were then planted. In the end, more than 4,000 square feet of active and vibrant wetland area was created. This has resulted in a beautiful, environmentally productive area and customers can now dock their boats much more easily as a result of the wider basin.

Happy and loyal staff
Strong’s is acutely aware that their customers have a wide range of choices when it comes to recreation, and so is vigilant that the boating experience they offer is superior to any other activity. Strong’s looks to the tourism, hospitality, resort, and entertainment industries—such as the Disney properties—to compare what they offer and make improvements in terms of how they treat customers and deliver the overall boating experience.

The key to their spectacular service is training, and Strong’s invests about $50,000 in training each year to deliver “total customer satisfaction in the perfect boat,” as Jeff sees it. They concentrate on employee teamwork and “vibrancy,” which keeps foremost the idea that customer satisfaction translates directly to profitability.

And to keep the employees happy and productive, Strong’s offers, training tailored to each team member’s needs, competitive wages, complete benefits, a matching 401K plan, a share in the profitability, and consistent input and status of projects. The outcome: high employee morale and retention.

Marinas hop year ‘round
The marina keeps its employees hopping. The marinas are visible and active year round thanks to constant special events and courses. In February, there’s a boating seminar in the Southhampton Showroom; in March there’s an in-water fishing boat show at the Mattituck marina; in April, Strong’s hosts a Safe Boating Clinic for Women; and throughout the year there are used-boat bonanzas, rendezvous,and classes on how to navigate the Shinnecock Locks, and tidal currents. In addition, there’s a Sag Harbor Dinner Cruise, annual seafood bake, learn to ski day, overnight cruises, and fishing trips for underprivileged kids. Clearly, once Strong’s reels in a customer, they keep them entertained.

The Strong family has always been active with industry organizations, being long-time members of MOAA, MRAA, the Association of Marine Industries (Eastern Long Island), and the New York Marine Trade Association (Western Long Island.). They also are very active with the local Chamber of Commerce.

A world-class model
From our first favorable impressions of Strong’s to Marina of the Year 2002, the more we learned about Strong’s the more impressed we became. Jeff and his staff strive toward excellence in customer service, employee training, and researching and responding to customer needs.