The Yacht Concierge launches at London Boat Show

On the 6th January 2012, at the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show (read more about the London Boat Show here), The Yacht Concierge was launched.

The Yacht Concierge, based in Mayfair, London, is a concierge service that caters for smaller yachts of 15m up to superyachts of 40m in size. The company promises its new and unique service will save its customers both time and money. SuperyachtNews.com spoke to Michael Newton-Woof, Managing Director of The Yacht Concierge, to get more information.

With the same functionality as a conventional concierge service, The Yacht Concierge promises to take care of your yacht, and anything connected to it, whether you’re onboard or not - one advantage of the service that the company highlights is its use when a yacht’s owner or crew is onboard in unfamiliar waters.

The services offered by The Yacht Concierge are many, and the afloat spectrum ranges from marina services and yacht maintenance to brokerage and charter, and legal services. Onshore services include housekeeping, VIP entry to certain events, and private plane charter.

When asked how The Yacht Concierge differed to its competitors, Newton-Woof commented:” the company supporting the fulfilment service of The Yacht Concierge is a dedicated concierge company. The concierge service is run by a company that does this for a living.” He described the “unparalleled knowledge” of the company as a collective “knowledge bank.”

The concierge service supporting the company has already had major success. Its 140 staff deal with 90 companies, and over one million members. Newton-Woolf even mentioned a conversation between the concierge and a client, the CEO of a Japanese bank who, according to Newton-Woof, told the concierge, “your team know downtown Japan better than we do!”

The membership card will have a telephone number local to the country of its particular member, so although all calls are directed to the UK base, language barriers should not be problematic.

One particular aspect SuperyachtNews.com was told about was the chance for the membership fee to be offset by a possible rebate on yacht insurance. The preferred insurance provider of The Yacht Concierge, backed by the largest Marine Underwriter at Lloyds, offers prospective members low premiums with additional levels of cover (though obviously this is quote dependenant), and so, said Newton-Woof, prospective members will automatically choose to become a member of The Yacht Concierge to secure the saving of insurance costs, as well as the possibility of receiving free membership for utilising the programme: “Ultimately, a real no-brainer if there ever was one,” said Newton-Woof, who called the saving a “by-product of the customer’s intelligence.”

Newton-Woof acknowledged the growing trend of these types of concierge services in today’s superyacht industry: “We all know that retail and brokerage sales are tough at the moment, however, it is easier to retain a customer than find a new one, therefore if you can retain your client base, then you have the ability to succeed.” He said “in times of austerity, if you have an obvious way of saving money, it makes sense to become a member of The Yacht Concierge.”




Related Links

The Yacht Concierge Website

---

Click here to become part of The Superyacht Group community, and join us in our mission to make this industry accessible to all, and prosperous for the long-term. We are offering access to the superyacht industry’s most comprehensive and longstanding archive of business-critical information, as well as a comprehensive, real-time superyacht fleet database, for just £10 per month, because we are One Industry with One Mission. Sign up here.