Zoho Bigin offers calm waters at Island Sailing Club

Founded in 1979, Island sailing school and club has been training sailors for over 40 years.

But like many businesses over the past 18 months, the COVID pandemic has presented it with a truly unique challenge. And with the help of Zoho Bigin, Island Sailing has taken up this challenge.

Located on Tomahawk Island on the mighty Columbia River in Portland, Oregon, they are dedicated to creating an environment that strives to empower sailors to achieve their goals.

Once you have obtained your sailing certifications, you can become a member of Island Sailing. Members can then embark on adventures using Island Sailing’s vast fleet of sailboats.

What is Island Sailing doing?

Students who come to Island Sailing are trained and mentored by licensed Coast Guard captains. They learn to practice good seamanship and develop the skills necessary to enjoy sailing. Island Sailing is a certification center of the American Sailing Association.

What is the commercial niche?

Island Sailing’s customer niche is not limited to one age group.

The objective of the company is to empower and inspire the emerging or growing sailor to better achieve his navigation objectives. The customer can be anyone who agrees “it’s time to turn off the engine”.

By working and learning new skills together, students often become lifelong friends.

The courses include beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. There are also Cruise and Learn course adventures.

People can eventually become members of Island Sailing, after which they can use various boats, ranging from 20 to 30 feet in length, from the available fleet.

How did the business get started?

Island Sailing was founded by a group of people who met through their passion for sailing. They wanted to help others learn to sail or develop their skills.

Biggest victory

The biggest victory in helping others to enjoy sailing.

“Basically, we are sailors. We started where you are, following an intuitive desire to navigate. Over the decades our fun, adventurous and interactive community has built a place to hone their boating skills, create lasting friendships and most of all, share their passion for sailing, ”said Stephen Frankland, Island owner and operator. Sailing.

The biggest challenge

The business was going smoothly until – as it did with so many small businesses – the pandemic struck.

Before the pandemic, Island Sailing courses consisted of singles, couples and
family groups.

However, to stay in business during the pandemic, Island Sailing had to adhere to CDC guidelines, ensuring they provided a safe and sanitized environment for customers, but also had to start organizing students by household.

As Cassie Courtney, Marketing Director for Island Sailing said, “Usually our sailing lessons are co-ed, so we had to fine-tune our students and instructors to make sure the lessons were properly segmented. “

How has Zoho helped you?

Island Sailing needed a flexible system that would help them keep track of new and existing members and provide the functionality to adapt to the new way of organizing courses. They found what they needed with Zoho Bigin, a CRM solution for customer management.

“One of the biggest benefits of using Bigin for our business has been managing clients and incoming leads for our courses and membership in our sailing school. Because of COVID, we had to move from blended home classes to single home classes and match them with the available instructors. When some of the COVID restrictions were lifted here in Oregon, we used Bigin to help us track clients and potential students who provided proof of vaccination, ”Courtney said.

The adoption of Bigin has helped Island Sailing adjust to the “new normal” by developing a new strategy. Courtney said: “We have created a policy around clients and prospects providing proof of vaccination so that they can come into the facility and enjoy their classes and roam freely without wearing a mask, and Bigin has allowed us to track and schedule all of this. “

Courtney went on to say that the new policy improved communication and helped keep the entire Island Sailing crew agile. “In addition, when we note in Bigin a member or an incoming student who has been vaccinated, all of our staff receive alerts. It also integrates with our Google Calendar, so we keep track of all of our client-related interactions and management, and we can schedule larger co-ed home classes based on the information we have about students and members. vaccinated. Bigin is the ideal solution for the club.

Future plans

Much like a Swiss Army Knife, a good CRM offers a lot of functionality in one tool, and Island Sailing can’t wait to get to grips with their new multi-tool, Bigin.

“There’s a lot of power in this tool and I love pushing systems so I’m sure there are better integrations and features that we could take advantage of that we aren’t yet,” Courtney said.

Thanks to Bigin and the tenacity of the Island Sailing crew, a calm sea looms on the horizon.