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Dear Old Hoseasons


Broads01

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2 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Dear old Hoseasons, I do wonder if they ever look at their own website. I'm trying to work out where the sundeck is on Silverline's cruiser...

https://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/silverline-marine-silv/silver-sapphire-bh2706?start=27-08-2022&adult=2&nights=7&range=3&sortorder=12

Obviously attended the EDP school of proof reading and editing 

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Hoseasons seem to have adopted a routine of advertising new boats before they receive the images from the boat's owners. I've seen it numerous times this year. I can't see how it's helpful, as anyone who goes on to book any of these holidays, will have to be contacted to tell them the boat does not match the one advertised. It makes more sense to have blank placeholder images until they arrive, which is common practice.

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It would be so much simpler to place the boat on the mark and instead of any old image, which this clearly is. Do what they use to and just say awaiting images. As David has said the wrong images have been used for just about all the new boats so far this year. Pretty poor really..

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I wonder how the process works with Hoseasons. Surely Silverline or the yard in question provides them with the basic details and plan. It can't be that difficult and I am certainly not blaming the yard. I haven't gone into detail here however pressumably this is a sister boat to Solitaire so a picture of Solitaire and awaiting plan or plan subject to modification as they used to state is all that is needed after all who in the name of sanity manages to find a picture of a large narrowboat when there is an excellent photo of Solitaire on the database? Presumably Silverline would have a few choice words

Neil

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There was a mould for an Alpha 35 like Solitaire outside their shed for a while, which I’d have an educated guess is what this actually turns out to be.  I guess that Covid delayed the build and with demand still high for staycations this year, some additional effort had been afforded the build to try to complete it and get some revenue before the season ends.

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14 hours ago, ChrisB said:

The lyric "Drop us a line" got me thinking. In 1970 only 35% of households had a telephone. It was very different by the end of the decade 75% ish.

A very valid reminder.

Businesses were not run by computers then, either. You could actually deal with human beings.

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8 hours ago, DAVIDH said:

It's not available to hire until April 2022, but so many people are already booking for 2022, so you can see the haste to get it on sale.

I'd agree with that, our 1st and 2nd choices for 22 were already booked when we looked a couple of weeks ago. It's looking like next year maybe another bumper season as uncertainty over covid continues.

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3 hours ago, Vaughan said:

A very valid reminder.

Businesses were not run by computers then, either. You could actually deal with human beings.

Hi Vaughan, I seem to remember a post of yours,can't remember which thread it was on. Explaining how the girls in blakes booking office use to work off a big board whilst taking booking over the phone. How things have change and not always for the better. I guess it's the main reason I like to deal with the smaller yards, that said I really do believe even some of the smaller yards could learn a thing or two from Richardson's on customer service. That hasn't happened over night and I guess a huge amount of effort training and money has been invested into their teams over the years to achieve it. 

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58 minutes ago, andyg said:

Explaining how the girls in blakes booking office use to work off a big board whilst taking booking over the phone.

If you drive over Wroxham bridge towards Stalham, after you have gone over the twin roundabouts on the Horning junction, there is a big house on the left called "Crossways".  This used to be Blakes' head office after it was moved from 47 Albermarle St. in London, in the late 60s.  As you look up the drive you can see an extension to the main building, where the brochures were distributed and most of the rest of the lower floor was the booking hall.  It was laid out in an L shape with both sides of the L around 40 to 50 feet long.  On both sides of each L were the booking charts, with a bench underneath at standing height, for paperwork and mounted with a row of telephone jack plugs, about 5 feet apart. 

The charts were laid out according to region (Broads, Thames, Canals, France, etc.,) and size of boat (2,4,6,or 8 berth). When the phone rang, any girl who was not busy could answer it, ask a few preliminary questions and then walk over to  the right place on the charts, where she could plug her headset into a jack plug and deal with the booking request.  If a reservation was made, a diagonal mark was made in pencil on the chart, meaning a provisional booking.  This had to be followed up by the customer within 72 hours by paying a deposit.  The chart then got a second diagonal line to make a cross and this was a "confirmed" booking.  Meantime the slips filled in by each girl were passed to the office where the paperwork was typed up and posted to the customer.

This was better than a modern computer as each girl had an immediate overview of the whole situation.  So if there were no 4 berth boats left free in Brundall, she could immediately look across and find something else - maybe a 5 berth in Wroxham.  You didn't have to "page through" a large number of little screens as you have to nowadays.

The booking hall was supervised by Cilla and Hazel, who took alternate shifts and strode the central aisle of the hall much like a matron in a hospital!  Their knowledge of the Blakes fleet of over 2000 boats was total, and they were well known personally by all the member yards.  The marketing manager had to decide the number of staff required, so there were a lot more called in if there had been an advert in the national press, or in the weeks during and after the London Boat Show.  The hall usually closed around 10PM, when the Company secretary, Harold Rouse, came down with a (then very modern) Polaroid camera and took a series of flash photos of all of the charts.  These he deposited in the night safe at Barclays in Hoveton, on his way home.  So if the building had caught fire overnight there would still be a record of all the bookings, right up to date.

I was on the board of Blakes in the late 70s when the decision was made to try to put all this on computers. It was a huge and controversial decision at that time and actually took 2 years to fully implement, starting with the entry of customer details and the automatic printing of booking forms.

Right up until my retirement, in whatever hire fleet I have been running, I have always kept a paper booking chart on the wall.  It has always been the most reliable method and you can use it for so much other information about the fleet.  An O on the chart means the boat is due an oil change that week.  OF means oil and filter. FF is fuel filter.  C is confirmed booking.  OB is owner's direct booking (with less commission to agent).  R is regular customer.  Usually the regulars have their name on the chart as well.  A good friend on another yard used to add a W after some of these regulars' names.  We all guessed what that mean't but he never admitted it!

 

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I’m still very much a fan of pen and paper , for my businesses I have always used bought and sold ledger books as opposed to computer accounting , I strongly hold the belief that if you write something down you absorb it far more than you would by pressing a keyboard.

The use of computers for everything seems to have virtually killed off the ability to perform mental arithmetics amongst the millenium generation .

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2 hours ago, Vaughan said:

If you drive over Wroxham bridge towards Stalham, after you have gone over the twin roundabouts on the Horning junction, there is a big house on the left called "Crossways".  This used to be Blakes' head office after it was moved from 47 Albermarle St. in London, in the late 60s.  As you look up the drive you can see an extension to the main building, where the brochures were distributed and most of the rest of the lower floor was the booking hall.  It was laid out in an L shape with both sides of the L around 40 to 50 feet long.  On both sides of each L were the booking charts, with a bench underneath at standing height, for paperwork and mounted with a row of telephone jack plugs, about 5 feet apart. 

The charts were laid out according to region (Broads, Thames, Canals, France, etc.,) and size of boat (2,4,6,or 8 berth). When the phone rang, any girl who was not busy could answer it, ask a few preliminary questions and then walk over to  the right place on the charts, where she could plug her headset into a jack plug and deal with the booking request.  If a reservation was made, a diagonal mark was made in pencil on the chart, meaning a provisional booking.  This had to be followed up by the customer within 72 hours by paying a deposit.  The chart then got a second diagonal line to make a cross and this was a "confirmed" booking.  Meantime the slips filled in by each girl were passed to the office where the paperwork was typed up and posted to the customer.

This was better than a modern computer as each girl had an immediate overview of the whole situation.  So if there were no 4 berth boats left free in Brundall, she could immediately look across and find something else - maybe a 5 berth in Wroxham.  You didn't have to "page through" a large number of little screens as you have to nowadays.

The booking hall was supervised by Cilla and Hazel, who took alternate shifts and strode the central aisle of the hall much like a matron in a hospital!  Their knowledge of the Blakes fleet of over 2000 boats was total, and they were well known personally by all the member yards.  The marketing manager had to decide the number of staff required, so there were a lot more called in if there had been an advert in the national press, or in the weeks during and after the London Boat Show.  The hall usually closed around 10PM, when the Company secretary, Harold Rouse, came down with a (then very modern) Polaroid camera and took a series of flash photos of all of the charts.  These he deposited in the night safe at Barclays in Hoveton, on his way home.  So if the building had caught fire overnight there would still be a record of all the bookings, right up to date.

I was on the board of Blakes in the late 70s when the decision was made to try to put all this on computers. It was a huge and controversial decision at that time and actually took 2 years to fully implement, starting with the entry of customer details and the automatic printing of booking forms.

Right up until my retirement, in whatever hire fleet I have been running, I have always kept a paper booking chart on the wall.  It has always been the most reliable method and you can use it for so much other information about the fleet.  An O on the chart means the boat is due an oil change that week.  OF means oil and filter. FF is fuel filter.  C is confirmed booking.  OB is owner's direct booking (with less commission to agent).  R is regular customer.  Usually the regulars have their name on the chart as well.  A good friend on another yard used to add a W after some of these regulars' names.  We all guessed what that mean't but he never admitted it!

 

Thanks for that Vaughan very informative as ever. I vaguely remember Blake office in Wroxham. Most small yards still use the charts you talk of, pinned on there reception office walls. Sue at summercraft kept hers under her desk, when returning on a Saturday morning if you wanted to book again she'd get her chart out and call hoseasons. It was always free fuel for returning customers and she made a point of telling the person on the other end of the phone. Not a computer insight. 

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24 minutes ago, andyg said:

 . . . . . .  It was always free fuel for returning customers and she made a point of telling the person on the other end of the phone. . . . . . . . . . . 

Or it was until VAT became payable on red diesel.  After that, she didn’t charge damage waiver, for undercover parking or for pets for returning customers.  

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