You’ve heard us talk about how Online Payments can help you run your business a lot more smoothly. But who knew that receiving payments online can buy you time for a quick bite and some well-deserved rest on a busy day? You can also keep on top of your finances more easily, and avoid last-minute customer cancellations.
But don’t just take our word for it. Three of our top-performing captains, Terry, Rodney, and Mike, shared how using Online Payments lets them focus on doing what they love the most – providing excellent fishing trips. Let’s see what they had to say…
Focus on fishing and stop worrying about getting paid
For Captain Terry Payne of OBX Inshore Fishing, customer service has always been at the heart of how he runs his business. He grew up fishing both commercially and as a sport, and has been exploring the Outer Banks area for over 35 years. He runs trips out of Tyner and Manteo using his one boat, switching locations depending on the time of year and where the bite is best.
“You have to understand, Terry’s model is that he looks at everybody as his best friend!” says his wife, who helps him run the financial side of OBX Inshore Fishing. This customer-focused approach is something that is reflected in Capt. Terry’s reviews, where guests continuously praise his amazing attitude.
Capt. Terry wants customers to feel like old fishing pals, which is why he “[doesn’t] ask for money up-front. There’s been a few times now that customers paid me a tip and I figured they paid online. So I get home and I have to get my wife to call ’em.
I know I’m gonna get my money because of FishingBooker, but at the same time, I hate to ask somebody, ‘Hey, did you pay today?’ It’s just uncomfortable.”
So how do Online Payments help Capt. Terry when it comes to avoiding these uncomfortable situations and providing excellent customer service? For his wife, it’s simple: “It saves a lot of time and stress being able to take [payments] online.
You open yourself up to a broader horizons there. [For Terry] it removes any kind of tension for the trip. If customers have paid online, he doesn’t have to worry about anything but doing what he does best – fishing.”
The same goes for Captain Rodney of Oilfield Outkasts. Based out of Freeport, TX, he runs a charter operation that boasts a total of six boats, with a host of other captains, deck hands, and crew members working for him. Not only does using Online Payments allow captains to relax and focus on fishing, he says, but it can give the customer a better peace of mind, too.
“There’s a lot of charter companies that have other fees or sometimes charge for fuel,” he says. “[Customers] know that if they pay [for the trip] in full, there’s not gonna be any extra charges. That’s comforting to them and us!
They’re already set to go whenever we’re done. It makes it a better experience for them and I’m always happy whenever things are easier for them. ”
Customers are more committed to trips
For Captain Mike Salley of Sure Shot Fishing Charters, using Online Payments gives him the peace of mind that a trip will go ahead when it’s supposed to. Becoming a charter operator in Orange Beach was always his dream. With two boats to run, he works hard to make sure his business is in tip-top shape.
Online Payments have an impact on this, he says, because “they definitely commit a customer to being there. I’ve had a couple [of customers] that had to cancel and it was inside my cancellation policy. I got paid for the whole trip without even going anywhere. That’s as strong as it gets to me, you know?”
Capt. Rodney agrees. With Online Payments, he says, “[customers] can’t walk without paying. It’s nothing for somebody to pay a deposit and then forget to pay the balance at the dock because they’re tired and they’re busy packing fish and things like that. So it really eliminates that standpoint.”
“I don’t have to worry about asking them to come sit down with me so that we can pay for the rest of their trip, cause it’s already done. They don’t have to worry about walking out and forgetting to pay for their trip. And honestly, if there’s anybody out there that’s dishonest, it’s too late. They’ve already paid.”
It’s a big time saver
Time really is precious when it comes to running a charter business. Whether you’re taking customers out for a full day of offshore fishing or running shorter trips back to back, every minute counts. Just ask Capt. Rodney. During the summer months, all six of his boats are usually fully booked, with trips ranging anywhere from five hours to eight hours.
“An 8-hour charter is a 12-hour day for a captain or deckhand,” he tells us. “We also do a morning 5 hour [trip] and an afternoon 5 hour [trip], which we call running a double. If [a captain] runs a double, then it’s 10 hours. There’s an hour in between the two [trips].
You still gotta get there a couple of hours early to get the boat ready and then you have a couple hours afterwards. So that’s a 16 hour day, usually. At the end of an eight hour day, wherever I’ve been in the heat, climbing in and out of the boat at the dock is actually a lot of work!”
“My back’s hurting, my legs are hurting, my feet are hurting, and usually I’m either wind burnt or have a little bit of sunburn going on and a little bit of dehydration too. And I’m just tired.
Taking a credit card payment at the dock is probably for us a minimum of 10 minutes. So you add that up over even just 200 trips, [and] that’s a lot of time in a year that you spent getting the boat back to the dock and getting it clean where you would have still been standing at the dock.”
“I have several captains that work for me,” Capt. Rodney continues, “and whenever the payment’s gonna be paid in full through FishingBooker, they also don’t have to worry about chasing down the customer to get the remaining balance.
Capt. Terry feels the same: “If I gotta deal with [dock] payments], that’s another 10, 15 minutes that’ll be eaten up. You know, I like to sit in my truck for a minute and just relax and eat my lunch but instead that time is getting chewed up in payments. If they pay online, I don’t have to stress about that.”
Keep on top of your finances and prepare for the future
Both Capt. Terry and Capt. Rodney have the support of their wives when it comes to running their businesses. While they’re taking customers out on the water, their wives are often running the show behind the scenes, taking payments and keeping track of their finances.
Knowing if a customer has paid using Online Payments is simple, Capt. Terry says. “My wife always tells me in the morning if it’s been paid or I need to collect, so I know which one to ask!”
For Capt. Rodney, “[Online Payments] helps [us] to see how we’re trending for the year. I can strategize where we’re at and what things are looking like. When it comes to paying captains, we have a way of doing that that I think is pretty streamlined. But it definitely has not created any more headaches for us by any means.
That’s the main thing, if you ask me! Sometimes being able to just not have extra work is better than having something that has all these bells and whistles.”
When a customer pays using Online Payments, it can usually take a couple of days to hit a captain’s account, but our captains have found that this doesn’t impact the way they run their businesses.
“We’ve always been paid within a couple of days, and that’s more than fine because, even if we process the credit card ourselves, it’s gonna be a couple of days before [it hits] the account,” Capt. Rodney says. “So it’s really not an issue.”
Capt. Mike uses the “Square system [for dock credit card payments] and that goes into the bank the next day. When it’s an Online Payment, I’ll check my emails and it goes into my bank account usually that night, while I’m asleep.”
For Capt. Terry and his wife, “waiting is not even an issue. It might take a day or two to get there, but it’s coming. Even when we use our Square system for credit card payments, it incurs a certain percentage.
So it just makes sense to use FishingBooker, because what it all comes back to is, as long as FishingBooker is successful, you’re gonna be successful.”
Online payments are worry-free payments
Captains Terry, Rodney, and Mike are successful charter operators for plenty of reasons, but one that stands out is their attentiveness towards their customers. “If a captain comes up to me and says, ‘Man, I have to fish tomorrow,’” Rodney tells us, “I say ‘No. You get to fish tomorrow.’ Because think of all the other things you could be doing.”
All three captains currently accept both Online Payments and standard deposit payments for the trips they run. However, from Capt. Terry’s perspective, he wishes all customers would pay using Online Payments. “It’s just one less thing I gotta worry about today.
On top of everything else, this is one less thing I gotta take care of.” Capt. Mike agrees. “I’ve never had a single problem with [Online Payments],” he says. “Honestly, I don’t even worry about it.”
Having less to worry about seems to be the biggest bonus for all the captains we spoke to. In fact, Capt. Rodney even thinks it should be included in the name! “[Online Payments] should be called ‘worry-free payments’,” he says. “That’s what I call them. If my captains go, ‘Hey, are they already paid?’ I say, ‘Yep, they’re worry free, so go ahead.’”
Do you use Online Payments? Do you prefer it to other types of payments? Let us know your thoughts below – we love hearing from you! And if you want to activate Online Payments on your account with us, you can check out more information here.
