I just want to start by saying, I opened my first Dive Center in 2017, and never once have I entered a customers Fax number or Pager number....
As a proprietor of not one, but two dive centers, I've encountered a shocking revelation: the staggering dissimilarities between each establishment's operations. It's astonishing how challenging it is to replicate the seamless systems of my original site elsewhere. The variance in customer profiles, behaviors, and spending habits caught me off guard. Despite my "DiveShop" management software performing "good Enough" at the first location, its shortcomings became glaringly apparent when attempting to scale up. Frustrated by this, I resolved to develop an application that would comprehensively manage every aspect of our daily operations, offering streamlined collaboration and targeted customer engagement strategies.
After investing a grueling 24 months in development, we emerged with a system that finally empowered me to effectively oversee my business. From class creation to point-of-sale transactions, website maintenance, social event coordination, and lead generation, our platform automates it all. We've streamlined communication channels, reaching potential customers via SMS, email, or any preferred mode of contact.
While early adopters marveled at our advancements, internally, we knew we were lightyears ahead of industry competitors. We integrated platforms like Square for POS, Mailchimp for marketing, and Wix for website management, consolidating data for comprehensive reporting and resource optimization. The beauty lies in our independence; should I opt to switch to Clover or Lightspeed, or migrate from Mailchimp to Constant Contact, it's merely a matter of a few clicks.
Simultaneously, I grew increasingly disillusioned with agencies hoarding invaluable customer metrics, reluctant or incompetent in sharing them. It's utterly absurd—a prospective customer, just a stone's throw away from our dive center, is bombarded with marketing gimmicks to trek back to some exotic locale for certification, completely disregarding what truly serves their interests or supports the local dive center. Fed up, I devised a system to track leads generated by these agencies, revealing the disproportionate costs per acquisition. Shockingly, customers sourced through third-party channels not only spend significantly less initially but are also six times more likely to disengage post-Open Water certification compared to those who patronize our dive centers directly. The inconvenient truth is that agencies either overlook or withhold this critical data.
My frustration catalyzed action. Recognizing a glaring gap in the market, I resolved that it's not just about having a novel product; it's about demanding change. The dive industry deserves this transformative solution, one that empowers businesses to save costs, boost revenue, and regain control.
The decision was made on February 20th, 2024, following a grueling four-hour webinar on the future of dive technology. We committed to pre-launch procedures, targeting our first beta customers in Q4 2024, with a full feature customer launch slated for September 11th, 2025.