When it comes to enjoying those precious moments on board, it is often quipped that between an engine room fire and the communications or AV systems going down, it is the latter two that will ruin the cruise for owners and their guests. It is perhaps with this in mind that satellite communications provider MTN is launching 24-hour VVIP customer care specifically for its yacht clients – making MTN the first VSAT provider in the yachting industry to have dedicated VVIP support centres.

The dedicated teams – based in two Yacht Specialist Support Centres, one in Europe and one in the US – will provide advanced technical support and customer service for all yacht products. The advantage, says MTN, of having centres on both sides of the Atlantic is that it will mean the company can provide round-the-clock support and customer care for clients, ‘delivering fast reaction times for technical troubleshooting with a “white glove” service approach befitting the yachting market’. The centres will come online offering support 24/7 from 1 July 2017.

Tailored exclusively to yachts, the centres will be staffed by specialists who will be able to identify immediately the customer calling including details about their account, their exact location, and the products and configurations they have on board.

“This is a major advancement for MTN and the Global Eagle brand, building on our already strong market position and industry leading customer support,” comments senior vice president maritime Ole-Kristian Sivertsen. “We have been in constant motion to enhance, support and serve yacht clients all over the world. I am very excited about our ability to offer premium 24/7 support for any customer, anywhere.”

In addition, MTN has been busy building its teams of experts in a variety of fields, from sales executives and account managers to technical support specialists and field engineers to offer sector-specific skills and knowledge to a highly demanding market. MTN – part of the Global Eagle group – has also opened new offices in yachting hubs such as Antibes which has the additional benefit of bringing their yacht field service engineers closer to customers.

 It will be interesting to see how the new dedicated support services work in practice, and whether other satcomms service providers will follow suit in the near future. At least it may help quickly resolve unwanted communications issues when owners and guests are on board – although the specialist teams probably can’t do anything to help with the engine room fire…

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MTN Communications (MTN)

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