Sergio Susarrey
Fisherman in Sergio's Sportfishing Center
"I could tell the CaptainPanel guys knew their technology and knew their fishing immediately"
The business challenge
Sergio has an established business, but was at a crossroads regarding growth. Challenges he faced on a daily basis included not reaching his full target market (US), losing pen and paper customer bookings, and not being able to process all credit card payments.
Best year since establishment
Sergio Susarrey grew up a local passionate fisherman in Ensenada, Mexico. He turned this passion into the largest fishing operation in Ensenada. This year Sergio celebrated 20 years of operating Sergio’s Sportfishing, Ensenada’s largest fishing fleet, with unprecedented growth!
Sergio’s Sportfishing is an established business with over 30 boats, and charters other captain’s boats as well. Sergio was running his 30 boats plus chartering other boats using pen and paper, which was chaotic and limiting. After meeting and discussing fishing and his operations it was clear that Sergio has an established business, but was at a crossroads regarding growth. Sergio mentioned several of the challenges he faces on a daily basis including; Not reaching his full target market through his current website, losing customer info from pen and paper bookings, and not being able to process all credit card payments from the US.
CaptainPanel discussed bringing Sergio Sportfishing into the 21st century through a fishing specific platform. Sergio finally had an online calendar, online bookings, a payment gateway and a revamped website. No more missed bookings and payment, lost customer info, or not being able to accept credit card payments.
Captain Panel approached Sergio in the Fall of 2016. Our team discussed bringing Sergio Sportfishing into the 21st century through a fishing specific platform with an online calendar, online bookings, a payment gateway and a revamped website. At first Sergio was hesitant and did not want to risk his great business he has built over the past two decades. Upon reaching out to several partners in the U.S. Sergio was open to the idea of taking Ensenada’s best and largest fishing fleet to the next level!
“The numbers do not lie, and as the 2017 fishing season comes to an end, Sergio has run more trips and processed more payments by mid July then he has in any of the previous 20 years. As August came and went Sergio had to block all weekends as there were no available boats left to charter in the Ensenada Harbor.”
The numbers do not lie, and as the 2017 fishing season comes to an end, Sergio has run more trips and processed more bookings and payments by mid July then he has in any of the previous 20 years. As August came and went Sergio had to block all weekends as there were no available boats to charter in the Ensenada Harbor due to the number of online bookings.
Sergio has had time to reflect on the past year and in conversation with him, he has personally thanked our team for changing his business and taking it to a level he did not think was possible. The decision to implement CaptainPanel’s software has been life changing to Sergio, his family, and all of the captains that he employs. He was already the leader in the Ensenada fishing industry, and this past year has seen his 20+ year leading business grow more than double any of the previous years he operated.
It is fishermen like Sergio that made the CaptainPanel’s team get into the business. Our platform was built specifically for fishermen like Sergio who have a great business, but struggle with how to grow due to a lack of technology within the industry. We have built our software over the past few years with captains all around the world and are the only software specifically designed for the charter fishing industry.
