Guides at the terminal before the ship docks
Marta runs the guide teams of a big tour company in Barcelona. Cruise passengers are a third of her business.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
Ships come in early, late, or not at all, and the port’s list changes overnight. Marta keeps forty guides on call just in case. Some mornings, half of them wait at the terminal for nothing. Other mornings, a ship arrives early and nobody is there.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Marta built Harbor. Harbor is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.
Every half hour from four in the morning,
Every 30 min, 4 to 9 am (Schedule)
over the sea off Barcelona,
The sea off Barcelona (Area of interest)
Harbor listens for the passenger ships,
Passenger ships (Ships (AIS))
keeps the ones heading for Barcelona,
Heading for Barcelona (Filter)
skips the ones already counted,
Not seen this week (Only new)
works out the guides from each ship’s size,
Guides needed (Calculated field)
and calls the guides in on WhatsApp.
Call the guides in (WhatsApp Business)
What it solves
- The ship list changes: solved by Ships (AIS) and Filter
- Guides wait for nothing: solved by Calculated field
- Nobody at the terminal: solved by Schedule and WhatsApp Business
The result
At five this morning, Harbor hears a three hundred metre ship coming in an hour early, off Sitges. Twelve guides are told before six and meet it at the terminal. On quiet days, the rest stay home.
Marta stopped guessing which ships would come. Now she watches them arrive.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
The sea off Barcelona
Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- 3
Passenger ships
Ships at sea or in port right now, from AIS (the signal ships send with their position, speed and heading; live from AISStream): every vessel heard in the Area of interest before this block, or around a point.
- 4
- 5
Not seen this week
Lets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.
- 6
- 7
Call the guides in
WhatsApp Business · WhatsApp
Send text, media and template messages from your WhatsApp Business number.
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- Independent gyms for my membership softwareIndependent gyms graded as software customers, to the sales team.
- New openings to the field rep on WhatsAppNew restaurants and cafes graded by Jev and sent to your rep on WhatsApp every morning.
- New outlets to CRMNew restaurants and cafes as leads in your CRM every morning, with a brief for the reps.
- New garages and tyre shops on my van routesNew garages and tyre shops sorted by what they do, scored and sent to the right van route.
- New outlets, graded and routed to each repNew outlets graded, researched and routed to the nearest rep, with what to pitch at each.
- Cruise ships arriving at the portAn alert, with WhatsApp to the guides, when a cruise ship enters the port.
Industries
Learn how it works
- GeofencingA virtual boundary that triggers something when an item enters or leaves it.
- AIS (ship tracking)Radio messages ships send with their identity, position and course.
- How to be alerted when ships enter a port areaA zone, a live AIS stream and an alert.
- Zone alerts: know when something enters an areaShips, vehicles or any moving item crossing your zone.
- Ships (AIS)Ships in a sea area, their type, speed and destination.
- Get messages on WhatsAppAdd your number once; your AI employees write to you from xMap’s WhatsApp, nothing to connect.
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Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.