Next Wave Watersports is Chicago's leading Jet Ski rental company, putting riders out on Lake Michigan with a fleet of more than 20 Jet Skis. On the water, speed is everything, and the same is true on shore. A busy rental dock lives or dies by how fast it can move guests from booking to the water, and how well it keeps up with the calls and texts in between.
- Business
- Next Wave Watersports
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Type
- Jet Ski rentals
- Fleet
- 20+ Jet Skis
- Using
- Digital waivers & guest check-in, AI phone routing (Retell AI + Resytech MCP), SMS chat, custom workflow automation
The challenge
On a peak summer day, a Jet Ski dock is controlled chaos. Every rider needs a signed waiver. Every group needs checking in. The main phone line rings nonstop, often with people who already booked and just have a quick question. And texts to the support line pile up faster than the front desk can clear them. Next Wave needed to handle all of it without throwing more staff at the problem.
Waivers signed on arrival, everyone at once
Next Wave's insurance requires every rider to sign their waiver in person, which used to mean grinding through a group one person at a time while everyone else stood around waiting. Now, the moment a group arrives, Resytech texts each guest a link to their own individual waiver, and they all sign right on their own phones at the same time. Each booking shows its full guest list and exactly who has signed, so staff can see at a glance when a group is cleared for the water. A check-in that used to drag now takes a few minutes.
Calls that route themselves
To take the pressure off the phones, Resytech sits in front of Next Wave's main line. When a call comes in, Resytech looks up the caller's number for an upcoming reservation. If they have one, the call is handed to a Retell AI voice agent connected to Resytech through MCP. It answers common reservation questions on the spot and transfers to a human whenever the caller needs one. If there's no reservation on file, the call skips the lookup and goes straight to a person. Routine questions get instant answers, and staff only pick up the calls that actually need them.
One inbox for every text
Customers text the support number all day, and those messages now land in a shared SMS inbox right inside the Resytech dashboard. Any employee with the right permissions can read and reply, so questions get answered quickly instead of sitting unseen on one person's phone.
Reminders that fire only when they matter
Weekends are Next Wave's busiest window, and where late arrivals hurt the most, knocking tightly packed back-to-back rentals off schedule. Rather than blast reminders at everyone, they built a custom workflow that sends a reminder text only on weekends, two hours before each booking. Weekday riders aren't over-messaged, and weekend riders get a nudge to leave on time exactly when the schedule is tightest.
The result
Together, these systems let a lean team run a high-volume operation: guests move from booking to the water without paperwork snags, weekend riders show up on time, the phones largely route themselves, and no customer text goes unanswered, all from one platform.