Event CRM: Why your establishment needs it

Surely you must have heard about CRM (Customer Relationship Management). But in concrete terms, what is the point?

A CRM allows the centralization of all your customer data (first name, last name, telephone, e-mail, date of birth...) and all the data of your interactions with your customers (request history, event format, budget...). Thanks to the collection of this data, you optimize the overall knowledge of your customer in order to better understand them and thus better anticipate and manage their needs.

A CRM can take various forms, including software like BookingShake, and helps you:

• Guarantee good harvests: collect and store your data
• Being the No. 1 for your customers: the impact of follow-up on your confirmation rate
• Spreading the good word: guarantee perfect internal communication
• Do less and do more: boost your business

Now that the word CRM is no longer a scary word for your ears, we'll take you on this little adventure with us to show you what a CRM specialized in events is. What are its advantages and what will it be able to bring to your business, especially if you organize events?

1. Guarantee good harvests

Your customer and business data

Whether it's on your phone, in your email box, in your social networks... there are thousands of places where you collect customer data. But the small problem of this organization is that all this valuable and essential information is scattered to the right and to the left. Hello the time lost to find this information every time you need it but also to collect this information!

With an event CRM, you will therefore be able to centralize and keep all your customer information in one place. You have two ways to feed it:

• Automatically: Data is collected and recorded automatically from your website for example.
• Manually: You can manually create a customer or company file in your event CRM if you want to keep in touch with a potential future customer for example.

No more heavy silence when we say to you: “what if we sent an email to all our business customers?” and that in your head you think: “Oh no not that, the customer file has not been updated for 6 months and I have hours to go while we are already in a rush...”

As you can see, with an event-based CRM, automating certain tasks allows you to remove a mental load without talking about THE icing on the cake! The history of the customer journey will also be automatically generated! And yes, because data collection does not only concern the contact details of your customers and businesses.

Your event data

You must have probably experienced feeling overwhelmed when requests flow, because it is obviously superhuman to be able to track your activity just by memory but just as complicated to multiply the supports... And that's also when an event CRM comes to your rescue!

Your event CRM will also allow you to collect and centralize all the details of the event. That is to say, while you are organizing the customer's event, all the essential information will be transcribed into the event sheet such as, for example, whether the customer has sent a deposit, whether vegetarian menus should be planned, what will be the set-up and running, etc.

Some can instead of a CRM use Excel files, write everything down on Doc sheets or a Google Calendar... But you will see that with these methods, the loss of information and time is increased x10!

In addition to working much more efficiently, you will be able to keep the history of all events and all their details and find them very simply. You can even duplicate an event from a specific customer with a recurring format instead of starting from scratch each time and drawing on your good memories.

Once you collect and store your data in an event CRM, you will be able to discover everything that can come from it and believe us, you will love it!

2. Be the No. 1 for your customers

We are not going to teach you much since it is a secret for no one, but being dedicated to your customers and prospects is fundamental to the success of your place.

So how do you manage to give time and attention to tens, hundreds, or thousands of people at the same time? This is the lightness that an event CRM like BookingShake brings.

Contrary to what one might think: “that CRM removes all human relationships”, this tool is in fact what will allow you to improve the relationship with your customers and develop more “human” customizations thanks to the time saved. Yes, because having little attentions for everyone, meeting people, spending time on the phone... well it takes a lot of hours a day!

Between us: copy and paste the same message, write quotation after quotation, enter all new requests by hand in your tables... It is not the secret ingredient of your success but rather a great waste of time! But with an event CRM, you will be able to get rid of all that and focus on finding the best florist for the launch party of your new client.

So where is your added value and how to be No. 1 in the minds of your customers:

• Have time to call all new requests to qualify your customers and create a connection with them.
• Have time to offer a visit to your location to your prospects.
• Have time to follow up regularly with your client to support them in their organization and show them that they can rely on you.
• Have time to look for the best service providers for your customers.
• Have time to make a satisfaction call after each event to make your services evolve according to market expectations.

Do we need to say more?

When you have the right functionalities at your disposal - such as centralizing all information in one place, having the right tools to save time and better structure your daily tasks - you can then put your real talents at the service of your customers and return to them the image of a top-level professional.

But you will also have all the keys in hand to give customers the impression that a unique and caring relationship is forming with you.

Thanks to these last two points, your customer will have a very positive image of your establishment, he will want to trust you, you will be his best option, his No. 1 choice and you will have great chances:

• To confirm all requests received for your establishment.
• Sell your services better because you will have time to advise your customers.

And that's how they lived happily and received lots and lots of events!

3. Spreading the good word

Once the details of the event are confirmed with your customer, the information must be transmitted to the operational teams and transmitted in an accurate and understandable manner.

An event CRM cannot replace your talent as a communicator. You know your employees better than anyone and you know how to talk to them so that they understand every detail planned with the customer. But a CRM like BookingShake can help with everything else! That is to say:

• Centralize operational event information.
• Don't forget anything.
• Allow unlimited access to your employees.
• Ensure items are always up to date in real time
• Have an “event summary” automatically generated (Function sheet, Brief, BEO...).

You can now give access to your event CRM to the various members of your team with specific permissions for each. Thus, everyone can access the information from anywhere, without necessarily being able to modify it, and knows what to do: for example, if you organize corporate events around culinary workshops, your chef will be able to know if he should pay attention to certain dietary restrictions for the evening event.

At BookingShake, for more details, we even added a participatory history:

1. which traces all the actions that were taken on the event (by whom, at what date and time...)
2. which allows you to chat with colleagues with an email alert system.

You will see that with this, your internal communication will take on another dimension.

And to be sure that everything is absolutely perfect, BookingShake also offers a digital “function sheet” that generates an event summary tailor-made for your establishment and that you can send to all of your service providers and teams who will be involved in the event without them having access to your account.

This last point is one of the most important mental burdens in your job! Do you know when your customer tells you 2 days before the event that they are 28 and not 26 and that there will be 3 vegetarians as a result and no longer 2? Here you usually switch to “special commando” mode: You have to change all the summary sheets of the event for all your employees and make sure that they have taken it into account! Thanks to an event CRM, this is done because everything will always be up to date in real time.

4. Do less and do more

By installing an event CRM, it is 100% guaranteed that you will save time and we are not talking about an hour a day, we are talking about several hours minimum. You will work less on your current tasks but not in absolute terms!

The time saved will allow you to boost your business either because you will be able to absorb more demand or because you will have time to develop your business.

An event CRM is therefore not intended to replace you, but to reveal you! To allow you to work peacefully and in good conditions. To take pleasure in giving your customer a quote (yes, yes, ask our customers). In short, to come and assist you with all the functions that we have just detailed above.

Now, depending on your business goals and affinities, the time and space available in your brain that you've earned can be used to:

• You are leaning on your social networks,
• Create your blog,
• Rethink your commercial brochures,
• Invite your customers for an evening or a visit
• Create partnerships with other market players

Full of very beneficial projects, and much more fun, for your commercial development and your marketing strategy.

If you are interested, we also have a lot of very complete and concrete articles to support you, do not hesitate to go and have a look at our advice blog:

• Guide to Attracting, Selling, and Retaining Customers
• Top 9 Sources of Requests for Your Event Venue
• [GUIDE] 8 Steps to Make Your Wedding Venue a Success
• The Guide to Qualifying an Application
• [TUTO] How to Make a Commercial Brochure, Menus, Posts with Canva?

Take your team with you to growth goals and create accurate forecasts that will allow your business to move forward and grow day after day.

Ready to increase your prospects, better confirm and multiply the income from your events? If you are not yet a BookingShake user and want to know more about our features, schedule a demo with our teams!