Our clients
Sharky and George
SAV are professionals from beginning to end. From initial brief to launch they were always approachable and highly efficient in turning our loose set of ideas into a coherent, structured system that makes the business more streamlined, proficient and will ultimately allow us to grow faster.
Charlie Astor, Owner
About
Sharky & George create and run original themed parties for children of all ages based on the belief that being energetic and imaginative is the key to having lots of good, honest fun. One of the largest children’s party organisers in London - with a star studded client list - the number of parties they organise each week is growing quickly.
The brief
They asked us to create a system that would help them book and manage parties, deal more efficiently with clients, and manage their staff more effectively. Sharky & George were facing a number of challenges which included scheduling parties, matching staff against parties, gathering feedback and communicating easily with their staff and clients. The system would automate many of the processes they undertake on a daily basis and would be a centralised place where all the information about their parties, staff and clients could be administered.
Our solution
We created a bespoke administration system that has helped Sharky & George overcome these challenges, streamline their administrative processes and manage their business more effectively.
Party Calendar and Administration system
The system is based around the master S&G party calendar. The calendar allows the S&G team to see quickly what’s happening on a day-by-day basis, giving an instant overview of booked events and any available party slots. The calendar also holds all the information about a party and is linked to the relevant client account. As all the information is held in one place it saves S&G time: they only need to input information about a client or a party once and can quickly draw on this information when they need it, rather than trying to juggle lots of different databases and calendars.
Staff Matching
One of the biggest challenges for the S&G team was matching available staff to parties: S&G staff work on a freelance basis and so often have varying availability on a week-by-week basis; each party must be hosted by at least two members of staff and the attending staff must have the training to deliver a particular party theme. The matching process was becoming increasingly complicated as the number of parties and staff increased.
The system cleverly matches staff and parties. When a party is booked, available staff who have the right skills are listed. The Sharky and George team then allocate the appropriate members of staff to a party. Not only does the system resolve this administrative headache, it also safeguards against the possibility of a party being left unstaffed; if a party hasn’t been staffed adequately or a staff member hasn’t confirmed their attendance the system flags this up to the team.
Staff accounts and availability calendar
Each member of staff has an account: this includes their personal details, a photograph and information about their party skills. They also have their own personal S&G calendar that helps them manage their work with S&G. Staff can access their account and log their upcoming availability to host parties, confirm or reject any bookings that have been allocated to them by S&G, and view any parties they have coming up in the future. Through their account they are also able to access and print all the information needed for the party they are running including location & contact details.
The system is really easy to use and because the system requires the staff member to confirm the different stages in the party booking process, Sharky & George are able to see that a staff member is fully prepared to host a party and has all the information that they need.
Party Feedback
S&G place great importance on delivering excellent events and having happy clients, so gathering feedback following a party is really important. They had always called a client following a party to hear what they thought and so they asked that client accounts would be a place for them to record feedback.
However, gaining feedback from a member of staff had always proved a little trickier. To help make this part of the process easier, following a party the system reminds staff to provide feedback through their online account and when they submit the feedback this information is recorded for Sharky & George to access. The system also highlights any missing submissions so S&G can chase up staff who still need to provide party feedback.
Future development
The founders of Sharky & George have ambitious plans to grow the business and so, as with all SAV systems, the system has been built to be expandable, meaning that new functionality can easily be added as the business develops.
