by Stephen Walker, Artful Stars

www.artfulstars.co.uk

At Artful Stars we offer children the opportunity to release their artistic talents and stretch their imagination in a friendly, exciting, safe and fun environment. Our activities are based on the works of different artists, craftsmen/women and designers, some famous, and some not so well known, but equally as skilled. Through hands on experimentation and discussion the children become familiar with other artists’ styles and techniques. This encourages them to develop their own style, and by looking at art critically they gain appreciation for all art in general.

By helping them create their own masterpieces the children gain confidence and come to realise that their art is great too! This confidence then spreads to other areas of their lives, in and out of the classroom.

We noticed that one of our competitors had chosen Booking Autopilot, so we investigated the product ourselves and found it provided all the functionality we needed.

The initial setup was seamless. The team at BA set up everything with minimal involvement from us. Logo’s, email templates etc. were all customised to our brand.

The onboarding process involved a number of calls with BA staff and nothing was too much trouble. They clearly explained how the system worked and were on hand to answer any follow-up questions.

Our customers have found it very easy to use and have had no issues at all.

The system has a large number of very useful reports which we are still getting used to. However, we are already using the ‘Acquisition channel’ report to assess the effectiveness of our marketing activity.

The system is clearly setup to support growing franchise businesses. The scalability and flexibility of being able to setup multiple territories, centres and teachers is fantastic. As a fairly new franchise business, I have no doubt that the system is capable of supporting our growing business for many years to come.

Absolutely. The system has been able to cope with a number of very specific business requirements with ease. We have been able to customise it to work in exactly the right way for us without any technical knowledge. It is very easy to use for us, our franchisees and parents to use.

As with any system, the support you receive is just as important. In this respect, BA have far exceeded our expectations. Mark Mollenbeck and his team have been incredible. They clearly care passionately about their customers and nothing is too much trouble. They have responded to queries very quickly, updated parts of the system for us and provided detailed explanations and solutions when needed.

As we grow our business, all our bookings will go through the system. All our franchisees will be trained to use it and we also plan to leverage the optional marketing module in the very near future. We see the system as a key enabler to growing the franchise in the years to come.

One word… fantastic.