Occasion and Creative Juice
Artfully Filled Classes
Executive Summary
As teachers, co-founders Chellie and Christina Filancia are natural educators and in 2012 they decided to branch out of the traditional classroom and create a place where students of all ages could explore their artistic side.
Creative Juice shows students the hidden path to unlocking their own inner artist…relaxation, fun and maybe a little “courage juice.” Nestled in beautiful Tucson, Arizona Creative Juice hosts classes for adults, children, families, corporate team-building events, summer camps and even does some fundraising.
Challenges
As the business juice behind Creative Juice, Chellie was the primary backend user of Event Espresso, their first online booking tool, but it wasn’t standing up to the job. The tedious event creation process was draining resources, students found the online registration process frustrating and the booking results were unreliable.
That’s when Creative Juice got serious about improving the tool that is the lifeblood of their business and transitioned their event scheduling platform to Occasion.
1. Hindered by the Wrong Tool
To say that Chellie and Christina are busy is an understatement. Between running Creative Juice, managing their team, answering to clients and holding down a job as an art teacher (Christina is still teaching school-age students part time!) the two have to make every moment count. Creating the monthly calendar in Event Espresso was siphoning off time that could be better spent growing elsewhere.
2. Too Busy for Busy Work
Before Occasion, creating a new event meant entering each piece of data as if every event were 100% unique. This process was time-consuming and Chellie was spending nearly two hours each month just creating the initial class schedule. As Chellie puts it, “there [was] no easy way I could just reproduce an event.”
3. Artists Starving for Organization
Students that attempted to book through Event Espresso would often become frustrated by the lack of organization and would abandon the process. Some would call Creative Juice to complete the registration process but others would fall out completely.
This presented two significant issues: first, seats were sometimes registered as filled when in reality the student had not completed the registration process; and second, students who register via the phone were less likely to show-up for the class.
Results
1. Cloning Creativity
Creating each event in their old solution was taking Chellie at least five minutes. When multiplied out over all of the classes held each month at Creative Juice, equated to a significant administrative burden. With Occasion, the process has been cut-down to less than a minute. Chellie can quickly clone an existing event, make a few tweaks and have it posted on the calendar – ready to go.
2. More Students + Less Work
Creative Juice’s online bookings have doubled since switching to Occasion and now makes-up nearly 80% of their total registrations. What’s more, their no-shows and cancellations have gone down dramatically thanks to email reminders and pre-paid bookings.
The Creative Juice team is enjoying fuller classes without having to answer phone calls and book students manually – and because of Occasion’s integration Google Calendar, Chellie always has her class information with her so she can answer questions and make plans on the go.
3. Empowered Employees
Chellie and Christina don’t run Creative Juice on their own; in fact, they each have their own kids working in the business in addition to two local art students. With their Occasion solution, Chellie has been able set up a limited access account that allows these team members to see last-minute registrations, view customer credits and print schedules for the day.
Giving team members the ability to view this information frees-up Chellie’s time while ensuring that her students and staff have access to the information they need.
How much time has Occasion saved you?
Creating More Time for the Business of Art
Check out Creative Juice’s online booking experience
