Messages in November
You run wreath-making workshops on evenings and weekends from late November. Posts on Instagram and Facebook fill them up. People message to book, sometimes for themselves, sometimes for a group of friends or a work team. Some pay by bank transfer, some at the counter, some say they will pay on the night.
A spreadsheet tracks it all. A group of six books, then says it is four. Someone cancels on the day and a friend of a friend takes their place. A work team wants an invoice. A session is full, but three people are waiting in the message thread in case someone drops out.
Every evening in December, you spend an hour answering messages about workshops before you can think about the shop.
Why workshop bookings get tangled
Bookings arrive through the channels where you promote the workshops, which are good for promotion but poor for booking. Each message needs a reply, a spreadsheet entry and a payment check.
Capacity is fixed by your table space and materials, but it is managed by counting rows in a spreadsheet. Overbooking, or turning people away when there was space, both happen.
Materials have to be prepared per session: wreath rings, moss, foliage, dried oranges, ribbons, cinnamon sticks. How much depends on how many people are coming, which is not certain until the day.
What tangled workshop bookings cost
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bookings by message | Evenings answering and recording |
| Payments by various routes | Unpaid places and awkward chasing |
| Capacity counted by hand | Overbooked or half-empty sessions |
| Cancellations not reused | Empty seats while others wait |
| Materials prepared by guesswork | Waste or shortages on the night |
Workshops are a good way to bring new people into your shop in a season that is otherwise busy with orders. They are worth running smoothly.
The timing clashes with your busiest order weeks. Christmas wreaths, door swags, table centres and corporate orders all peak in the same fortnight as the workshops. Every hour spent reconciling a spreadsheet with a bank statement is an hour not spent in the workroom, and the messages do not stop at closing time.
Group bookings cause most of the confusion. One person books six places, collects money from friends, and then two drop out and a different friend wants to come. If the booking is one row in a spreadsheet, there is no easy way to see who is actually coming, who has paid, and who needs a reminder about parking. The details end up in a long message thread.
How we run workshop bookings
- Each session is set up with date, time, seat limit and price, on a booking page linked from your social posts and website.
- Customers book and pay online, for themselves or a group, through a provider such as Stripe. Groups can pay together or each pay their own seat.
- Seats are held until payment completes, and sessions close automatically when full, with a waiting list.
- Cancellations, according to your own policy, release seats, and the next person on the waiting list is offered the place.
- Reminders go out before each session, with directions, parking notes and what to bring.
- A materials list for each session is produced from the booked numbers, so you prepare the right number of rings, bundles and decorations.
Work teams can request an invoice at booking, and corporate sessions can be set up as private bookings with their own date and group size.
December without the message backlog
People book and pay in a minute from the link in your post. Full sessions show as full, and the waiting list fills cancellations. On the afternoon of each session, the materials list tells you what to prepare.
- Online booking and payment for every session
- Seat limits and waiting lists handled automatically
- Reminders and directions sent before each session
- Materials prepared from real numbers
The same set-up works for other seasons. Spring workshops, summer table arrangement evenings and private hen party sessions can all use the booking page, so the effort of setting it up is not tied to one month of the year.
Is workshop season swallowing your evenings?
- Workshop bookings come in by message.
- You track seats in a spreadsheet.
- Payments arrive by several routes, or not at all.
- Cancellations leave empty seats while others wait.
- Materials are prepared by guesswork.