There’s a strong public appetite these days for holding events in beautiful, historic buildings set in elegant landscapes.
Prestigious establishments including some of the country’s top schools are starting to take advantage of the trend, opening up new revenue streams by sharing their facilities when they are not needed for traditional requirements.
But if you wish to make more use of your impressive facilities, where do you start?
NFS recently worked with a top independent school to provide clients with the opportunity to savour the school’s extraordinary setting, historic buildings and stunning facilities.
The school, while fully maintaining its tradition of unrivalled educational excellence, has now evolved sensitively into one of the most prestigious venues in the world.
It hosts corporate and private events as well as weddings and courses throughout the year, managing every aspect so each event – like the school – is unique.
The challenge
The independent school has a large and complex estate to manage across hundreds of acres of grounds, boarding houses for students, eight event spaces, classrooms, sports centres and much more.
The school’s previous method of operation had grown organically, and it could be complex, time-consuming and manual.
Any potential errors could have an impact on the all-important user experience and would be out of keeping with the school’s reputation for excellence.
A similar situation existed in the school’s enterprise business, where admin required lots of form-filling and major time and effort to keep all in apple-pie order.
The school really needed everything brought together so it was all in one place.
The solution
Rendezvous Events venue management software from NFS enables prestigious establishments like this school to make a highly professional move into the world of events.
It provides a powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that captures and utilises prospect and client data that includes business sources, key contacts and all client communication information.
The Rendezvous Portal creates an excellent online presence for any venue, expressing its unique and unsurpassed qualities. And because it is available 24/7, potential clients can browse the site 24/7, even when your events team are not there.
The portal can also be used to sell last-minute space, fulfilling the demand for urgent meeting space.
The venues and events team are able to schedule, monitor and prioritise the follow-up tasks that enable the venue to maximise sales opportunities and offer additional extras to existing customers.
Sales managers benefit from reports on key information including leads by the source of business, lead conversion and lead lifetime, so they can make informed marketing decisions such as which publications/ websites to invest in, what business has come in and which leads need working on.
Users also have access to Rendezvous’ data analysis tools to generate marketing campaigns that email targeted offers to clients, rewarding their loyalty and bringing them back again – and accurate billing becomes simple.
In addition to providing venue management, Rendezvous can also help schools to streamline their main business – providing top-notch education – by making it simpler to schedule teaching, sports and accommodation facilities, and by providing easy, accurate ways to handle meal ordering.
It’s a solution that benefits everyone – and that includes the members of the public who gain a precious opportunity to give their special event a truly unique flavour.
6 ways your school/venue benefits
- Improved customer experience – for pupils, staff and commercial clients, thanks to swifter, more seamless operations
- Extra revenue – brought in when school facilities would ordinarily be unused
- Operational improvements – both in the day-to-day running of the school, and in its venues business
- Time saved – in admin across the entire operation
- User engagement – training has been customised to make it easy for different users of the system to access its advantages
- Cost savings – inefficiencies and reduced potential for errors
Find out more
What do UK venues want from their technology? See what our research found.
See more benefits of venue management software
