In a world where everything is 24 hours, from the news to food shopping and from sport to entertainment, I often wonder why more businesses aren’t prepared to take the leap and be open for every single second of the year.
Then it dawns on me, we all have personal lives and perhaps like to have some sort of boundary between the working hours and the non-working ones. It’s no great surprise, and I’m not unearthing any great news when I say that the biggest influencer over this 24 hour culture is technology, it has made it possible and safe to do many more things at any time of the day, regardless of where in the world you are and which timezone you find yourself in – and to this extent, businesses are not too shy at coming forward. Because, if technology allows you to get a happy balance between being a 24 hour business, while not actually being sat in front of a computer or behind a desk for the entire time, most people would be content, right?
I heard a story recently about a local theatre that was struggling to cope, it urgently needed modernisation and needed to attract a new crowd. Its future was grim. Today, in a very short space of time, the theatre has managed to turn things around, and it’s because of the way it has embraced the digital world. Theatres are traditional businesses, and probably not the first to jump onto the latest technological advances to help them find success, but this one tweaked the way it operated and addressed the fact that it spent so much money on admin staff who sat around for hours on end waiting and hoping for a busy period. It rarely came.
Instead, the business (it’s OK to call a theatre a business, they are not there purely to entertain, they need to be effective and successful too) integrated an online booking system and allowed visitors to book at any time of the day they wanted.
In other words, they tapped into the 24 hour audience, and it saved their lives. This is a theatre that recognised that the best way for its staff to build the business back up is not by sitting around and waiting to take a booking, it’s by using their creative flare and ensuring that the theatre is producing shows that people want to see. It’s also about channelling that creativity and passion to market the theatre effectively, and a simple and basic system like online booking allowed them to do that.
This is a scenario mirrored in many industries, not least the on that I work in, the training arena.
All too often passionate and dedicated trainers spend their time carrying out administration work and are forced to abandon their post, where they should be developing new training programmes and getting companies and delegates excited about their latest courses. There is training management software that automate every part of the administration aspect and reach out to new customers in the 24-7 world, and in turn allow them the freedom to do what they do best.
The software’s out there, and if any training or course provider would like to demo it to get an idea of what it can do, just click here and let me know.
If you want to hear what other training companies have achieved from using the accessplanit software, which includes online booking and automatic generation of certificates, happy sheets and invoices, just get in touch today by calling 0845 5430229 or email enquiries@accessplanit.com.