Good Dirt Clay Studio | Customer Stories OLD

I've always enjoyed working with my hands and teaching, and Good Dirt Clay Studio affords me both of these opportunities on a daily basis

ROB SUTHERLAND Good Dirt Clay Studio

When you follow your heart instead of your plan, the results can be messy. But Rob Sutherland answered the call he heard to provide his community with a creative outlet in the form of Good Dirt Clay Studio.

Although manually-kept records at first seemed adequate for his studio, Rob needed to find an efficient way to manage his business’ growing popularity.

Rob says that Bookeo “saves so much time and allows me to focus on teaching and making pottery.” Now, instead of spending hours on the phone and entering customer data from handwritten scribbles, he’s able to do what he loves.

Best of all, Good Dirt customers enjoy an easy, streamlined signup and payment process while Rob pays one low monthly fee, noticeably improving its bottom line.

Rob's Mission

After earning three science degrees, including a doctorate from Oxford University, Rob Sutherland found himself in need of a creative outlet. So he took a few ceramics classes back home in Athens, Georgia. He was hooked.

As he worked with the clay, he became fascinated by the processes and the freedom of expression of ceramics. He started teaching classes at Good Dirt Clay Studio, and found that he loved that too. So he bought the studio, intent on providing people of all ages and abilities with a place to express themselves artistically.

Good Dirt Clay Studio is now open 24 hours a day so that students can create whenever they’re inspired, day or night. Without seeking donations or government support, Rob’s mission to bring the joy of ceramics to his community means keeping overhead low while offering easy accessibility to anyone who’s interested.

Bookeo has freed up enormous amounts of time that used to be spent collecting booking information over the phone

ROB SUTHERLAND Good Dirt Clay Studio

I love the fact that our customers can sign up for a class at 2AM if that fits their schedule

ROB SUTHERLAND Good Dirt Clay Studio

The Challenges

Since he loves working with his hands, Rob is at the studio a lot. But it’s hard to pick up the phone and take down information when your hands are covered in wet clay.

While he was finding himself tied to the phone a lot, he also felt that his students and customers wanted an easier way to book and pay for their visits. Record keeping was getting cumbersome too. Customer data was kept in a pile of terracotta-streaked signup sheets, double-bookings were resulting in unfilled classes… and Rob’s staff often had trouble reading his handwriting.

Although he knew that online booking systems existed, Rob was afraid to lose the direct contact with customers when they called to book a class. And he wasn’t inclined to spend time researching and comparing systems.

His web developer researched various options, and concluded that “Bookeo was powerful enough to meet Good Dirt Clay Studio varied needs, but not so complicated or expensive to be impractical.”

The Solutions

Bookeo makes it easy for students to sign up for our classes, so they tend to fill up.

With Bookeo, Rob has eliminated missed bookings due to missed calls. Convenience for the customer is also a big plus, and he says that “sales, especially of short term classes, have jumped once registration became so convenient.”

For example, the studio’s streamlined booking process means that “Parents don’t have to camp out in person to sign up for our summer camp programs.” The upshot? Rob says that at least 90% of his bookings now come through Bookeo.

I am so grateful not to be tied to the telephone to take all the bookings manually.

While he used to worry about losing phone contact with his customers, now Rob says that he prefers having more time for them in the studio to collecting their information by phone.

Using Bookeo to manage class enrollments has freed up enormous amounts of time that Rob used to spend on the phone. It also eliminates mistakes like booking the same person twice – and ending up with smaller classes. Now Rob can focus on teaching and managing the studio instead of wrestling with “a bunch of sign-up sheets in a three ring binder.“

I love being able to check on bookings remotely from anywhere, and add people to classes with my smartphone.

With Bookeo, the studio’s bookings and payments occur in one easy step, and the ability to accept credit cards via PayPal streamlines the process. Bookeo sends Rob an email notification every time Good Dirt gets a new booking, so he can see when money is flowing into the business. No matter where he is or what he’s doing.

Bookeo’s iPhone interface also makes it simple for him to take bookings and payments, check class enrollment, and even sell gift certificates on the go.

Bookeo support is prompt and friendly.

Rob says that Bookeo offers plenty of flexibility and customization “without being too complex to handle.”

He has found Bookeo’s interface to be straightforward and easy, and when he needed assistance, “the support person provided a quick response to get things up and running” the way he wanted it.