How B_Entertained DJs and More increased response speed 50%

Interview with Stacy Sheldon, Project Manager at B_Entertained DJs and More

After adopting a CRM for event planners, B_Entertained DJs and More — a top entertainment and service provider for events, sped up their response rate by 50%.

Founded in 1999, B_Entertained DJs and More was relaunched in 2012 by Mike Burchard.

The team takes the “and More” in their name very seriously, striving to go the extra mile to deliver exceptional experiences. They organize everything from wedding receptions to corporate parties to mitzvahs to community events, hosted by organizations such as the American Cancer Society.

For B_Entertained, amoCRM is not just for sales teams, it’s also a great CRM for event planners.

Stacy Sheldon wears the many hats of Project Manager, Office Manager and Customer Service. But before she came on board and introduced Kommo, B_Entertained’s owner, Mike, was dealing with everything himself.

“He was overworked, stressed and sleep-deprived,” she explains. “When dealing with office management work, bookings and sales nonstop every day, Mike used to end up leaving money on the table because it was impossible to keep up with the follow-ups at once.”

But that’s not all. The real shocker to Stacy: “It used to take over 6 hours to respond to a client, and leads used to just get lost.”

Because of the delayed response speed, it was also harder to work with the leads they connected with. “Clients moved on, these days everybody wants everything right away,” she says, “this was really becoming the growing pains of the business.”

Keeping up with follow-ups just in terms of volume and responding to clients faster was the biggest challenge the company had to overcome.

Three years ago, when Stacy was brought onto the team, she started to look into the company’s whole set-up, figuring out what they could do to implement structure and improve their follow-ups. For her company to be competitive, she realized, “you have to be the first one at the door.”

Stacy started looking for a CRM for event planners that was also good for small businesses. In fact, it took her a whole year of reading reviews, recommendations, watching videos and trying free trials.

“It was lots and lots and lots and lots of research” she says, “It was over a year before we actually made a commitment to Kommo.”

Searching for a CRM for event planners, Stacy knew what she needed. Her CRM needed to meet the following criteria:

• Customizable
• Works well for small business
• Scalable as they grow, but not complicated or filled with unnecessary features
• Integrates well with existing tools
• Provides notifications & reminders
• Allows the team to automate work processes
• Easily accessible remotely with mobile capabilities
• All activity and communications logged in one central place
• Accurate records

Kommo met all the criteria, she says. The shoe just fit: “I saw the potential almost right away. I knew it was the right choice after checking out the free trial the first time.”

Stacy first began by increasing their presence across all communication channels, so they could meet clients where they prefer to talk. This has had a big effect on client experience.

Stacy started by auditing their current communication strategy and laying some new ground-rules that fit the B_Entertained brand:

• Be succinct
• Always have a call-to-action
• Be present where the customer wants
• No cold calling — calls are made only after an initial connection elsewhere
• Add emojis and images to the templates
• Professional-casual tone

Next, Stacy went on a whirlwind pipeline-building spree. Every company is different, so for B_Entertained, it made sense to create pipelines based on their many different lead sources.

“Depending on the pipeline (in our case lead source),” Stacy explains, “some of the automations, triggers, and templates might differ slightly and may require a different sales/follow-up approach.”

Here’s a quick overview of the purpose of each:

1. The test pipeline is used for developing and testing automations and other features before going live
2. The marketing pipeline focuses on leads from FB Lead Ads, Messenger, Instagram Direct
3. The website pipeline focuses on leads created from their webform and engagement button
4. The direct pipeline focuses on leads from phone calls and text messages via RingCentral
5. The outreach pipeline focuses on leads created from outreach projects and target market lists, such as schools in a specific district
6. The expo/bridal show pipeline focuses on leads from booth sign-ups and expo registration lists
7. The referrals/networking pipeline focuses on leads from networking events and groups, as well as those referred by clients and partners
8. The 6 paid lead gen pipelines each focus on a particular outside source where leads can find B_Entertained, including: Bark, Eventective, Bash, WeddingWire, Thumbtack and The Knot

To facilitate the workflow and be able to follow up on clients faster, Stacy and Mike automated the following:

Tasks

They have many different task-types that are timed to make sure every lead gets a response, including review, follow up, response needed, text, email, phone call.

Pipeline stage changes

Every time a response or invoice or call is received, the lead is moved automatically to the next stage.

Salesbot

When the time is right, Salesbot is set up to take over and handle the communication.

QuickBooks

This app is used to manage all invoices online.

Google Analytics

All the information about the lead reaching the Closed won stage automatically goes into Google Analytics.

Mailchimp

All the information about the lead reaching the closed-won stage automatically goes into Mailchimp.

Stacy highlights that Kommo is a great CRM for event planners. She explains that getting reminders and scheduling things has fueled their work efficiency. It’s also been important for her to see everything in front of her:

“Now we have the actual image, a view of what our sales cycle actually looks like. We have a lot more data. We can analyze and have that feedback right away. It’s really, really helpful. I'm a very visual person. So I love the layouts. It’s very clear, and easy to see what's happening and find information.”

Today, it is no surprise that their response rate is much faster. They’ve shaved down an average response time of 6 hours down to 3 hours.

Stacy’s next goal? To respond within one hour by automating Salesbot further.

But it’s not just about what they’re doing now — Stacy is also enthusiastic about how Kommo will help B_Entertained grow in the future.

“Every day that I use Kommo, I learn something new and I’m blown away,” she says, “After day one, when I was doing the free trial, looking at the setup and what we could do, I’m like ‘OMG, there’s so much potential here.’ This is going to help us be able to do things that we weren’t even thinking of.”

“So it really kind of inspires more ideas of how we can connect with clients in different ways” Stacy continues, “How we can market to them in different ways. How can we integrate our whole system so we can work efficiently, have that feedback, have that connection. I love it. It’s been really great. It’s been making a huge difference for all of us as a team.”

Set up isn’t hard, but if you’re feeling intimidated, reach out to one of our amazing Kommo's partners — they’re ready and willing to get your team using CRM for event planners today.