The company
ACF Events, a leading provider of corporate event experiences with over 20 years of expertise, is headquartered in Bristol, UK. ACF caters to companies of all sizes, from startups to large corporations, and offers tailored solutions that leave a lasting positive impact. Their services range from themed parties, game shows, thrilling outdoor challenges, and company festivals to engaging indoor activities, all designed to foster collaboration and bring teams together. Whether it's a large corporate function or a small, intimate gathering, ACF Events is known for its creative approach to ensuring each event is memorable for clients.
The challenge
"Every inquiry that came in was added to our spreadsheets, but that never allowed us to see where things stood in the pipeline."
Like many other businesses, ACF Events relied on spreadsheets to run their operations in the early days. Problems arose as the team grew, however, as each individual had their own method of collecting client details and handling follow-ups. This lack of uniformity ultimately led to inconsistencies that made it difficult for team members to step in for one another during absences, and often resulted in missed opportunities. Additionally, using spreadsheets also meant there was little visibility into what each team member was working on, which created gaps in communication.
The solution
"Previously, we relied on multiple documents and spreadsheets, which were all disjointed. With Bigin, each member of the team can now see what stage each event is at."
ACF's sales process and tools
ACF's sales process starts when they receive an inquiry, with which they promptly follow up via phone calls and emails to collect details regarding the dates and times of events, team building activities, or office parties. Deals then move through various stages in the sales pipeline. Once a client signs and confirms a booking, it seamlessly transitions to the admin pipeline for further processing.
The teams at ACF Events take advantage of the following features of Bigin:
Connected records: Once a deal is closed, an automated workflow triggers the creation of a new deal in the admin pipeline, which sends an email that assigns the deal to a designated owner to ensure a smooth follow-up transition into the next steps of the admin process.
Microsoft 365 integration: ACF Events have integrated their email account with Bigin.Every email sent to the customer from their account is tracked in Bigin under the customer's record with the help of IMAP integration.
Acefone telephony integration: The sales and admin teams use Acefone as their telephony provider, which is integrated directly with Bigin. This enables managers to track calls, view call logs, and access call recordings—all in one platform.
Zoho Campaigns sync: All contacts created in Bigin are automatically synced with Zoho Campaigns, making it easy to manage marketing campaigns and engage with clients.
Tags: Different types of clients—such as venues, schools, corporations, and agencies—are tagged in ACF's system to ensure efficient tracking and segmentation, which helps teams target and manage communications effectively.
ACF's admin process and tools
The team works closely with suppliers and venues to secure the best deals for the events. They provide customers with quotes and, based on the event's budget, capture negotiation updates in the admin pipeline. Once the client confirms their readiness to proceed, the team generates an invoice through Bigin using the Zoho Books integration. After the event's completion, they share a feedback form with the client to gather insights for future improvements.
Zoho Books integration: The admin team efficiently manages invoicing and sends follow-up email reminders to make the payment process smooth.
Dashboards: ACF's sales and admin teams leverage dashboards extensively, using 10 components to track essential metrics such as revenue, lead sources, and event types, as well as to derive valuable insights into performance and trends.
Benefits and ROI
- ACF Events doubled both in size and revenue, which showcases the positive impact of streamlining sales and admin operations with Bigin.
- Using dashboards, the company can now anticipate upcoming trends and make informed business decisions that help them to stay ahead of the curve.
- Christina Cooke, Director of ACF Events, relies on Bigin's mobile app to manage tasks and monitor progress so she can ensure operations run smoothly even when she's away from the office.
- ACF Events handles multiple communication channels, such as email, telephony, and accounting in one place, making Bigin a centralized tool for their operations.
"Bigin has enabled me to be in the middle of the field looking at information that I would normally need to ring up the office to find out about—or scroll through emails."
- Industry typeEvent Management
- Employees
- Type of businessPrivate
- Previously Used SoftwareSpreadsheets
Looking forward
The company is eager to integrate more Bigin features into their operation and looks forward to seeing Bigin's upcoming enhancements.
"For me, it's so important to look at the data. You can't manage what you can't measure, so data is key. Now that we have Bigin, it's enabled us to see who our clients are, what they're doing with us, what their trends are, how we're operating as a business, and where we're heading."
Christina Cooke, DirectorACF Events