Somebody organising a hen weekend sends a message asking whether the florist does anything for groups. It arrives on a Saturday, it is answered on Wednesday, and by then she has booked a cocktail class.
The florist runs excellent workshops. Nothing about them appears anywhere a person would look.
Step 1: publish a programme with dates
Actual dates, months ahead, with prices. A page saying workshops are available occasionally converts nobody.
Step 2: publish the price per person
With what is included, because organisers budget per head and cannot propose a studio whose price they cannot model.
Step 3: explain what they make and take home
The specific thing, with a photograph. People book a visible outcome rather than an experience.
Step 4: explain the length and format
How long, whether there is a break, whether drinks are included and what happens if somebody is late. Evening classes compete with everything else people could do.
Step 5: explain the skill level
That no experience is needed, which is the sentence that fills seats. Most people assume they will be bad at it in front of others.
Step 6: publish the seasonal programme
Wreaths in December, spring arrangements, summer bouquets and anything tied to an occasion. Seasonal workshops sell out and should be published early.
Step 7: publish the private group offer
Hen parties, birthdays, corporate teams and clubs, with minimum numbers, the price and what is included. It is the highest value booking and the least advertised.
Step 8: explain the venue options
At your studio, at their venue or at a hired space, and what each requires. Groups frequently have somewhere in mind.
Step 9: explain the corporate version
Team events, client entertaining and wellbeing sessions, invoiced properly. Businesses pay considerably more and almost nobody markets to them, which is the group booking ground in couples and group spa bookings without endless emails.
Step 10: publish the booking terms
Deposit, cancellation, minimum numbers and what happens if somebody drops out. Group organisers need certainty before committing.
Step 11: use it to fill quiet periods
January, February and midweek evenings, when the shop generates very little. It is the commercial reason workshops exist.
Step 12: sell to the people in the room
A discount on a first order, a subscription offer or a voucher. Everybody present is somebody who likes flowers enough to pay to arrange them.
Step 13: keep the sensitive work separate
Sympathy and funeral enquiries arriving alongside need entirely different handling, as in sympathy and funeral flower orders handled gently and funeral tribute enquiries handled with care.
Step 13b: say what happens to unsold places
A class with four bookings and eight seats still has to be staffed and the flowers still have to be bought. Publishing a minimum number, and what happens if it is not reached, means nobody is disappointed by a cancellation two days out and you are not running a workshop at a loss.
Step 14: capture group enquiries at any hour
Because organisers plan in the evening and book whoever answered, which is the qualification in an AI receptionist for architects applied to a very different enquiry.
Getting started
Publish dated workshops with prices and a private group offer, then capture group enquiries at any hour. SpideyChat for retailers answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.