More Events Simultaneously: How Tripleseat Helped Greco Entertainment Group Increase Private Event Volume by Nearly 100% 

There is a reason that corporate and social clients in Santa Monica return to Greco Entertainment Group’s concepts Fia and Fia Steak for private events over and over again. The restaurants and their event capabilities are absolutely incredible.

The private events program at Fia and Fia Steak has grown immensely over the past two years, adding a significant revenue stream to the business. Tripleseat has been a key contributor to helping the events team manage events seamlessly, allowing the bandwidth to increase event volume by nearly 100% through streamlined processes. Prior to using Tripleseat, the estimated monthly private event revenue for Fia and Fia Steak was around $25K per month, a number that is reached with the revenue from just one or two of the fifty events that Fia and Fia Steak hosts per month today.

About Greco Entertainment Group

Located in Santa Monica, Fia and Fia Steak are two incredible restaurant concepts in West Los Angeles conceived by hospitality innovator Michael Greco and in partnership with Michelin-recognized Chef Brendan Collins. The two restaurants sit side by side, but they each offer their own unique and exceptional dining experiences. The ambiance and elegant menu at Fia takes guests from Santa Monica to the Amalfi Coast through fresh, exquisite seafood and homemade pasta dishes. Next door at Fia Steak, the classic steakhouse staples are getting an elevated lift alongside homemade pasta and innovative seafood entrees. 

Both Fia and Fia Steak are well-known establishments in the community, attracting guests for personal and professional occasions. Fia and Fia Steak are desirable locations for hosting a large variety of social and corporate events – the latter being their main private event clientele. When it comes to private events, Fia and Fia Steak have the ability to host anywhere from 15 to 200 + guests through their various private rooms and indoor or outdoor spaces. Private event clients often book seated dinners at Fia and Fia Steak, with cocktail receptions, rehearsal dinners, baby showers, and wedding events coming in as other popular event types. 

The events team at Fia and Fia Steak keeps busy with an average of fifty events per month. Between the two venues, the variety of event spaces allows for up to 8 or 9 events to be hosted simultaneously. We spoke with Brendy Scheerer, Director of Events, and Gabby Greany, Event Coordinator, to learn about their private events program and how Tripleseat helped to increase event volume by nearly 100%.

Before Tripleseat

When Scheerer first joined Greco Entertainment Group, the events team had been using Excel spreadsheets and email inboxes to manage event documentation and client communication. This system was not an efficient or sustainable method for the big goals she had for a thriving events program. Scheerer had used Tripleseat at a previous venue to great success and knew that it could be just as useful for managing the events at Fia and Fia Steak. The first thing she did as Director of Events was bring in Tripleseat.

How Tripleseat Helps

Tripleseat helps streamline event management through an array of intuitive features. First and foremost, Tripleseat helps Scheerer and Greany quickly respond to every new event lead that comes their way so they can stay top of mind for clients searching for event venues. Any delay in response to an event inquiry could lead to losing out on the business, so the email template responses within Tripleseat come in handy to send an informative reply in minutes. Scheerer says that prior to using Tripleseat, it would take her 24-48 hours to get back to people by herself, but now, using Tripleseat, Scheerer and Greany can reply to new leads in under 2-3 hours. The various email responses they curated are fit to answer any sort of corporate or social lead request they may receive with information on the options for the specific event type. By getting back to clients faster, events can ultimately be booked faster. 

Following email templates, Scheerer and Greany’s next favorite Tripleseat feature is the time stamp feature that shows when clients have viewed their emails. While working on many client conversations at one time, it is nice to know when someone has or has yet to see their messages as they work through the event planning process. On the topic of communication, Tripleseat discussions are also especially helpful to the internal team. Any member of the Fia and Fia Steak staff who is involved with events can read through the discussion board for each event to see what has been said leading up to the event. Instead of client conversations being held in one person’s email inbox, Tripleseat provides transparency for all members of the team to be in the know and have the context of what was said during the planning process.

Tripleseat is also especially helpful when it comes to tracking event sales goals. Scheerer sets goals for how much event business should be booked within a certain time period, and once an event is definite within Tripleseat, it will count towards the goal. Goals are easily visible on the Tripleseat dashboard, providing Scheerer and Greany with a quick snapshot of their progress toward the goals on a daily basis. Since all event data is stored within Tripleseat, it is also easy to utilize Tripleseat’s various reporting capabilities when it comes to event and financial reports. Tripleseat’s reporting helps Scheerer and Greany easily pull reports on how much revenue is coming into the business through private events to share with the owners.

While Tripleseat helps Scheerer and Greany do their daily tasks efficiently, it also helps them give their clients a streamlined guest experience. Online payments are accepted for all events, making it easy for clients to make payments securely from anywhere. At the end of an event, Greany and Scheerer can charge the credit card on file without any extra steps for the client, who is enjoying their event. Credit cards can also be held on file to secure the booking and paid for with a different card at the conclusion of the event, offering the client the flexibility to what they need.

Lastly, Tripleseat is extremely helpful to use as a CRM tool for managing all client contact information, especially when working with as many repeat clients as Fia and Fia Steak do. Scheerer and Greany can easily go into the Tripleseat Contacts tab, find a specific client, and see all of their past event history. If a repeat client comes back and says they want the same menu as last time, it’s easy to find the prior BEO within Tripleseat and recreate it for the next event. When working with multiple corporate contacts from the same company, it is also helpful to group all of these contacts as an Account within Tripleseat.

Results with Tripleseat

Tripleseat has given Scheerer and Greany the ability to measure their success by tracking their event data month-over-month and year-over-year. Since Scheerer took over the events program and implemented Tripleseat, they have increased their event volume by nearly 100%. Tripleseat gives the team the bandwidth to host up to 9 events simultaneously, something that would have been impossible to manage without Tripleseat. With this streamlined software, they can see what events are booked in what space on any given day, allowing Scheerer and Greany to then map out the rest of the restaurant to fill it to its full event potential. By increasing event volume, event revenue has increased exponentially. Prior to Tripleseat, the estimated monthly event revenue was around $25K a month in events, a number that is now achieved in just one or two events. Tripleseat has helped to unlock the full potential of a private events program at Greco Entertainment Group through streamlined event management.

Future Plans

The sky’s the limit for Greco Entertainment Group as they continue growing their event offerings and venues. They recently opened a Speakeasy below Fia Steak as another elevated space for private events. Additionally, a catering department has been added to the portfolio of offerings, providing yet another revenue stream to the business. The next time you are hosting an event in Santa Monica, consider Fia or Fia Steak as the restaurant to execute your event experience.

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