The Perfect Atmosphere for Celebrating: How Tripleseat Helped Howl at the Moon Streamline Event Management
Since 2017, Howl at the Moon has used Tripleseat to manage social and corporate events at 21 locations across 16 cities. As a large hospitality group, using a software solution for managing events is a must-have to drive business across various locations in different markets. Since implementing Tripleseat in 2017, Howl at the Moon has seen an increase in efficiency with the features and benefits Tripleseat provides to the entire event team.
About the company
Howl at the Moon has the perfect atmosphere for celebrating. Whether guests need a place for a night out with live music, a corporate event location, or a birthday party, Howl at the Moon can make it happen at one of its locations.
Each Howl at the Moon location offers a versatile space with a large bar, high-top tables, a dance floor, and a stage. The sports-bar feel of the venue can be dressed up or dressed down to accommodate private events, whether they’re social or corporate gatherings. When selecting the food and drink menus, the Howl at the Moon team can get creative with clients and custom-name drinks relevant to their group, including its popular drink buckets. Howl at the Moon is also known for adding extra flair to its events with photo booths, candy buffets, ice luges, and other customizations. When it comes to event size, Howl at the Moon can accommodate semi-private small groups up to full buyouts in the majority of their locations.
We spoke with Valerie Milley, Senior Sales and Event Manager at Howl at the Moon, to hear about her experience using Tripleseat to manage the private events program at Howl at the Moon.
Before Tripleseat
Prior to using Tripleseat, Howl at the Moon used a competing platform that was server-based and required the team to log in at their location’s desktop computer to make updates. This type of system does not allow for quick and easy changes on the fly, as the events industry often requires. Given that Howl at the Moon manages hundreds of events at one time, it is imperative to have a tool to quickly make updates. Howl at the Moon realized that a more modern and streamlined system would be necessary to have the flexibility to make changes from anywhere at any time.
Tripleseat is that streamlined system. Tripleseat allows users to make real-time updates reflected in the guest’s documents. There’s no need to remind yourself to change a client’s guest count and resend an updated BEO link when you get back to the office and reach your desktop. Any Tripleseat user can make the change right away from a phone, laptop, or tablet, and your guest will see that immediately on the BEO.
How Tripleseat helped
Tripleseat makes life easier for the whole Howl at the Moon event team in various ways. As an events team managing multiple events across 21 locations, it is crucial that the team stays organized. This means keeping a close eye on events as they make their way through the planning process as prospective, tentative, and definite events. Tripleseat users know that event statuses are color coded on the Tripleseat calendar to clearly show where an event is in the event planning process.
Definite events are always the color green. Milley said that her favorite trick she tells her team of event managers during Tripleseat training is that “green means money,” so they should look out for those green definite booked events on the calendar and to strive towards the goal of making all the events turn green. The color-coded calendar feature keeps her team organized and on track as they strive to reach all their revenue goals.
“My favorite part of Tripleseat for upper management or the corporate office is the main dashboard. It shows the money,” Milley said.
The color-coding feature is one benefit of the Tripleseat calendar, and so is its accessibility for everyone on the team to see. Milley described Tripleseat as a very user-friendly platform. Within her venue, members from both the front of the house and back of the house are using Tripleseat to see what will be going on at the venue. Milley explains that because of Tripleseat’s user-friendly nature, it is easy for anyone — from an event manager to a hostess to a server — to go in and see the upcoming events on the calendar in one place.
“I love everything, but mainly, since Tripleseat is a cloud-based software, everything is live updated. My team can live update event titles, dates, times, guest count — everything,” Milley said.
The calendar isn’t the only tool that helps Howl at the Moon stay on track and organized. Milley’s advice is to always utilize the information on the main Tripleseat dashboard as a snapshot of what is happening at the venue. The dashboard provides key information that the events team can share with upper management and the corporate office to show tangible proof of incoming leads and the event forecast for various time periods. As private events are a huge part of the business, being able to easily prove all the work that the event team is putting into the events program is crucial. The dashboard is automatically updated as the event activity within Tripleseat evolves, including when new leads come in, when leads turn into definite events, and when events are completed.
When it comes to putting together this digestible data, in Milley’s words, “I don’t have to do the work; Tripleseat does it for me.” The dashboard lets Milley and her team spend less time organizing all the event information for upper management and more time managing all the “green” events on the calendar.
Future plans
As Howl at the Moon heads into 2023, they anticipate more enthusiastic groups ready to book events for a true Howl at the Moon event experience. Through the help of Tripleseat’s user-friendly platform, Howl at the Moon will stay organized and on track to hit all business goals in stride.
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