Through the introduction of a new website built on Wix Studio, Gentle Seeds customers could make their own bookings online with full visibility of class vacancies. They can make payment online and receive automated invoices and receipts. Gentle Seeds’ teachers could now easily retrieve information on classes and key student information through automated data transfer to a platform of their choice.

After an initial consultation session with the client, we identified the following challenges.

• Entire back-office processes were manual and required at least 50 man-hours each quarter to process bookings, invoices, payment confirmation, and attendance sheets.
• Existing website infrastructure, built on WordPress, Elementor and WooCommerce, was difficult to maintain as it was nearing the end of the agency’s retainer contract.
• No full ownership of web assets and integrations, making it harder to switch vendors in the future.

1. Identify repetitive areas of administrative manual entry that was currently being done
   
2. Obtain buy-in for new platform to host the website that can fulfil core business functionality (primarily bookings and sale of merchandise)
3. Prioritise editability and scalability when the business grows
4. Budgeting within constraints – total annual cost of subscriptions has to be below a certain threshold
5. Schedule photoshoot for a refreshed visual identity, while adhering to the existing brand requirements.

Workflow Mapping

• Create a workflow map and identify processes that could be automated through self-service, removing the burden from the administrative side.
• Each platform required its own workflow as the configuration varied based on native functionality.

Platform Selection

• Having reviewed multiple platforms – Shopify and Webflow – with the client, we decided to proceed with Wix Studio as it has the most required features out of the box.
• Migration of the existing website from WordPress to Wix Studio (an advanced version of Wix), which has native Bookings, Ecommerce, CMS and Blogging features.

User Experience Design

• Together with the client, we revisited the existing user journey and identified pain points and process bottlenecks. This included admin approvals from Gentle Seeds and customer action pending that could cause issues, e.g. manual customer payments through PayNow, and the admin having to match them to invoices by phone number.
• The new workflow was created, tested in the first month with some beta testers, and then iterated upon. Feedback was captured and errors reproduced before we embarked on fixing them.

---

Building Core Business Functionality

• As the previous workflow involved manually assigning students to classes based on their signup forms, the new flow involved creating new services for each class, as well as their bespoke sessions.
• Then the Bookings and Ecommerce system needed to be populated with these new products.

Scalability

• In order for the platform to support business needs for the next two (2) years, it had to be designed with scalability in mind. During the consultation session, we also identified areas that were important but not urgent for business and customer acquisition.
• The CMS was set up for blogging and User Generated Content (UGC), allowing for SEO scalability. In addition, they could enable collecting a repertoire of social proof with a click.

Decrease in time spent on administrative paperwork and back-and-forth confirmations. This was measured to be about 70-90% of time saved on approvals, invoicing, and WhatsApp messaging. As a result, there was more time freed up for business development and new B2B client/partner outreach.

An increase in personalisation. Customers could own their own accounts and update personal particulars at any point in time, providing real time visibility for allergies and emergency contact information. Email newsletters can also be more targeted now with the segmentation of customers and subscribers.