It’s remarkable how an opportunity can lead you down a particular path you never expected to take. When Phil Dickenson was asked to design oversized games for a festival, he and his wife Sam realized how great they were and wanted to share them with more people. Now they use Booqable to manage bookings, payments and emails for their business.
Woodbotherer Games
Phil has had a long career as a carpenter and spent much of his free time making wooden toys for himself and his children. This has been a lot of fun for them, and they’ve spent hours playing together. When he was asked to design oversized versions of children’s games like Connect 4 for a festival in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2013, he naturally jumped at the opportunity.
The couple visited the festival and saw how much younger and older people had played these games. They triggered a joy in everyone that was hard to describe. They wanted to share that joy of connecting and learning through games with their friends, family and community. So the idea started to take shape in their plans and dreams.
Soon Woodbotherer Games was born, named after Sam’s nickname for Phil because he was always working on something. Since then, the company has grown to rent oversized versions of classic games like Connect 4 and Naughts and Crosses, as well as games inspired by games played in European cafes, and even new games invented by Phil himself.
Good intentions
Sam, who had already founded her own company, took on the task of managing Woodbotherer Games. When the company was smaller, they had good systems in place to run it, but as it grew, they ran into some problems. For example, inventory was managed on sheets of paper, which made it very difficult to see what games were available for rental.
Also, it was difficult for customers to make a booking because it had to be done by phone and email. Payments were made by bank transfer, and it was difficult to track those payments. Also, Sam had to write the same email over and over again, and it was difficult to keep track of conversations between her and customers as the business grew.
The sum of these problems meant that every time a customer wanted to make a booking, Sam had to wade through many sheets of paper to see what was available, respond to customers and track payments. Of course, this took a lot of time and money, making it difficult to confidently take the company to the heights she and Phil had dreamed about.
Be organized
Sam knew she needed a better system to track inventory, manage bookings, communicate with customers and receive payments. So she started looking for rental software to help her do that. After comparing the different options, she decided Booqable was the best choice. It helped her solve her inventory problems and provided solutions for online bookings, emails and payments.
Now, Sam can easily see what games are available using the calendar and real-time availability in the order screens. This means she no longer has to dig through pieces of paper and can help customers who call quickly. She can then quickly create a booking and take credit card payments over the phone, including deposits.
Customers can also now see what games are available on the site, add them to their booking, make a reservation and pay at checkout. Sam could then easily follow up with emails that were created from templates and automatically populated with customer information. They can also view the history of emails sent to each customer to track conversations.
More fun and games
Phil and Sam are well on their way to taking her mission to the next level by spreading joy and her environmental message. Since using Booqable, they’ve seen an increase in bookings and are happy to see more people enjoying their games. The time saved in managing their business gives them the confidence to expand into more cities in New Zealand.
They have also made Phil’s wooden building plans available on their website so that anyone who is inspired to start their own giant game rental business can use his designs. They have already experienced a lot of interest from people all over the world, and it’s exciting to see so many people playing games and creating joy and connections with each other.