The two-day process audit
Two days on site — ideally in a period that resembles real trading rather than a quiet week — then a written report costing every system and subscription and ranking what to automate by what it saves.
AI consultancy · Stratford-upon-Avon
AI for a town where the year has a shape.
Most automation advice assumes an even workload. Stratford's does not have one. We start with two days inside your business, in a period that actually resembles trading, and build only what those two days justify.
The Stratford market
The visitor economy changes what is worth automating
Stratford's trade is shaped by people who do not live here. The Royal Shakespeare Company's seasons, the Birthplace Trust properties from the town centre out to Shottery and Wilmcote, the coach trade and the river all pull visitors through the town on a rhythm that has very little to do with the local population. For a great many businesses in the district — hotels, guest houses, restaurants, retailers, tour operators, taxi firms — the year has a distinct shape, and every system in the business has to cope with both ends of it.
That produces a specific problem we see repeatedly. In August, everyone is too busy to fix anything. In February, there is time but no money and no urgency. So the manual workaround introduced during one busy season is still there three years later, and nobody has ever costed it. Part of what the audit does is simply put a number on the workarounds, which is usually the first time anyone has.
The second Stratford-specific issue is commission. A large share of the district's accommodation and experience bookings arrive through third-party platforms that take a percentage, and the businesses paying it are often the least equipped to build a direct alternative. That is not always an automation problem — sometimes the honest answer is that the platform is earning its cut. But knowing what proportion of your revenue leaves that way, and what a direct booking actually costs you to win, is a question with a real number behind it.
Beyond the town itself, the district is substantially rural. South Warwickshire farming, the villages out towards Wellesbourne, Bidford and Alcester, and the professional and financial services anchored by NFU Mutual's base at Tiddington give the area a business mix that is nothing like Coventry's or Solihull's. Advice written for a manufacturing supply chain does not transfer, and we would not pretend otherwise.
What we do for Stratford businesses
In this order, and we do not skip to the end.
Costing the seasonal workarounds
The manual step introduced during one busy summer and never removed. We find them, price them, and tell you which are worth fixing before the next season rather than after it.
Direct booking and reducing commission
Working out what third-party platforms actually cost you as a proportion of revenue, and whether a direct route is worth building. Sometimes it is not, and we will say so.
One view of a guest or customer
Booking system, till, accounts and mailing list usually each hold a fragment. Joining them is what makes any later marketing worth doing.
Bespoke software where nothing off the shelf fits
Built around how you actually trade, owned by you, with no per-seat licence and no renewal repricing.
Websites and e-commerce built for a season
Fast when the traffic arrives, findable by people planning a visit months ahead, and cheap to run in the quiet months.
What this looks like in practice
Four things we would look at first
Patterns common to a visitor economy. Illustrative rather than client case studies — the audit establishes which are actually yours.
A different manual step for every booking channel
Direct bookings, platform bookings, phone bookings and walk-ins each get handled slightly differently, and only one person really knows all four routes.
One process regardless of where it came from
Nobody knows the true cost of a platform booking
Commission is visible. The staff time spent reconciling, re-keying and chasing around it is not, so the comparison against a direct booking has never actually been done.
A real number to make the decision on
Summer workarounds that became permanent
A spreadsheet introduced one August to cope, still load-bearing three years later, understood by one person who is now indispensable in a way nobody intended.
Workarounds priced, then removed or made official
Marketing that ignores who has already been
The booking system knows exactly who visited, when and what they spent. The mailing list treats them as a stranger.
Repeat visitors recognised as repeat visitors
How we work with businesses in Stratford
Four stages, and you can stop after any of them.
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Day one
We come to you
On site, watching the real work. For a seasonal business we would rather come during trading than during the quiet months, even though that is less convenient.
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Day two
We cost it
Every system, subscription, platform commission and licence — what each costs, what overlaps, and where the same information is held twice.
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The report
You get a written answer
What to fix before the next season, what can wait, and what to leave alone. Yours to keep and to take elsewhere if you prefer.
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Then
We build only what the report justified
With the audit fee credited in full against the build if you book within ninety days.
Where we work in and around Stratford-upon-Avon
- Stratford town centre
- Old Town
- Bridgetown
- Tiddington
- Shottery
- Alveston
- Bishopton
- Wilmcote
- Snitterfield
- Welford-on-Avon
- Wellesbourne
- Bidford-on-Avon
- Alcester
- Henley-in-Arden
- Ettington
We are based in Kenilworth, around half an hour from Stratford. On-site work carries no travel charge anywhere in this area.
Questions we get asked
Do you have clients in Stratford?
Not yet, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. We work across Warwickshire and the West Midlands — including a visitor attraction in Solihull with admissions, e-commerce and events systems we built and still run, which is the closest thing in our work to a Stratford hospitality operation.
We are seasonal. When should we do this?
The audit is more useful during trading than in the quiet months, because the problems are visible. The build is better done out of season. That usually means auditing in the busy period and implementing afterwards, which is the opposite of what most people expect.
We are a small hotel or guest house. Are we too small?
Probably not, but we will tell you if you are. Below a certain size the honest answer is that better use of what you already have beats anything we would build, and saying that costs us a sale we did not deserve.
Can you get us away from booking platform commission?
Sometimes. First we would work out what that commission actually costs against what a direct booking costs you to win, because for some businesses the platform genuinely earns its percentage. That is a calculation, not a slogan.
What if the audit finds nothing worth doing?
Then that is the finding, and you keep the written picture of your costs. If it does not pay for itself, you do not pay for it.
Who does the work?
The same people who did the audit. Nothing is passed to a delivery team you have not met and nothing is offshored.
What we do
AI consultancy & integration
Connecting the systems you already pay for, then automating the parts of a process that waste your people's time.
Read moreBespoke software & apps
Software built around how you actually work, owned by you, with no per-seat licence waiting at the end.
Read moreWebsites, e-commerce & search
Sites that load fast, read well and are found by the people looking for what you sell.
Read moreTwo days. One written answer. £995.
If the audit doesn't pay for itself, you don't pay for it. Half an hour from Stratford, and we come to you.