Customer case

Table of Contents

Customer case
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Today I had the pleasure of meeting a pair of estate owners, that runs a business of arranging weddings, Christmas markets, and other events at their estate.

They presented their current setup that their company uses to keep track of progress of individual events, and with that, the issues that comes with the current solution they are using. Their company primarily uses Trello as progress board, but a lot of their processes and workflows are time consuming and manual labour. A little automation or use of AI could probably help them with some of their burdens. And that’s where we come in.

Meeting Summary
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To keep the customers names anonymous, they have been renamed to “Mr. J”.

Here’s a summary of the meeting:

Summary

Pains
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A large amount of time is spent managing weddings and large parties during the summer season.
Conferences are difficult to host because there are not enough sleeping accommodations.
Guests have limited transportation options since no buses go to the estate.
Creating contracts from Trello boards is the biggest time-consuming task.
Contracts are manually created in Word documents based on information entered into the bookkeeping/accounting system.
Employees must manually follow up with customers to collect missing information.
Inventory is counted manually twice a year and entered into Excel sheets.
Vendor communication for the Christmas market is handled manually through PDFs and emails.
Stall placement requests for the Christmas market are handled manually.
There is no automated way to compare menus against available inventory and ingredient requirements.

Wishes
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Automate the process of generating contracts from Trello boards.
Automate reminders to customers who have not submitted required information.
Create a system that converts menus into ingredient requirements.
Compare ingredient requirements against current inventory levels automatically.
Optimize purchasing to reduce waste and save money on ingredients and materials.
Automatically send reminder emails to Christmas market vendors 14 days before the event.
Improve management of vendor stall requests and placement.
Streamline event management workflows across weddings, conferences, and rentals.

Nouns
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Estate / Manor
Wedding barn
Restaurant building
Weddings
Large parties
Confirmations
Birthdays
Conferences
Sleeping rooms
Glamping tents
Summer houses
Contracts
Agreements
Bookkeeping system
Word document
Offer / Quote
Invoice
Trello board
Wedding template
Summer house rental board
Customers
Employees
Decorations
Flowers
Food
Beverages
Inventory
Excel sheet
Menus
Ingredients
Christmas market
Vendors / Stallholders
PDF
Reminder emails
Train connection
Copenhagen (CPH)

Glossary
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Danish Term	English Translation	Meaning
Lade	Barn	Large event barn used for weddings and parties
Godset	Estate / Manor	The property hosting events and accommodations
Bryllup	Wedding	Main event type handled by the business
Konfirmation	Confirmation	Religious/family celebration event
Tilbud	Quote / Offer	Proposal sent to customers
Faktura	Invoice	Billing document sent after agreement
Bogføringssystem	Bookkeeping system	Financial/quotation management system
Sommerhus	Summer house	Rental accommodation
Standeholder	Vendor / Stallholder	Participant in the Christmas market
Julemarked	Christmas market	Seasonal event with vendors
Lager	Inventory / Stock	Stored ingredients and materials

Activity Diagram
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Customer Inquiry
    ↓
Customer sends email asking for pricing and availability
    ↓
Mr. J sends standard response with attached pricing documents
    ↓
(Optional) Customer visits the estate
    ↓
Mr. J enters offer details into bookkeeping system
    ↓
Mr. J manually updates Word contract/offer document
    ↓
Offer is sent to customer
    ↓
Customer signs agreement
    ↓
Estate sends invoice
    ↓
Event planning tasks managed in Trello
    ↓
Employees complete event-specific tasks
    ↓
Follow-up reminders sent for missing customer information
    ↓
Final contract generated from Trello board
    ↓
Event execution

Communication Routes
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Wedding & Event Booking
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Customer
    ↔ Email ↔
Mr. J
    ↔ Bookkeeping System ↔
Offer / Contract Documents
    ↔ Invoice ↔
Customer

Internal Event Coordination
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Mr. J
    ↔ Trello Board ↔
Employees

Customer Follow-up
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Mr. J
    ↔ Reminder Emails ↔
Customers

Christmas Market Vendor Management
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Estate
    ↔ PDF / Email ↔
Vendors / Stallholders
    ↔ Placement Requests ↔
Estate

Inventory & Kitchen Planning
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Menus
    ↔ Ingredient Requirements ↔
Inventory System / Excel
    ↔ Purchasing Decisions ↔
Suppliers

Suggestions
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Here are a couple of ideas, where AI could help our customer:

Automatic Contract Generator
- AI reads Trello data automatically
- AI generates a Word/PDF
Automatic email-flow for customer
- Automatically send standard reply
- Automatically remind customers for missing information
AI-assistent
- An internal AI-chat that can find data, generate documents and mails
Logistics control and menu optimization
- Use AI to calculate ingredients, amounts and grocery list
Automatic Christmas market management
- AI collects all data and automatically places stalls
- AI creates a map of all stalls
AI for conferences and booking optimization
- Automatically suggest overnight stay
- Booking optimization
- Suggestions for package-solutions

Customer case#

Meeting Summary#

Pains#

Wishes#

Nouns#

Glossary#

Activity Diagram#

Communication Routes#

Wedding & Event Booking#

Internal Event Coordination#

Customer Follow-up#

Christmas Market Vendor Management#

Inventory & Kitchen Planning#

Suggestions#