cardfactory

Overview

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cardfactory is the UK’s leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, gifts and celebrations. With over 1,000 stores nationwide and a growing digital presence, delivering a seamless customer experience across every touchpoint is a key part of their strategy.

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Behind the scenes, they saw a big opportunity to make the booking process for their popular balloon appointments even smoother. 

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By partnering with Appointedd to leverage the benefit of their intuitive, omnichannel scheduling solution, cardfactory has transformed how customers book their balloon appointments, while also supporting how store teams operate and manage these appointments efficiently.

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The challenge

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Before partnering with Appointedd, cardfactory used predominantly manual systems to manage bookings across stores, a setup that had served them well but was ready for an upgrade as the business evolved.

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• Handwritten notes and phone calls kept things moving, but there was a clear opportunity to bring everything into one central, streamlined place.
• A unified system promised to free up store colleagues by simplifying availability checks. 
• Real-time visibility was the next step in empowering smart decision-making.
• Enhancing the booking journey offered a chance to elevate the customer experience even further.
• With richer data, cardfactory could unlock new insights into demand patterns and performance.

As cardfactory expanded their digital presence, an opportunity emerged to bring their online and in-store experiences even closer together with one of their most important categories. They were ready for a seamless omnichannel solution, and ready to move quickly.

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The solution

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Appointedd provided a fully integrated, easy-to-adopt platform that created the right solution for cardfactory and their customers, with benefits including: 

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• Real-time calendar management to give store teams visibility of all appointments (online and walk-in) in one place.
• Automated customer confirmations and reminders to reduce no-shows and eliminate manual admin.
• Regional rollout with weekly check-ins ensured smooth implementation across 60+ stores.
• Feedback-driven improvements (like split calendars for different booking types) were implemented almost immediately.
• Mobile-friendly tools allow store colleagues to manage bookings on the go, even during busy periods. 

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The project launched in 12 London stores. Within a month, based on overwhelmingly positive feedback, it expanded to over 60 locations across London and the surrounding areas.

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Why Appointedd

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cardfactory chose Appointedd for its:

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• Intuitive, low-disruption platform that staff adopted quickly with minimal training.
• Omnichannel capability that bridges online and in-store bookings seamlessly.
• Powerful reporting that gives the business visibility into metrics they couldn’t track before.
• Responsive support team that listens, acts fast, and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
• Scalability to grow alongside the business as they expand the service to more stores.

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