DanceSyndrome
A multi-award-winning, disability-led dance charity delivering inclusive dance classes across Lancashire, co-led by Dance Leaders with learning disabilities.
Visit their website"We were able to take a step back from the administrative heavy lifting, enabling key staff to work on other projects. All new and future classes are powered by Pembee. It has become our standard operating procedure."
Before Pembee: The Problems
Growing classes. Sprawling spreadsheets. Manual admin burdens.
The Challenges
- •Participants, attendance and payments tracked across an ever-growing set of spreadsheets
- •Challenges with managing organisational growth when using manual data management
- •Growing concern about accounting errors and out-of-date emergency contacts and support needs
- •Any new system had to be accessible and easy to use for participants, parents and carers
In Their Words
"Tracking our growing pool of participants, their attendance and their class payments across various analogue spreadsheets was becoming progressively more time-intensive and unruly as we expanded our offerings."
"If a better solution was not sourced, the existing system would have become unmanageable."
"Change is hard for anyone. If we were going to change to a new system, it needed to be something both our participants and their parents and carers could feel comfortable and confident using."
Why we chose Pembee
A key factor that convinced us to move forward with Pembee was that it was the only booking system at the time that offered both block bookings and individual pay-as-you-go bookings. We also felt the platform's clear, user-friendly layout would be accessible for people with learning disabilities using our systems. The ability to create multiple profiles within one account was another advantage, as many of our participants rely on parents or carers to make bookings on their behalf.
The Solution
One of the most important decisions the charity made was to prioritise accessibility and booking flexibility. A platform that could accommodate different booking preferences and support multiple user profiles streamlined the booking experience for participants, families and carers alike.
Overcoming Challenges
The most challenging aspect was finding a booking solution that met the diverse needs of our participants while remaining simple and accessible to use. Ed was really helpful in the investigation and onboarding process. He listened to our needs, took on board where there were gaps between what Pembee offered and what we needed, and actively worked to find solutions and modify the platform where possible. Many other platforms just gave a straight "no, it can't do that" response. You can see Pembee are continuously developing the platform and actively working to make improvements.
The Results
Everything in One Secure Place
Not only were we able to move a large quantity of data into a secure place, Pembee has enabled us to launch a series of online dance classes which are handled, administratively, through Pembee entirely. This has freed up significant staff time and streamlined our finances. Pembee has also proven user-friendly for our community, and we successfully moved the majority of our participants onto Pembee and away from previous methods.
Time Back for the Team
Defining moments include being able to take a step back from the administrative heavy lifting for the majority of our classes, enabling key staff to work on other projects, along with the time saved with payments running through Pembee via Stripe.
New Classes, No Extra Admin
Pembee has enabled us to launch additional dance classes across Lancashire without draining additional administrative time to manage them. All new and future classes are powered by Pembee. It has become our standard operating procedure.