Life's So Sweet Chocolates - Store Employee Scheduling software - Case Study

Case Study: Life's So Sweet Chocolates in Trumansburg, New York, United States

Business Overview

I've been making candies and chocolate treats since I was eight years old and through the years I've practiced other techniques and developed my own recipes. Five years ago my husband said to me "You really enjoy making candy, do you want to take it to the next level?" I put together my business plan and put it on the back burner since I already had a full time job. In January of 2008 the opportunity arose for me to sign a lease on a retail space. Four days later I signed the lease, quit my job and opened Life's So Sweet Chocolates on February 1, 2008...just in time for Valentine's Day. I manufactured our candies and chocolates and sold them by myself for four months before we were so in demand that I hired my first employees in May 2008.

Scheduling Overview

We have between 7 and 8 part time employees, depending on the time of year. I had previous experience managing a staff in other job settings but wasn't ever responsible for scheduling or payroll responsibilities, let alone time off requests and the overall effect of managing staff members. As my business grew and employee turnover became a reality, it became more and more difficult to keep track of when employees were available, how often I needed the assistance and the overall arch of how employees affected the business.

Previous Scheduling Method

Before this employee schedule maker, I would write down each person's shifts and keep track of it using my outlook calendar and while it worked, it really wasn't the best solution.

Since ShiftPlanning

When I was contacted to try a trial of ShiftPlanning, the timing couldn't have been better because I was aching to do things better and this was a clear opportunity to streamline scheduling, manage availability and time off requests. Also the opportunity to really have a good handle on how many hours people were working and make sure each minute was effectively used.

Also, I manage a young staff - for many this is their first job or they have little employment experience. I consider it to be one of my personal responsibilities as an employer to teach these staff members how to be responsible for their work and learn as much as they can so that when they move on to their next position, as they are likely to do with college, I want them to be that much more prepared for how the 'real world works'. Using work scheduler ShiftPlanning gives them the opportunity to learn a new program and manage their schedule but above all take responsibility for shift changes, vacation requests and more. In turn, my staff loves ShiftPlanneing because it uses technology that they're used to - the text message service for shift notifications, email reminders and Internet accessibility. I have and will continue to recommend ShiftPlanning to others.

Sometimes a good measure of a product is how easy it is to use and how little one needs to interact with the creators but to know that they are available if you need them - that is one of the work schedulerShiftPlanning's strong suits: the work scheduler works in a fluid way and is fairly intuitive so you can start using it right away. If something goes wrong - the team is just an email away. The team is also never satisfied with what they have accomplished and seem to be constantly working to improve the system. I have to say I've been using the work schedule maker ShiftPlanning since nearly the beginning of their trials I believe and so many features have been added, I haven't had the chance to try all the new components out but I don't feel overwhelmed by the changes. To me that says they are sticking to their core beliefs - an easy to use, accessible system that works to solve the employee scheduling problems that every employer has no matter what size company they own.

A wonderful solution. - Darlynne Overbaugh - Life's So Sweet Chocolates

As the owner and head confectioner, I don't have much time to do everything I need to do in any given day. This employee schedule maker allows me to quickly attack the scheduling issues my business faces and with confidence that they are addressed the first time I address the issue, not the tenth time.

Further

My small business could not afford a work scheduler like this and it means a great deal to me to have the opportunity to work with this program and to do it on the budget I have.