Cath Kidston Case Study.

One of Britain’s most recognisable brands is using an innovative Hampshire digital agency to ensure the reception area at its London headquarters remains modern and vibrant. Renowned British lifestyle brand Cath Kidston Ltd turned to MediaBase Direct (MBD) to provide a digital alternative to its traditional visitors’ book – and has now adopted the firm’s e-Reception Book on a permanent basis.

This electronically streamlines the sign-in process and enhances the visitor experience as well as being compliant with upcoming strict data capture regulations. And it’s all done on a tablet.

Cath Kidston, famous for its iconic prints, bags and accessories, fashion, kids range and homewear in a ‘modern vintage’ style, has more than 200 stores worldwide – all administered from its head office near Shepherd’s Bush.

The company, celebrating its silver jubilee in 2018, became aware of MBD thanks to its receptionist Julia Boulton who noticed a LinkedIn post about e-Reception Book and persuaded her bosses to try it. The busy building, a stone’s throw from the giant Westfield shopping centre, houses 240 Cath Kidston staff and there are dozens of visitors every day. The e-Reception Book was installed early in 2017.

The Cath Kidston team reported that using e-Reception Book was a real change from the old paper sign-in where the receptionist could often be answering the phone when people wanted to sign in and wouldn’t be able to attend to them.

The new system, apart from looking really good and being extremely simple to use, streamlined the process and freed up the receptionist for other work – saving a great deal of time.

The receptionist can also see who is in the office at any time on her dashboard –crucial in case of emergency.

The company said the introduction of e-Reception Book had been a huge transformation for staff yet was working brilliantly well and there would be no hesitation in recommending it to other businesses. Cath Kidston has been able to customise the system to include distinctive branding and include six different categories of visitors.

The company reported that the MBD team really looked after them and made sure the bespoke version of the system was completely understood and working well. MBD’s fast-growing, easily-installed and customisable, tablet-based, fully confidential e-Reception Book app has replaced the traditional, non-compliant visitors’ book in reception areas across the country.

MBD head of product Daniel Jain said: “Our e-Reception Book is becoming indispensable for businesses who must meet strict new EU data protection legislation criteria. “We have worked hard to produce this app to ensure all data capture is fully compliant and opt-in friendly – making cumbersome and expensive visitor books obsolete. “Customers also benefit through data conversion to actionable information via fully automated intelligent email alerts, fast email cleaning, intelligent screening and fast validation processes – boosting awareness and response rates.

MBD, based in London and Segensworth, Hampshire, has been delivering database and digital solutions for more than 25 years.