In this interview, we sit down with Tammy Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of Gardner Schools, to discuss how her organization has leveraged 1Place to enhance operational efficiency across their 35 locations. You can find both the video recording of the interview and the full transcript below. Enjoy!
Tammy, could you tell us who you are, a little about yourself, and your goals and hopes for the school?
My name is Tammy Robinson, and I’m the Chief Operating Officer for the Gardner Schools. We have 35 locations across the United States, and my goal for our organization is to continue to provide best-in-class service and experience for young children, their parents, and our teachers.
Prior to starting the use of 1Place, can you talk to us about the challenges or issues you and the team were facing and the impact those challenges were having?
Prior to using 1Place, we had a variety of checklists and ticketing systems that were very much siloed by departments. The decision to move to One Place was definitely something that would make our lives easier and would provide visibility between multiple departments to see what each of our locations had going on at any specific time. Our goal is to have a platform that can be accessed by any department, to have a good idea of what the school visitation report looks like, what maintenance facility items they might have open, and to gain an understanding and address those issues quickly.
What factors encouraged you and the team to investigate and use 1Place?
I became familiar with 1Place during an ECE phone call agenda follow-up and just decided to click on it and look into it. I knew there had to be a better, more streamlined solution out there that we could utilize to be better at anything we were already experiencing. Our main goal was to find something that would streamline all of these departments and processes so that we had everything in one place.
1Place has a lot of different features. How did you and the team start implementing it? Did you go all in or start with specific areas first?
I believe in jumping in feet first and then figuring it out. We met with the 1Place team and Laura, and we worked together to develop what was going to be best for the Gardner School. We started with our school visitation checklist, which has helped tremendously with our district managers visiting schools, going through the checklist, taking photographs, providing accountability, and then giving a score at the end. We also implemented our IT ticketing system and our maintenance and facility ticketing system to ensure that all departments were integrated and could be monitored through one platform.
Since starting with 1Place, what have you found with your feet first approach?
It has surprisingly gone really smoothly. We’ve had many conversations with Lora and the team, working through some challenges, and they’ve been very responsive in addressing those issues. As fairly new clients since the fall, we’re looking forward to upcoming updates, such as more robust ticketing for IT and facilities.
