Mark Kirby
Mark Kirby standing on a bridge
Mark Kirby · Kent, UK

Engage
with the engaged

Your enquiries aren’t the problem. It’s what you say, how you say it, and when. I work with wedding venues on everything between “I’m interested” and “I do.”

The short version
  • Est. 1971, born into hospitality
  • Best Contact Centre Leader, EMEA
  • AI-driven engagement specialist
PHOTO · LAKESIDE, 2025◉ AVAILABLE · SUMMER ’26
Est. 1971
Born into the family business
#1
Best Contact Centre in EMEA, 2012
#3
Best in the world, 2012
Top 50
Customer Service Awards Winner, 2015. Client: Heathrow.
Mark Kirby outside a wedding venue
Family business, est. 1971
Grew up in the trade.
About Mark

The industry raised me
I left. Then I came back with better tools

I grew up in a wedding venue. By the time I was sixteen, I’d worked the kitchen, helped manage bookings and done silver service. I knew what couples noticed before I knew what a P&L was.

I spent the next two decades building businesses outside hospitality. A lead generation and marketing agency. Then GoResponse, a multi-channel contact centre that grew to 130 people and counted M&S, Heathrow, P&O, Macmillan and Moss Bros among its clients. In 2012 it was voted the best contact centre in EMEA and third best in the world, and I was named Best Contact Centre Leader in EMEA. After selling GoResponse, I launched one of the UK’s first AI agencies in 2014.

The full story
The industry in numbers

The numbers most venues
would rather not see

Stat 01
68%

Of all venue enquiries arrive outside office hours. Most go unanswered until the next morning.

Source: VenueBot Research
Stat 02
81%

Of couples say they felt frustrated by how venues responded to their enquiry. Not by the venue itself. By the response.

Source: Bridebook 2026
Stat 03
Only
35%

Of venues have any structured follow-up process in place after an enquiry lands.

Source: VenueBot Health Check
Stat 04
70%+

Of couples book a viewing with the first venue to reply. Not the best venue. The fastest.

Source: VenueBot Research
Stat 05
94%

Of opportunities are lost by the average venue. The best venues lose fewer than half that.

Source: VenueBot Calculations
Stat 06
£150k vs £48k

Estimated revenue from the same 100 enquiries, depending on whether your conversion system is working or not.

Source: VenueBot Calculations
Selected work

The numbers I like to see

Case 01 · Titchwell Manor, Norfolk
+52%
tour booking rate

Speed to lead completely changed how we respond.

Titchwell were running enquiries across Google Sheets and losing the ones that landed out of hours. We replaced the lot with one integrated system and made speed to lead the priority, in a market where the booking window is tight. The AI became the owner’s favourite feature; couples engaged with it naturally, not realising they weren’t talking to a person. Show rounds climbed through the season. The results convinced the manager behind them to later join the VenueBot team.

Read the full story
Case 02 · The Dreys, Kent
~10 hrs
saved each week

No more chasing leads. Every enquiry is responded to straight away, day or night. We’ve gained time, peace of mind, and total visibility of our bookings.

The Dreys were chasing enquiries by hand, following up when they could, losing the ones that came in after hours. We put every enquiry into one system, with an instant response on every channel and automated follow-up that never forgets. The team got their time back, around ten hours a week, and the peace of mind of knowing nothing slips.

Read the full story
Case 03 · The Little Fox, Chester
8 in 10
tour-to-booking rate

We convert eight out of ten people who walk through the door.

The Little Fox were running on five or six spreadsheets and, in David’s words, “chasing our tails constantly”, answering enquiries only between 9 and 3 on weekdays. We replaced the lot with one system that responds around the clock and books tours automatically. They now convert eight out of ten tours into bookings, and the pressure the team lived under is gone. David describes it as built around how they work, not bought off a shelf.

Read the full story
What venues say
Game changer for us at The Dreys. No more chasing leads! Every enquiry is responded to straight away. We’ve gained time, peace of mind, and total visibility of our enquiries and future bookings.
Jackie
The Dreys
Watch

Industry guidance,
straight to camera

Mark Kirby

Who am I?

Thirty years in weddings and hospitality, and the question I now see venue owners asking themselves.

GoEngage / VenueBot

A quick introduction to VenueBot

What it does, who it's for, and how it helps venues turn more enquiries into booked tours.

Writing

From the blog

Read the blog →
New writing is on the way. Subscribe to The Enquiry below and it'll land in your inbox first.
Frequently asked

The usual questions

Why should we work with you rather than just buying a software platform?+

Most CRM and automation platforms are built by technology companies. What we offer is different: solutions developed from years of award-winning expertise in customer engagement, shaped into a set of best practices and then underpinned by technology, AI and automation. Everything is customised to your venue, not configured from a template, and backed by a level of hands-on support that off-the-shelf software simply doesn’t provide. You get the platform and the expertise that built it.

What are the benefits of having a CRM?+

You’re not buying the drill. You’re buying the hole. The same is true here: the software matters far less than what it produces, which is enquiries answered in minutes, follow-up that never slips, and a pipeline you can see and measure in one place. My advice to venues is to stop shopping for tools altogether. The technology changes every season, and keeping up is a job in itself. Buy the outcome instead, from a partner whose job is to re-tool as the tools change. That’s the arrangement I offer, and it’s why the results hold: less manual work, no leads going cold, and more couples booked, whatever the software underneath happens to be this year.

What size of venue is this suited to?+

VenueBot works with any venue, but the investment makes most sense for venues hosting or planning to host twenty or more weddings a year. At that volume, the time saved and the enquiries recovered start to add up quickly.

How quickly will we see results?+

Inside a month you’ll feel the relief of reduced manual work and start to see more engagement and tour bookings coming through. The bigger conversion shifts build over a full season as the system learns your venue and your team gets comfortable with it.

Will this change how my team works?+

Not in the way you’re worried about. Your team keeps doing what they do. The system catches what they can’t: the enquiry that lands at 9pm, the follow-up that slips on a busy Saturday, the couple who went quiet and needed one more nudge. We build it and run it, so there’s no new software for your team to learn and no project for you to manage. They keep looking after the couples in front of them.

What’s a discovery call like?+

We start by getting a picture of how things are working at the moment. Then we do a top-line audit of your key touchpoints: website, brochure, and the channels you use to communicate. From there we look at where your leads are coming from, analyse your conversion rates, and I’ll show you how the best-performing venues win by having a system built on best practice. No deck, no pitch.

Do you work outside the UK?+

Yes. We work with destination wedding venues internationally, as well as UK venues. If you’re based outside the UK, get in touch and we’ll have the conversation.

Mark Kirby leaning on a bridge
The invitation
Thirty minutes, a good coffee, and an honest conversation about your venue.
Book a discovery call

Let's talk

Tell me about your venue. I'll listen, ask a few questions, and if I can help I'll say so. If I can't, I'll tell you who can.

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