Secrets to Booking (and Retaining) More Clients
There’s a common misconception in the wedding industry that each client is a single opportunity to generate a profit. Once they’ve tied the knot and jetted off for their honeymoon, you might as well forget about them, right?
Wrong!
Your client experience—before, during, and after the wedding!—has the power to build your referral business and even retain clients for other events. After all, a wedding is just the first celebration of their lives together. There will surely be anniversaries, baby showers, birthdays, and other milestone events that they’ll need help to plan!
Additionally, happy clients are more likely to shout your praises to their friends and family. Newly engaged couples are eager for recommendations, so an excellent client experience goes much further than a positive review (although, those are also worth their weight in gold!).
Here’s a look at how you can enhance your clients’ journey and leave each of your couples with an indelible impression of your brand experience.
Get clear on your ideal client.
Your ideal client is the person who will love everything you do, from your suggestions to your surprises. They will enter your working relationship with a positive opinion of you and your brand, even before you’ve done any work!
While others may approach you with caution or hesitancy, your ideal client will be eager to see you work your magic because you’ve developed trust and respect through your sales and marketing efforts. When you target these perfect fits, you don’t have to worry about disappointing them so long as you sustain your brand’s promises.
Keep an eye on your competitors.
The wedding industry is competitive and, for the most part, I caution you to avoid spending too much time focused on what your competitors are doing. However, it’s important to have an idea of what they’re offering to the market so you can know how to differentiate yourself based on strengths and weaknesses.
Just don’t fret too much about it, or else you may find yourself driven solely by competition. Knowledge is valuable, obsession is not.
Consider your first impression.
More often than not, your first impression on a new client will be through the screen of their smartphone or computer. You don’t usually get the opportunity to give your elevator pitch or show off your elaborate inventory right away. First, you need to coax them into scheduling a meeting so you can get to the good stuff.
Think about how you want your clients to feel when they are interacting with your brand online. Confident and enthusiastic? Calm and collected? Then, turn your sights to your photos and messaging to see if your imagery and tone of voice helps to cultivate those feelings.
Enhance the client journey.
The client experience is really just a collective series of touchpoints, including emails, meetings, shared documents, and so on. From the moment you schedule a consultation, you should be in full client experience mode.
Be intentional about making every step as easy and engaging as possible. That means sending digital versions of proposals and contracts, automating the payment process, sending clear and concise emails, and entering every meeting with a detailed agenda to keep you on track. Whether your brand is fun and eclectic or luxurious and chic, you should always be professional.
Additionally, consider how you personalize each client’s experience to their preferences and needs. Do you have a thoughtful gifting strategy built into the process? Are you known for surprising them with a special element on their big day? Planning a wedding is a deeply personal and emotional experience, so it helps to know that you are always listening and care about them as people instead of just as another client.
People like to have a good time, and they do not like stress. If you can remove the obstacles in their way while extending yourself to enrich their experience, your clients will become wildly enthusiastic fans for life.
Kylie Carlson is the owner of The Wedding Academy, a globally-known education organization for industry professionals. Since its start in 2007, the Academy has launched the careers of over 4,000 wedding planners with their certification courses, and Kylie has devoted her time to empowering other CEOs and entrepreneurs to build a meaningful, powerful career. She’s also the founder of Wedding CEO Club and the Wedding CEO Podcast.
