Can we talk about communication for a second? Why is it so hard to communicate with each other lately? Are vendors overbooking? Have clients being overly needy? Are people just over it all and are mentally checking out? All of the above.
As a wedding planner, there are a few things I do to make sure communication is better for my clients, vendors, and my team. Since wedding planners are the project managers of the wedding, we work on setting expectations early on for everyone. In this blog, I’m sharing how to prioritize communication as a wedding pro to ensure a smooth wedding planning experience for you and your clients.
Keep reading for a few easy ways we’ve found as wedding planners to make our communication process flow better for our clients and vendor team:
OOO message
While this is not new, it’s something I believe more wedding pros should not be afraid to use. Whether you are away for work or are just slammed, an out of office message can help give your clients and vendors an idea of when they can expect a response from you. Letting people know they can expect an answer in the next 48-72 hours will ease their minds and also buy you a little extra response time! Of course, as a professional, it’s important to honor that timeline and respond within the promised timeline.
Hire a Virtual Assistant
The ultimate wedding to better communicate as a wedding pro is by hiring an extra team member to help out. This sounds daunting especially if you’re a new business owner but I promise you it will be well worth it. Hiring someone for as little as 5 hours a week to monitor your inbox can relieve so much stress. With a little bit of training they will be able to answer some basic questions or can ease the person’s mind by saying they will bring this question to your attention as soon as you return. Sometimes all people want is to get a confirmation that their email has been received and they will get an answer soon!
Need more ideas on how to build your wedding team? Check out this blog post we wrote about how to scale your business with a team.
Try a Ghosting Template
Wait what? Yes! Getting ahold of a free ghost email template like the one our friend Kerry Ann Walsh has is a great way to clearly communicate with clients and vendors when they aren’t responding. Sometimes I think we are afraid to come off too strongly or follow up too many times but this template is giving you all the right words to say and all you need to do is customize it slightly to make it sound like you!
Take on less, charge more
Hear me out friends. If you’re slammed right now because if the * wedding boom * it might be a sign that you need to take on less clients and charge more for your services. Our team raised their prices again this year because we don’t want to sacrifice the quality of our service with our current paying clients in order to take on more work. Wouldn’t you want to do the same? We always want to do our absolute best for our clients and in order to do so, we need to give them the time and proper communication they deserve. So, less clients at a higher rate is the way to go!
The thing to remember about communication is that it’s a two-way street. If you want other people to communicate well with you, you have to communicate well with them as well. Set clear expectations for your preferred method of communication but also be flexible on how and when others are able to chat.
Have anything else you would add to this list? I’d love to hear your tips! Connect with me on Instagram to chat. For even more wedding business tips and tricks, be sure to follow me on YouTube!