Hey! So Today we're bringing to you on the most discussed topic to exist in the wedding & Event Industry- How to deal with clients? We can all agree to the fact that clients can sometimes be unreasonable. How do we deal with the drastic gap between what was expected and delivered? Let's start
Bridging gaps of what's expected and delivered
Communication with the client
Communicate with the vendor
The first thing that comes to my mind would be that of how clients imagine a certain vertical to be vs what is actually being communicated. The planner, while juggling both deliverables and the feasibility makes a very close call on how to run all these in the right budget, Whilst considering all the advises and extra inputs, sometimes misses out on the most important aspect! We take into consideration all of these last minute changes and forget that we need these to add up.
I generally love talking on how we accept extra tasks on the job because of various reasons, Sometimes an extra errand or we go an extra mile by paying more to a vendor just to keep things as per plan. Solution: Before you even start the event/project communicate that you are going to do something on these lines, The bill after being finalized will have revisions because there will be unforeseen conditions during the event and we want to be more than just prepared for any such events. Don't give your word to the client regarding things are aren't tangible, Making promises and building castles in air is what we make money on but make sure you aren't adamant, that's where most of us fall behind. I also get it that this step is really difficult as the client generally do not agree to things like this but starting with things you have a gut feeling of - "Oh this might not so well" and communicating it will actually make a huge difference, Trust me, when we give the client a checklist before hand on the things that we are sure might go wrong, they tend to appreciate the effort And saves us so much of resources!
Second aspect is when you see that the client wants their wedding/party to be the most unique ever (Come on who hasn't asked for this one?) then make sure you get every aspect out of his/her mind. Their concept of a glass ceiling or shade of Ombre might be really different Especially the do's and don'ts of manpower- Few of them are not willing to pick luggage up at the reception for example, make sure you take a brief from the outsourced teams first as well. Communicate, so that you are very clear and have them sign on all the documents where you have clearly mentioned all the roles of all the teams mentioned. Look, these are areas where you can cut down on all the arguments, where you can actually know what they can expect out of the service you provide. Do not compromise on your team ever!
Third and the most important vertical is how you train your team. Training is not just you briefing them on what is expected out of them it's also asking them of how long they can work or what is the aspect they aren't okay with. Sometimes event managers overestimate what a outsourced vendor/manpower team can/cannot do! Talk to the teams even before entering into a contract with the client do your homework first on what the client needs and ask the right questions. Sometimes you will find yourself overexerting your teams capabilities and when the client blames them, you blame them too. This is entirely our fault to begin with. Therefore before making an assumption (Look I know the sales team always oversells and that's how business excels but let's excel by actually making efforts - by under promising and overdeliver) This is what training looks like as the soft skills add up to almost 75% of the whole event, no matter how much we prepare ourselves, thing on field will go haywire, training our minds to be strong and to not brood on the past mistakes and get the teams morale up at the moment is all a leader should think about!
Train your mind, Train your team and watch your company grow!
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Thanks for reading! Leave a comment on what you think! :)
- Supriya