Before I get on my high horse here, I am not intending to imply at all wedding vendors are guilty of this. I personally have had beyond fantastic experiences with a lot of my vendors and they continue to exceed expectations. Others leave something to be desired...and that is who I am talking to. And stress is the silent killer, so I am worried about the well being of myself and others like me. lol.
I want to share with you a novel concept which can really help you when dealing with stressed out brides. This can be used across any industry, and will no doubt appease even the most horrible of customer and give you good word of mouth reviews to boot.
Ready for this gem?
Underpromise and overdeliver.
It is so simple and can do wonders for your business and the sanity of your customers.
Tell me it will be ready Wednesday when it will most likely be done on Monday. Then when you call me on Monday saying my order is ready to go, I am thinking you are a rock star, and my schedule doesn't have to be disrupted. I will tell everyone who even breathes the word wedding how wonderful you are and how they would be fools to go to any other vendor. Fools!
But in reality land, the opposite happens. I am told things will be ready Saturday, then when I call Friday to make sure Saturday is good to go, I learn that actually it wont be ready until Monday. I am en route across town to pick something up, only to learn that something that is someone else's fault pushed the schedule back a day or two. In normal life I am very accommodating and understanding. In wedding mode, I am on edge because I am trying to get 15 things done in a lunch hour, and I have 5 different people changing the plan on me at the last minute. Adopting this underpromise and overdeliver method could really make strides in the whole 'bridezilla' problem I am sure you deal with frequently. I make plans to get things handled, then they get rescheduled and I don't have Monday free to deal with you, then I get scared that I am one phone call or email away from being screwed over by one of these people I gave a non-refundable deposit to. You could take responsibility for your contribution to the problem and try to be better. I am not saying brides are innocent. Certain people need some help getting it together sometimes, I get it. I am not perfect either. I am bad about contacting people at the last minute about things, but I think I am pretty decent at responding in a timely fashion and always being polite, and not needlessly changing my mind constantly. (at worst, I give Katrina an ear full about how incompetent I find you) I want our interactions to be easy just as much as you do - I want to give you money for whatever you are selling and trust that in your experience of being a 'wedding person' that it or you will be there looking fabulous with no problems.
I don't doubt that your intentions are anything but noble when you tell me a date or time that is reasonable or even fast. (You can have my dress altered in 3 days, wonderful!) But I don't know if you guys realize how damaging it can be to your reputation when I get the disappointing news that you can't keep your word. The fact that this situation has played itself out in my experience from more that 3 people I have dealt with in this process, I can't imagine that some weird fluke is happening and I am the only one who gets dates pushed back, or expectations not met.
I took one marketing class years ago in college - not too much stuck with me, but this little tidbit did because it has proven to be true among me and everyone I know. If you have a bad experience somewhere, you will tell 14 people (on average). If you have a good experience, you are likely to tell no one. Sad but true. I think the numbers could be skewed for industry or whatnot. In the wedding business, word of mouth and reputation is HUGE. Even with the Internet age - I may not know any Houston brides-to-be that need to be warned about someone, but you can bet in a heartbeat I will chime in if someone on a forum somewhere is looking for a florist and I know someone who jerked me around and caused me a bunch of stress. If I ran across 2-3 people saying don't use so and so I am going to think that so and so must be an incompetent clown. For the amount us brides are overcharged on everything I expect to be dealing with pros. Maybe you sell $1500 wedding cakes 5 days a week and lose sight of the amount of money that is because you aren't a billionaire. I can pay two months of rent with that money, or go on a week long cruise to Mexico, but I am buying flippin' cake. So if you are giving me the run around or not emailing me back, what do you expect??
Underpromise and overdeliver.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your time and I would like to thank the wonderful people I have dealt with whom none of this applies to. And thanks to fellow brides for helping me stay sane and laughing throughout this crazy process!
1 comment:
hmm that's a great philosophy to go by! I like it: underpromise and overdeliver. makes a lot of sense!
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