This week's tip of the week is simple and common sense, if you are nice to your event professionals, they will go above and beyond to please you.
The reason this topic made it into our second spot for Nicole's Tip of the Week is that in light of this economy that we are all affected by one way or another, a lot of people have turned to being grumpy, self-serving, and rude in order to get what they want, which will get them no where fast.
A good example as it applies to the event world: A client contacts a floral designer for a quote on their wedding, they meet for a complimentary initial consultation, they get their quote, and the quote isn't within their budget. Almost all wedding and event professionals will explain if their quote is over your budget, and ways you can save money on the quote in order to still use them, often times it means pairing back your expectations of what you are going to get for your budget. Then sometimes clients choose to bully the professional a bit regarding their prices, sometimes their contract wording, and it really leaves a bad taste in the professional's mouth. All professional wedding and event vendors want to please their clients, but they can only do so much before they begin to lose profit margins, security through their contractual agreements, etc...
So, the best approach in this senario is for clients to share with the professionals exactly what they need, what they want, and then allow the professional to do their best to fit their needs. If the client loved the floral designer when they met them, and loved the design proposal, but needed to make a few small changes to the proposal to make it work for their budget, then they should just be open and honest with the floral designer by saying "I've done my research, I love your work, we enjoyed meeting you, your proposal was amazing, but it doesn't fit our budget, can you please work with me to see what we can do to move forward with things and adjust our proposal to fit our needs a little better?" I can garantee you that this type of approach is going to get you a happy professional, who is more than willing to do what they can to help you work with them. Of course there are also the times when what a client wants and needs and their budget don't match what the professional can work with, and a true wedding or event professional will politely refer them to someone more suitable for their needs.
A really important thing to remember in the world we are in today while planning a Wedding or Event is Value over Cost. As clients look for value, find the professionals that you love the most, and get along with the best, whose proposals are wonderful, then work with them to get to where you need to be in order to use them. Doing this will get you the most bang for your buck. Most Wedding and Event Professionals are artists in one way or another, and artists get their feelings hurt easily if you choose to nit pick them on costs vs. appreciating their art and asking them how they can help you work with them. For example, say you find a photographer whose art work you adore! They are slightly over your budget, but because of the value of their work you meet with them, get a proposal, and then if you choose to work with them you just negotiate the amount of work you can get from them (i.e. hours at an event they shoot, how many shooters they bring, if you get an album or digital negatives or not, etc...) for your budget. Clients more concerned with costs will run away from professionals whose proposals come in too high no matter how much they love their work, afraid to communicate with the professional and work out a way to have them at their event. This means that clients more concerned with costs will likely hire a cheap photographer, and a cheap photographer may be newer with less experience, and therefore the photos may come out less nice than if the client had hired a high value photographer whose work they loved. Another old adage is true once more, "You get what you pay for".
So, long story short, you can catch more flies with honey, it's always worked for us, and we know it will work for you!
Happy New Years to you all!
Love,
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteExcellent advice, and very well said. It's true EVERYWHERE you look, of course, not just with event professionals. Whether you need auto repairs, new shoes, or just a cup of coffee, the world is filled with a wide range of products and services. Whatever you want, you can select economy and sacrifice quality, or vice versa, but you'll always get a little more SOMETHING if you're pleasant about it, and try to work out a compromise.