customer service

How to annoy a prospect or customer

annoyed woman How to annoy a prospect or customer From time to time, we do things that annoy other people. If you or I are truly honest with ourselves, we put aside hypocrisy and admit it. For the record, though, it is much easier to spot annoying habits in other people. And, if we’re lucky, sometimes we notice that we do some of those annoying things… and we take note.

Yesterday, I made an early morning visit to my orthopedist. Early is the best time for a doctor appointment because they tend to happen on time. My appointment follow up is to get an MRI and then see the doctor for a follow up to see what’s going on inside my left shoulder.

Before one leaves the office, you MUST stop by the CHECK OUT station. That is where staff makes sure you have completed your co-pay, schedule the next appointment, etc.,.

What, otherwise, was a Swiss watch experience, was marred by the staff member at the CHECK OUT station. She was impatient and didn’t listen. She preferred to finish my sentences with what she thought I was going to say. After the third time she interrupted by finishing my sentence, incorrectly, I said (brusquely) “You really need to let me finish my sentences.”

By her expression, you’d think I had tweaked her nose. No poker face, here.

Here’s the thing. When we know our jobs and the usual questions/answers, it becomes common to believe that we know what the other person is thinking. Often times, that may be true. Even so, it’s rude to finish another person’s sentence.

Whether in a sales or customer service situation, the two most important techniques are:

Asking good questions
Listening

I admit to making this mistake, periodically. It’s annoying. So, when the shoe was on the other foot, it was annoying to me.

The Morale:

Observe bad habits in others
Learn by them
Recognize those tendencies in yourself
Limit one’s own annoying behavior
Reap the benefits of being a patient listener

This is the first post in a periodic theme.

One more thing: What’s annoying you? Would love to hear it.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Is your pricing and service structure working against you?

Wedding vendors are often frustrated that brides don’t appreciate the value of their services. Ultimately, aside from ‘customer service,’ there are three major factors that come into play.

Hours of service
Price for product/service
The quality of the result

One major problem is the tradition of how pricing is presented. Often, particularly for entertainment, photography, videography, the pricing presented to the prospect is based on ‘time in direct contact with the client.’

That method, while customary in the wedding industry, understates the time directly serving any single client, not to mention their share of overall service and time from your business.

Until I went through the process of being a groom, I never realized how much time a videographer or photographer spent, after the wedding, before presenting the final result. Contracts for services show beginning and end times at the event, but I’ve never seen an informational description of how much time is spent in post-production, for example.

When a prospect doesn’t know how many hours it takes to edit one hour of raw footage from one camera, it’s hard for her to understand why the price is $4000 rather than $1000. Hours are tangible measure of your effort. The result is more subjective.

It is not sufficient to show a prospect samples of your reel or finished photos and expect them to understand the degree of difficulty. A photographer who shoots a sunset wedding has a great degree of difficulty. If one doesn’t explain the situational differences in equipment, lighting, etc., then you are just hoping that the client figures it out. That’s not good enough.

A DJ service or band prices itself for a specific number of hours of performance. Travel and set up are typically not shown, unless the event is outside the local market area.

What effect might it have if proposals and contracts had a simple ‘informational statement’ that indicated a list of additional tasks associated with the event that do not happen during the precise reception time frame? Effective implementation includes discussing the total scope of your service with the client, including a summary of those points, in your proposal, and briefly including it in (or as an attachment) to your agreement.

Maybe this should be an industry-wide standard for wedding marketers? What would change in the process of selling if every prospect understood you total measure of service, and its impact on the final result for the bride?

I know, I’m turning the pricing and selling approach on its ear. Maybe it’s time we do that.

I invite your specific comments, and how you think this might apply within your slice of the wedding industry.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority