How To Grow Your Wedding Business In Tough Economic Times

Don’t you wish you knew how to grow your wedding business in these tough economic times?

If you are like me then I am sure that you are fascinated by the topic because as you know these are challenging economic times for most business and the wedding industry is no different.

So I am sure you would like to know how to grow your business in these tough economic times. And you just cannot wait to find out the answer.

And it is this expectation that kept me sitting on the edge of my seat at the recent 6th Annual Wedding Professional Institute of Canada’s wedding conference, held in Nassau, Bahamas. As world renowned author and event planner to the stars, Colin Cowie, told wedding professionals that “customer service” is the key to business growth in tough economic times.

BUT not just any “Customer service” because as Cowie says, 95% of the customer service provided is “reactive service” - service that is provided to solves a problem that your client is complaining about.
You know when your customer is screaming at you because you got something wrong.

While this type of customer service is important as it allows you to:

1. quickly take responsibility,
2. rectify the situation,
3. satisfy the customer and
4. restore creditability.

The customer service that really makes the difference is “proactive service” which Cowie says is provider by only 5% of the world companies. So providing “Proactive Service” to your clients is definitely the way to distinguish yourself from the competition

And it is this level of service that will allow you to differentiate yourself from the crowd. The good news from Cowie is that the recent global economic downturn has leveled the playing field and now you to can take advantage of the opportunity to stand out amongst your competition by focusing on customer service to reinvent your business.

It is your opportunity to provide the "ultimate luxury" for your clients and the "ultimate luxury" is simply proactive, personalized, detailed service. As there's no reason to do anything ordinary when you can do extraordinary, Cowie says.

And you to can think “The ultimate luxury - adding dollars through customer service.” Cowie, feels that is particularly the case for the Caribbean and U.S as these are two areas were growth can be quit evident if businesses begin to focus on improving customer service. As it is this focus on customer service that has created the growth now being experienced in the Orient and Asia as they have really mastered the art of customer service.

So how do you grow your wedding business in tough economic time? By reinventing your business to provide proactive service. And how do you provide proactive service? You do it by:

1. personalizing the service,
   
2. showing incredible attention to detail,
   
3. communication and team work,
   
4. consistency and Standards,
   
5. elegance and
   
6. education.

And I will tell you what Colin had to say about each of these in my upcoming post.

Don't forget to add your comments as I appreciate your feedback...