7 Ways to Improve Your Wedding Business During The Coronavirus Pandemic

It’s no secret that our industry has been rocked by the unwanted entrance of Coronavirus. Between all the postponements, cancellations and calamity, many wedding industry professionals have been left with calendars that are much more open than they originally planned. Because of this, you should definitely look to improve your wedding business during the coronavirus pandemic.

This pandemic WILL end and our calendars WILL return to normal. Why not have an improved wedding business when that time comes? I’ll show you 7 tasks you can complete during your new found free time that will improve your business!

1. Spruce Up Your Workflows

Now is the perfect time to go through all of your processes and workflows within your CRM, Customer Relationship Management system, to make sure they are working for you and you aren’t working for them. If you have a CRM but haven’t taken the time to set up actual workflows, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! They are complete time savers & if you set them up correctly, they can perform as a Virtual Assistant for you until you can afford to hire one. The better your system works, the better your client experience will be! This leads to happy clients and happy clients lead to referrals!

Need a CRM? I love & trust Dubsado! Click HERE to get 20% off your first month or year subscription!

2. Record Instructions For Your Processes From Start To Finish

Now that you’ve whipped your processes & workflows into shape, it would be a good time to record the step by step instructions on how your processes work from start to finish. Not only will this come in handy when/if you hire an Assistant or add to your staff, but if you ever get sick or are unable to perform your duties, you have a video recording of yourself explaining step by step, what should be done to continue providing the same quality level of service to your clients.

You can utilize Zoom or Loom for free to record yourself and capture your screen while explaining your processes. FYI…Loom is my fav!

How easy would it be to simply send someone a video or series of videos that explains exactly what they should do in the event of an emergency or in the event you add to your team? Priceless right?!

3. Request Feedback & Reviews

Clients who have a positive, seamless experience with your business are less likely to see fault in your service. How will you know how great or poor your client experience is if you don’t ask?

In my opinion, there is a difference between feedback & reviews. Feedback allows us to understand exactly what our clients need from us in order to make changes to serve them better. The information is generally kept private as its collected only for your eyes to see. Reviews are public & provide the social proof your business needs to attract more clients and help sell your experience to prospective leads.

For feedback, create a survey using Survey Monkey or another online service that allows you to collect anonymous responses from past clients. Send the link for the survey to all your past clients and use their responses to enhance your client experience and service.

Want to ensure they complete the survey? Make sure they know its anonymous and that positive and negative feedback is welcome. Most people are more likely to offer criticism if it can be done anonymously.

For reviews, send the same email you would requesting feedback but this time, provide the links to exactly where you’d like them to leave a review. I like to instruct my clients to simply copy and paste the same review on each platform I provide. The less work they have to do, the more likely they are to do it!

Want to ensure they leave a review? Offer them an incentive to do it. Photographers can offer a free print. Florists can offer a nice discount on an arrangement for an upcoming holiday. Wedding Planners can reach out to the photographer and purchase a print product for the couple. If you are out of ideas, promising a special delivery to your clients for leaving a review then sending a Greetabl, which are always a HUGE hit, should do the trick!

4. Invest In Continuing Education

Another way to improve your wedding business during the coronavirus pandemic is to invest in continuing education. We hear it all the time but it really is true, if you want to improve your business, you can’t stop learning. Know that weakness that you have within your skill set that you hope you never have to showcase? Is there a skill you always wanted to learn but haven’t had the time? Now is definitely the time! There are tons of resources available to creatives in our industry. Youtube University is great, but in my opinion, to get the knowledge you really need, you are going to have to invest in yourself and sign up for that workshop or coaching program. Do your research first to ensure you make the right investment, then do the work to yield the return.

5. Review & Update Your Insurance Coverages

Ya’ll knew I was going to throw this in right?

I’ll keep it short, but now would be a good time to review your insurance coverages, limits and deductibles, make sure all of your equipment schedules are up to date (need an equipment schedule template? Click HERE) and make any changes, if needed.

Need a long overdue review of the insurance you have for your business but feel overwhelmed every time the topic comes up? Sign up for my Insurance Checkup service to avoid the headache, receive a custom analysis of your unique business & current insurance as well as recommendations to make sure your insurance is properly protecting your business. Sign up HERE!

6. Perform a Website Audit & Refresh

Your website is one of the first points of contact between you and potential customers and if it is repelling your potential clients, your empty inbox will be the first to let you know.

Take some time and do a comb over of your site. Make sure punctuation, spelling and capitalization are all correct. Have any hard to read fonts? While often pretty, if users can’t understand the words, what’s the point? Do all the links work and take the user to the places you want them to go? Is your website loading slowly? Is anything off centered, too small or too big?

It’s also a good idea to have a friend go through your website and let you know any issues they came across. Fresh eyes often see errors we miss. Making these changes can seem like a hassle but trust me, your website gives your user a sense of your experience without ever speaking to you.

7. Connect With Your Ideal Client On Social Media

All the free time you now have to scroll social media can be put to good use! Find out where your ideal client hangs on social media and hang there too. Search & follow hashtags that your ideal client would search. Comment on their comments, Follow them and comment on their pictures. Send them a DM when they post a story you identify with. Engage, engage, engage! Social media is for being social so don’t feel weird talking to prospective clients you don’t know.

The point of this is for you to get your business on their radar and for them to get to know you and your personality. Prospective clients are more likely to purchase from companies that they know, like and trust.

The possibilities really are endless to improve your wedding business during the coronavirus pandemic. If you do the work, you will reap the reward. I know times are difficult right now but I am cheering you on! Let’s get to work!