Professionalism, Contracts and Client Selection

I was contacted by a bride last month - very sweet and very together.  We met and hit it off, and she advised that she had chosen to hire our company to provide Wedding Day Management services.

We forwarded her our standard contract along with our gratitude for being selected.

And thus the niceties ended.  Said bride never contacted us again, however, her father (who incidentally had never met with us in person) did.  He was unhappy with the way our contract was written.  He demanded that we add a clause, and rewrite two or three others.  He accused us of writing an "unfair" agreement.

Yours truly was more than a little taken aback by this e-mail, however, I took a deep breath and responded calmly and clearly.  I explained to this person that:

1. Our contracts are established and have been in place for nearly four years.

2. Our contracts are not written for each individual client, and will not be rewritten for each individual client.

I forgot to mention the large number of clients who happen to be attorneys who have signed our contract with no issues, on top of ALL of our former clients who have signed them (a mark of a professional wedding coordinator is a solid contract for those of you taking notes).  I also forgot to mention something key: potential clients have the option (and the responsbility) to check references on us prior to signing a contract.

We don't get that luxury when choosing our clients.

I addressed some of the concerns that he had asserted - all essentially rooted in the assumption that we would fail to show up on the wedding day and thereby fail to provide services.

I can't entirely blame "Dad".  There are just enough crooks in the wedding industry (as in all industries) to make people really wary of even the good ones.

However, I CAN blame "Dad" for two things:

1. He never asked me to provide additional references (which I would have gladly done) and

2. He didn't give me the courtesy of a response (which is just rude)

The former would have provided him with dozens of past clients and professional colleagues who could have attested to the fact that we not only show up to our weddings, we are one of the only coordination companies with formal plans in place in the event of an emergency out of our control.

The latter would simply have been courteous.

I confess that we are as selective about our clients as they are about us, and that's good business.  Any coordinator who promises to be all things to all people is promising something unachievable.  We prefer clients who value our time and believe that we will deliver what we have promised, to begin with.  There are other, more subtle traits that we look for in a successful client-coordinator relationship, too, but we like to start with these two.

And, in the end, we're pretty decent about choosing clients who have the potential to be really happy clients: people with whom we have a great rapport and for whom we can perform acts that appear magical. 

Be truthful - don't you wish all of your service providers were as selective about you, ensuring magical results?  Think of the possibilities...

Happy planning.

Shayna Walker, Owner

Williamsburg Wedding Design

Comments

[isha]

Shayna,

I agree wholeheartedly. This is a relationship. It should be magical!