For wedding professionals, the importance of having recent and great reviews cannot be overstated. I know some of you get it – and I know some of you say that you get it – but the real questions are: do you have a plan in place to get reviews from as many couples as possible, and do you have a plan in place to use the reviews you get to increase leads/bookings?
As service focused businesses whose main mission is to rock some part of a couple’s one and only wedding day, what previous couples have to say about us and what we did for them can make a huge difference to potential couples. Doesn’t matter whether you are a planner, officiant, photographer, DJ, florist, baker or candlestick maker – it is highly likely that your reviews, or lack thereof, will factor into a couple’s decision on whether or not to hire you. They may get a referral from a past couple or another vendor, but this generation wants to get validation from multiple sources and ones that they consider unbiased or less biased, including reviews from past couples. It’s called “social proof.”
Here are some quick tips in regards to reviews:
1) Ask in your after-service thank you e-mail (you do send one of those, right?) if they could please write you a review. Explain why you are asking and give them a link to where they can review you… make it easy.
2) If a couple inquiries through your website, make sure in your response to link them to where they can read your reviews… again, make it easy.
3) When you get a great review, share it on social media.
4) Use the good stuff – the words your couples are saying about you in their reviews – in your marketing and messaging.
5) Use the bad stuff your couples are saying about you in their reviews to improve your systems and processes. Yes, actually pay attention to the bad stuff, especially if it comes up more than once.
Think about the cost of reviews (just a bit of time) vs. their value (unbiased praise for your business and unbiased free business evaluation). And if you don’t have a reviews plan in place, create and implement one today!
