This article was written by Michelle Weger.
Every wedding is unique, but the process isn’t.
Our team is all about simplifying everyday experiences.
A lot of the time, that means implementing automation that can make your life easier.
Or designing websites that work for you instead of being something you sink money into.
So why were we talking about the wedding planning process a few weeks ago (other than, as anyone who has ever planned a wedding knows, that it completely takes over your life)?
Our team is very connected and regularly shares stories and experiences from their day-to-day lives, especially when they feel their experiences could have been improved with automation.
When Tracy, our Generalized Specialist, got engaged, she knew she didn’t want to get stressed out picking the perfect shade of white for her linens, or deciding between two nearly-identical centrepieces, or trying to figure out what kind of “stuff” would look good together.
So when she found a company that would take care of almost all of those details, from the venue to the caterer to decor, she was ecstatic. Instead of spending time doing everything from scratch, she just had to answer a few questions and someone else would handle all the stressful little details that didn’t matter that much to her.
Perfect, right?
For the most part, she says it’s been a good experience, but the company she’s working with is very busy right now. So Tracy sent an email to follow up with them about when she could expect to hear about the next appointments she was supposed to have.
And then she waited.
And then her fiancé tried emailing.
And then he tried calling, and still didn’t get a response.
You can imagine how Tracy and her fiancé were feeling at that point.
Not hearing back is one of the most stressful things you can experience as a client.
The fear of not knowing is very real:
- What’s going on?
- Why haven’t I heard anything?
- Is everything okay?
- I already paid them X amount of money, did they take it and run?
When your customers don’t have contact with you, they start to fill in the blanks, and not in a good way.
When Tracy finally heard back from the company she’s working with, she sent this in our team chat:
So I just have to share something with you all – a week or so ago we emailed the company coordinating our wedding because we hadn’t heard anything about our next consultations. Today we FINALLY got an email – from a totally different address and person than I thought was our contact setting up two of our consultations. And all I could think was “…you could have automated all of this so easily….”
Cue the team coming up with solutions that this company could have used to make their process that much smoother.
As Makayla, our Content Specialist, said: “Every wedding is unique, but the process from point A to point B usually isn’t.”
There are very specific things that every couple needs to do at very specific points in time. The colour of your bridesmaids dresses may be different than someone else’s, but you will still need bridesmaids dresses. You may be serving different food, but you will still need a caterer.
There may be forks in the road, but your customer’s journey is usually linear.
Our team brainstormed ways that this company could have set up automation to improve the customer’s journey. By setting up emails and tasks to automatically occur on a certain timeline, they could have prevented the automatic panic Tracy and her fiance experienced when they didn’t hear anything back.
Even if Tracy had the wrong email address and contact name, this would have been a safety net: they would have received an email with all the necessary information and a way to reach out to the company.
As your customers pick different products, services, and options, there are different ways their journey can go, but it will almost always be an easy-to-follow, linear path. By automating some, if not all, of that path, you’re creating a better customer experience with failsafes in place to take care of those inevitable missteps.
