By Ciara Daykin

When I started my company in 2004 I worked at a full time corporate job. I quickly realized the demand of owning and running a service based business and that attention to the customers was my number one priority. It didn’t matter if I had someone else who was interested in working with me, if my current customer wasn’t happy then that would result in bad word of mouth and I didn’t want that to happen. One of the first things I did was I got a blackberry. That meant I was able to see emails come through from my clients all the time and if it was urgent I could get right back to them. I then hired a virtual assistant, because while I was working at my corporate job this person could make sure that my tasks were getting done for my current clients and that any issues were being handled right away.

Times Change But Mantras Stay the Same

Now in 2010 things have changed a lot and we have not only a virtual assistant, but a full time in office staff. But my priorities have not changed. Our current clients must be #1. When I was at my corporate job we had a mantra. It was a software company and the mantra made a lot of sense and so I made this the mantra for my wedding planning company as well:

Customer Down Takes Precedent
Over
Customer Development and Research Takes Precedent
Over
Customer Maintenance Takes Precedent
Over
Developing New Customers

Your Bride Needs to Hear From You

That means that if a customer is having an issue…a 911 emergency, then we help that customer right away. Even if it doesn’t seem like an emergency to us, it’s an emergency to them and it’s their perception that we’re concerned with. Most of these emergencies can be calmed with a simple response that you heard them and that you’re working on the issue. Even if you don’t have an update for a customer you need to make sure that you are updating them in these types of situations when they are waiting on an answer- update them that you don’t have the answer but you’re still working on it.

I recently told my staff that this is what makes us different from other wedding and event planners. It is our attention to detail and the way in which we treat our customers. They must be our priority because they are the source of our income.

Ciara’s Rockstar Wedding Planner Advice

You may think that developing new customers is the #1 priority and that it seems odd that it’s at the bottom but a good friend of mine once said “take care of the ones you have.” We are not going to attract any more clients unless we are taking care of the ones we have. God isn’t going to send us more clients unless we make the space for them. That’s why it’s so important that we have systems and processes because they make us more efficient and help us to create space. It doesn’t matter how much we try to attract new customers, we won’t until we’ve made the space in which to accept them. When current clients are happy it attracts new clients that we can make happy too.