Episode 53: Real Talk With Vendors On Handling Times Of Uncertainty
I wanted to do a little bit of a different kind of chat this week, so I reached out several event industry professionals to see how these vendors are handling and navigating Covid-19 situations. It was really great to hear how each of these vendors are going above and beyond with their customer service, how their working on utilizing their existing contract language and so much more. So join us as we hear from wedding planners, florists, DJs, photographers, and videographers!
Things we talk about:
- If they were able to keep their vendor teams intact
- How these vendors took their current perishable stock to spread joy
- Cancelling (or not cancelling) orders with wholesalers
- Encouraging their clients during some of the toughest conversations
- Conversations of cancellation and refunds
- The importance of having a rescheduling contract
- The most important message; serving your clients with empathy and support
Here are a few quotes:
- “ We are able to cancel orders up until 14 days before. It's kind of that magic number. So I did lose some money on the product. Um, we had orders that were placed with it for things that were happening within 14 days. I worked with my wholesaler. They like gave me a great discount on the products they understood. An I, we just went and gave flowers to all of our neighbors. It was kind of one of those things. I made the personal choice not to charge the client for that because I knew that my business could financially handle that, although it would have been within the contract to charge the client for that cost of goods sold.” - Tyler Speier
- “We've kept our service fee and we kept paying our vendors if they had already completed, items specifically. Like we had one bachelor at those going to Miami this weekend. They did super cute, like MTV, um, crop tops. And, um. You know, obviously they were already completed, so we wanted to make sure that our vendors are getting paid, but everything else was refunded.” - Abbie Clinton
- “What we've done is already reached out to every single one of our couples to the end of the year. And we're being very proactive about it and just opening it up to, you know, letting them know that we're here for them no matter what. We are committed to making sure that their day goes off, that it hits whatever that looks like and that we want to know how they're feeling. Specifically about this, or in general, are you worried if you're in December, if something's going to happen, and we're trying to just kind of reassure them and ease their minds because everybody's dealing with this." - Alex Young
- “The ones within the two-month range are all cancelled. And that's been tricky because some haven't paid. Some have paid in full, and I. You know, we do have the contract that's protecting us, but at the same time, I'm still human. I understand that they're having, you know, financial problems too. It's not just the small like it's, it's everyone in the community. It's having issues with this. So it's taken a step back and you know, putting myself in their shoes sometimes as well.”
- Jordan Waldo
- “The original deposit will still be non-refundable because as you said, I've still been performing the services for. You know, the last 12 months even. Right. And so if we do move the date, it would be a new contract. However, the same deposit would still apply. Yeah, that makes total sense. Again, going above and beyond there.” - Emily Summer
- "It's already stressful enough planning the wedding, let alone having to go back and. Reduce certain things when, when times like these happen and you have no control over it. So to answer your question yeah, I am taking control, not control, but I am taking care of all the. Communication with their vendors as far as figuring out exactly what their rescheduling is, what their cancellation is, how the deposits work, moving forward to finding new dates that they can agree upon for a wedding date." - Lara Sarver
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