Original subtitles

After the Skype, I would say probably at

least 85 to 90% of the people

that we Skype with end up hiring us.

Because the Skype is almost just, again, it's

the education process.

They already know our work.

They already know our pricing.

And the Skype is just to make sure.

So once we get beyond the Skype, they're

usually end up hiring us.

If they ghost us and we liked them,

I'll definitely send up a few follow-up

emails if I haven't heard from them after

the Skype.

There's a few times where we've got off

of Skype, we're landing, I look at each

other and we're like, God, I hope those

people don't hire us.

But we don't, this is actually an important

thing to know, is that we don't select

our clients.

We don't play God and say, oh, those

people don't deserve us and these people do.

Of course, sometimes there's some red flags and

we address those red flags.

But if someone wants to hire us after

we've gone through that Skype and we've done

as good a job as we can in

educating them about our approach and we're not

booked, then we'll take the booking.

So then the real workflow starts once they've

decided to hire us.

And this is very systemized.

In every single client, we follow the same

workflow procedure.

And this is so that all of our

clients are getting the same level of care

and attention from us.

And just like that, you know, five-star

dining experience I was talking about earlier, we've

really tailored our workflow and our client experience

to have a whole bunch of surprises and

a whole bunch of points of contact so

that they're really feeling well taken care of.

And the reason it's part of a systemized

workflow is we noticed early on in our

career that our clients were getting different experiences.

They were getting different experiences based on how

much we liked them, which sounds awful, but

it's true.

They were also getting different experiences based on

how much time we had.

You know, when we were really really busy,

we wouldn't have time to send out certain

things that we would for other clients.

And we want all of our clients to

receive that same level of experience.

So it has to be systemized.

And in the course manual, I've got the

entire client experience workflow laid out for you

guys, point by point, to tiny little details,

to the details of what we actually write

in the thank-you card that we send

to them.

And this is really important because if something

were to happen to me or something were

to happen to Lani, someone could literally step

into my role and take over that client

experience workflow by following the manual.

So that's all laid out for you guys,

but I am going to go through it

line item by line item for you here

as well, just to clear up any questions

you might have.

We use a studio management software called Studio

Ninja.

We've tried a bunch of studio management softwares.

This is the best one by far for

us.

It's the most intuitive interface and it's the

one that we like using the most.

So we also have our workflow inserted into

the Studio Ninja interface and it sends us

messages and reminders about when things need to

be done by.

So that's how we keep track of it

all.

Now we only have 10 to 15 clients

a year, so it's really not too difficult

to keep track of the workflow.

If you're a more volume-based wedding business,

having something like Studio Ninja is going to

be essential to making sure that your clients

are all receiving the same experience.

Okay, so let's start.

First thing at the top of the workflow,

everything is on this workflow, even putting the

date of the wedding in the calendar.

That's my worst fear, is showing up to

a wedding on the wrong date.

So the date in the wedding is on

the calendar and it actually gets checked off

on the to-do list before we go

to the next thing on the to-do

list.

And it seems silly, but it's important that

everything on the to-do list is in

here.

So dates in the calendar.

Then we put together the contract and we

send them the contract.

We also do this through Studio Ninja.

They're able to sign the contract electronically and

then all of the client documents are also

in one place within there.

Then we send them an invoice for the

deposit.

So we take a 50% deposit at

the time of booking, that's non-refundable, and

that holds the date.

And then we take the remaining 50%

a month before their wedding date.

We also invoice for all the travel expenses

a month before their wedding date.

So invoice is sent.

As soon as that invoice is paid, then

we send them a little gift.

And it costs us like, I think $10.

And sometimes we tailor the gift based on

what we've chatted about them with them on

the Skype.

Like if we chatted with them about a

really good wine that we all like, then

we might send them a bottle of that

wine.

Or if we chatted about double IPAs, we

might send them a double IPA.

But generally speaking, what I send them is

a tea.

My favorite kind of tea is chocolate mint

rooibos.

It's amazing.

But I think you can only get it

at our local tea shop here.

And so it's a loose leaf tea.

We send them some tea bags to go

with it.

And then a card that says something along

the lines of, we're so excited for your

wedding.

We loved hearing about it on the Skype.

Wedding planning can get really busy, so make

sure you guys sit down and enjoy a

cup of tea together.

And this is just a tiny little touch

that reminds them that we're thinking about them.

And just makes them feel special.

And it only costs about $10.

But every time those clients receive that tea,

I always get a message and they love

it.

They're like, oh my gosh, that tea was

amazing and we really enjoyed sitting down and

having a glass together.

So it's the intention behind it.

Then we have book an e-session on

the spreadsheet.

Now this isn't possible with all of our

clients.

It's not always possible.

If our clients live abroad, the only time

we really include the e-session, e-session

meaning engagement session, is if they come to

us.

If they come to Canmark, then we'll do

an engagement session with them.

If they want us to travel to another

country or another province to do the engagement

session, we will charge for it.

But if we can book the engagement session

in Canmark, we'll do that.

Now, this next line item is really important.

And it's just called random email.

And I have to remind myself to do

this.

I always think I'm going to do it,

but unless it's on my to-do list,

it doesn't get done.

Often, clients book us, especially in the wedding

industry, they're going to book us sometimes upwards

of two years in advance.

That's pretty extreme, but at least a year

in advance.

Often, clients are booking us a year in

advance.

And often, they're paying a lot of money.

Their deposit that they're sending us is sometimes

$6,000.

So it's really weird if they've sent us

$6,000 and they don't hear from us

for six months until a month before their

wedding.

So I always send a random email every

two months.

So if they book us two years in

advance, I'm sending them a random email every

two months just to check in on them,

see how the wedding planning's going, seeing if

they have any questions.

And this is just to remind them, again,

that they're special and that they're on our

minds and that we're thinking about them.

And before I had this systemized workflow set

up, I always had this intention of checking

in on my clients but the intention never

actually turned to action.

It only turned to action once it became

part of my to-do list and part

of my workflow.

So make sure that random email is part

of your workflow.

It'll make your clients feel more special.

It'll make them feel more taken care of

and they've already paid you that money.

So about a month before the wedding, I

then send them the questionnaire.

They can fill this out online.

It's a big document and it's basically to

make sure that we're all on the same

page with everything.

It's really important that they fill it out.

It's also really important that I call them

and go over this questionnaire with them in

person.

It's often the time where we work out

a lot of kinks and we make sure

that the wedding day's going to run smoothly.

So that's what we're going to go into

in the next module here.