Before the pandemic, event planning businesses were in full bloom. Weddings, corporate parties, birthdays, and anniversaries happen left and right. People are celebrating the mundane and the grand. They’re paying good money for event planning services. They’re trying to one-up one another with their parties. Couples have movie-type videos of their engagements, weddings, and anniversaries. Debutantes have themed parties.
But when the pandemic happened, everything went into disarray. All events were cancelled, and parties had to be rescheduled. For the past two years, people couldn’t celebrate anything significant at all. They were so worried about surviving the next day that there was no room to celebrate momentous occasions.
Now that life is coming back to a bit of normalcy, people are starting to enjoy spending time together again. Event planning businesses have reopened. But with this comes the reality that competitions are here once more. How can you make your business different?
Offer Affordable to Expensive Packages
Even though people are now celebrating again, that doesn’t mean they have more money to spare for these celebrations. Instead of trying to make up for the past two years and charging hefty fees on clients, be more considerate of your pricing scheme. You should offer affordable event packages such as parties for small groups of people, Zoom parties, and other intimate gatherings.
At the same time, you need to give customers the option of having expensive parties. You can offer to organise a bachelor party by renting a buck’s party boat. Grooms would love the idea of partying with their best buds aboard a yacht. These expensive parties have their own market. Just be sure to target the right audience for them.
Make Events Pandemic-proof
Market your events as pandemic-proof. This means putting in place measures that will make guests comfortable when they attend the party. One way to do this is to provide colour-coded bracelets for guests. Those who are comfortable touching and hugging can, for example, wear a pink bracelet, while those who are not can wear a black one. These bracelets will give guests an idea of how to conduct themselves at the party.
You should also use technology to create more party options. There are two ways to do this: through teleconferencing and virtual reality. Technologies born out of the pandemic should still be utilised even as the world transitions to the new normal.
Create an e-Commerce Store
Businesses have to make it easy for their customers to order from them. Service-based companies usually have a hard time creating a system wherein customers can avail their services the same way they buy products from online stores. You can make your event planning business different by creating an online shop from where customers can check out your services. Ensure that there are customisable options there so your clients can have the best experience possible.
To ensure that you’re offering the best options, package your services the same way restaurants do with their combo meals. However, you should also have an ala carte menu wherein customers can avail of a particular service without it being packaged with other services. Allow your customers to pay for the services in advance via your website. Just make sure you have a secure payment gateway to keep their information private.
Personalise Services
Event planning businesses succeed because they take away the hassle from customers of organising events themselves. However, not all parties are the same. You should always strive to provide a personalised service to customers. Make sure that they can customise the different services that you offer. Though you may have an e-commerce store, reaching out to them after they place their order will make the experience better for them.
Service-oriented businesses cannot survive without personalisation. While most event planning businesses tend to be by the box, yours can be more flexible to attract customers. If there’s one thing that customers hate about the companies that they patronise, it is when they are unbendable about specific rules. The primary purpose of your event planning business is to make everything convenient for your clients. If you can’t accommodate their needs, they will stop considering your business.
The new normal presented a challenge to all businesses: be different. That has always been what companies have strove for in the past. However, the need to be a cut above the rest is on a different level now. As the market scrimps and tries to survive, they will be very conservative with their expenses. Event planning businesses need to emphasise why they are important and why they are the right choice.