How to retain clients as an event planner

Don’t wait until there's a catastrophic event before learning how to retain your clients.

As an event planner, making your customers happy and retaining them for recurring projects should be a major goal before, during, and after every project you work on.

The benefit of having satisfied clients is that they’ll remember your services for their next event, or better yet, they’ll bring a new client to you by referral. Having a stream of endless clients is every event planner’s dream.

Here are some tips you can follow to retain your clients as an event planner.

Do some research before meeting up with your client

After a brief phone call with a potential client, you meet to have an event planner-client conversation that covers the details of the upcoming event, including presenting your event planning template and having every other discussion. 

Before that, using the information your client provided during your phone call to do some research about them or their upcoming event shows that you are interested in them and their vision.

Your clients love it when you pay attention to their events and opinions. It shows that you value them and are willing to do your best. Finding out more about your potential clients also helps you personalize your responses and strategies for them. 

Adapt to your client's preferences

Do they prefer a phone call over a WhatsApp text? And do they prefer being more vocal about their preferences or appreciate you contributing more? As an event planner, you have to understand that different projects mean you’ll be working with different people and you’ll have to adjust your working process to accommodate them.

This is applicable to communication, as it is vital to ensure that an event goes smoothly. After your first meeting with your client, ask them how they prefer to communicate and their schedule so you can reach them at the right time.

Don’t stop keeping in touch

Don't be tempted to wait until your client asks, “So what’s the progress?” or “Any challenge?”

To be a good event planner, you should update your client daily about your progress for an upcoming event unless asked to do otherwise. This allows your clients to see you as a reliable person, which makes them less anxious about anything that may potentially go wrong.

Nobody likes to be kept waiting in the dark. Involving your client every step of the way ensures transparency in communication and less chaos when changes are needed. 

Keep evaluating

After every project, you might want to take some time off to chill or rush on to your next project. Be sure to seek feedback from every client after an event to identify areas where they were not satisfied. This helps you improve in future events, and it shows your clients your value for corrections and their opinions. Your client may trust you with another project after seeking feedback.

Conclusion

From our post today, retaining your clients opens doors to more opportunities and grows your business. This can be achieved by simple actions such as doing more research, adapting to your client's preferences, keeping your clients in the loop about your work, and collecting feedback after every project.

Are you an event planner in Nigeria looking to connect with great clients across the country and make their vision for their dream event come true?

GoldnLilies is a platform that connects vendors to top-grade clients without any complications at all. Get your next clients here!