5 Ways to Elevate Your Business to 5-Star Service

If you’ve been around here a while, you’re already familiar with my background in the hospitality industry. Working for Four Seasons gave me the very start I needed to not only act on client’s needs but to recognize those needs before the clients themselves even realized them.

 

It’s sort of like when you order a lemonade or lemon water at a luxury hotel or restaurant.

 

You won’t notice that the team has already removed every seed from every lemon — but you would notice if the seeds were still there when they got caught in your straw.

 

The key to elevating your business to luxury level is the very same concept behind the lemon seed story — you’re taking care of every little detail before the client realizes they exist. 

 

Let me explain.

 

There are five ways you can take care of details for your clients that show that you have everything under control — and most importantly — that you care about them. Clients are humans, after all! I’m going to share all 5 here, then go into more detail on each.

 

1. Create automation and personalization in your business flow.

2. Taking the time to communicate.

3. Be there before something becomes a problem.

4. Arrive before the client.

5. Be consistent in your follow-up.

Let’s dive into more detail for each now.

 

Automation and Personalization.

You only have 24 hours in a day, plain and simple. And with most wedding and creative event businesses, you operate seasonally, usually with back-to-back events all summer long.

 

In order to keep up with the demands (read: to not let any detail slip through the cracks), you must create automation and personalization within your business. Got 25 brides this summer, each of who have different visions, budgets and requests? Creating a personalized questionnaire document that gets sent to every bride is an easy way to get all of their details in writing (and saves you time!) while they also feel like their needs are being met. 

 

Not in the wedding industry? There are TONS of ways to create automation and personalization within your business.

 

Taking time to communicate.

You never want to leave your clients in the dark. Letting your clients know what’s going to happen — especially surrounding re-openings and other COVID-19 related protocols — will show them that you care about their concerns and have their best interests on top of mind.

 

 

Be there before something becomes a problem. 

Issue with a vendor? With the venue? As soon as a problem arises, make a point to deal with it immediately. If you can’t fix it right away, communicate with your client that you are aware of the problem and you’re working to fix it.

 

Don’t ever let your clients worry, and don’t ever let them think you’re too busy working on something else because that’s when they begin to lose trust.

 

Arrive before the client.

This one should be obvious, but so many business owners fall short. Think about how frustrating it can be when you go to a nice restaurant, and there is nobody there to greet and seat you. It feels like your presence isn’t necessarily wanted and that they don’t value your business. And for BIG events — like weddings and client events — you certainly don’t want your client to feel like you don’t care. Don’t just show up on time — be there early.

 

Be consistent in your follow-up. 

Most of the time, weddings and events take months to plan, which means there can be times where you’re not communicating regularly with your clients, and that’s OK. What’s not OK: promising to follow up and never following up or taking too long to follow up. Communicate with your client when they can expect to hear from you and keep to your word.

 

If you need help bringing these 5 elements to life in your business, let’s hop on a complimentary 45-minute call. You’ll get a fresh pair of eyes on your business so you can start working toward elevating your business to a 5-star luxury service.