What is high-touch customer service and why is it important for my wedding business customer journey?
In a nutshell high-touch customer service is people led and involves personal interaction between your team and the customers, whereas low-touch customer service uses primarily automated systems.
As wedding industry service providers, a lot of the work carried out will be high-touch services such as meetings, dedicated event managers or coordinators, one to one show-rounds and personalised menu tastings. We are in the business of crafting unforgettable experiences and finding ways to connect with your clients and providing them with added value throughout the entire process is what will set your wedding business apart.
Top tips for high-touch service during initial meetings
1. Don’t use the same sales pitch. Instead understand what the couple wants from their day and point out the features of yours that align with this.
2. Be personal and polite. Take time to ask them how they are, how their journey was, engage with them and ask real questions to help build rapport.
3. Be authentically personal.
4. Follow up quickly. Small gestures can have a big impact and following up with any further information or a nice to meet you message is a great trust builder.
Having a clear customer journey map that highlights all the potential touch points both your clients and their guests will have with you is the first step in developing a high-touch service offering. Alongside this your culture needs to be rooted in going above and beyond to create an environment that champions going the extra mile.
At a wedding we have a captive audience with whom we can demonstrate our product or service at, and treating each guest as you could the couple, and each supplier with respect can be hugely beneficial in terms of word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. It is not uncommon for newly engaged guests to ask for recommendations or book some of the same suppliers.
The ability to create a high-touch experience naturally is a skill, but this can also be developed and by focusing on customer journey and building a team that is aligned with your values and culture it can become part of your everyday. With this in mind and referring to my article on creating an aligned culture it is important that when recruiting an emphasis is placed on customer service values.