Is your venue or wedding business being found, couples are enquiring, but for some reason they just don’t respond or it rarely leads to a booking, then it’s time to take a step back and review what you are doing and what maybe the causes.

5 real reasons couples may not be responding to you

Here are 5 real and common causes and reasons couples may not be getting back to you and what you can do to ensure this isn’t you.

Slow Response time

First off it is response time and there are multiple reasons why this is important. Lets set the scene though, we live in a world now where things are instant, Netflix allows you to watch anything when you want, Amazon Prime allows you to order something and have it delivered to you that day, and therefore couples want to get the information they want and need right away.

Wedding planning is daunting and hard work, so when they see your venue, and take the time to enquire, it is important to get back to them as soon as possible. Couples are likely to have enquired on 2 or 3 venues so you want to engage with that couple quickly and start the process of trying to arrange a call, video tour or book in a viewing.

If you take a couple of days to respond, they may have already started speaking to and arranging viewings with other venues, the excitement has built and they no longer wish to view or consider your venue.

Action step: Set as side times throughout the day to respond to enquiries that come in ensuring that each enquiry is responded to within the day.

Confusing and Complicated Pricing

When couples enquire they want to get an idea of pricing for their day to ensure it fits in with their budget, a guide price and range is good, however it you are sending though lots of options, meal choices, pries depending on season, then you could be confusing them and making it hard work for them.

Options and choices are great, however giving them all of this in a complicated way after an initial enquiring can be overwhelming and off putting, this type of discussion should be further down the line.

Keep your responses personable, clear and understandable, give a starting from price depending on their expected guest number and time of year, advise that you have different options for drinks and food, don’t send through every brochure you have with lots of different prices and numbers, it will be very overwhelming. Choice is good but this is too much.

Action step: Review your wedding brochure and what you are sending to couples, is it clear and concise, giving them enough information to want to move forward and arrange a call or viewing where you can then discuss further details and options.

Lost and Forgotten

You’ve responded quickly, a concise email with all the immediate information they need and a call to action to arrange a video tour or viewing, but no response…

Just because you never heard anything back doesn’t mean they are no longer interested, don’t give up, the email could have gone to spam, come through with lots of other emails depending on the time and just been missed, accidentally deleted or they have just forgot to respond and then forgot altogether.

This is why following up is important, a quick response and then follow up after a couple of days and then weeks, not just once but 2-3 times, be friendly and personable, if they are no longer interested or have booked they will say.

Action step: Make sure you follow up, send a follow up email a few days a later and then over the next weeks until you hear back from them.

Not answering their questions

Couples enquire asking for a brochure, a quote but they may have some questions too, this could be accommodation related, can they have fireworks, do you have wheelchair access, whatever it is make sure you answer them, it is great replying quickly with your go to response and brochure, but they don’t want a robotic reply, they want answers to their questions too.

Take the time to read the enquiries, send them the information they want and may need and answer any questions they may have. Some questions may be dependant on other things which you can discuss at the viewing or over the phone, so these can also be a great way to help lead them down the sales funnel and to the next step.

Action step: Having a template reply for enquiries is great, but make sure you don’t ignore the questions or message of an enquiry and ensure you answer where needed.

Trust and Confidence

The venue is the first and biggest decision, while also one of the most expensive parts with food and drink, therefore it is a huge first step for engaged couples in the wedding planning process. From here the date is then set.

In the daunting world of wedding planning this is also where they start to discuss their day and vision with yourself as a venue, and so  having that expertise, advice and knowledge can help couples so much and help build that trust and confidence in you as the event planner that they are in good hands.

If from the initial enquiry, they get a standard generic response that comes through a few days later, lots of information about anything and everything, every menu option available and completely missed the key questions asked in the enquiry, then it is understandable that the couple may be a little frustrated and overwhelmed.

Improving your Conversion rate

It is important to review your enquiry responses and overall sales funnel, your marketing spend on being found and see can be wasted if the leads they generate are not leading to bookings, this is an area you can control and help optimise and improve.