When my first wedding reception venue opened in Monbulk in 2007, I was a disorganised to say the least. We had very few procedures. policies. systems or manuals in place. I barely even knew the regulations and local laws. We didn’t even know what FAQs were!
Most of the information we had was scattered around and lots of things were just made up on the spot. This became a BIG problem when different staff would tell event organisers wildly different answers.
Q – “Can I bring a bottle of my favourite whisky to the wedding as a gift?”
A – “Maybe – I’ll check”
Q “It’s a dozen bottles of Homemade Grappa”
A – “Maybe not”.
Q – “What’s the price for kids?”
A – “It’s Half Price for Kids.”
Q – “What if its a very small kid, surely you don’t charge for babies?”
A – “Ummmm” “Errrr” “Free”
Q – “So then the minimum 100 pax is now 80 people and 20 babies?”
A – “Hang on a minute!” “Ooops!”
Q – “How much for the Video Guy? I’m not paying for him as a guest – He’s not eating.”
A – “OK. Oh, there are THREE Video Crew. They want Meals! They want Drinks too!”
Q – “Can we bring the bridal car onto the dancefloor at the end of the night?”
A – “Yes we can do that!” “Oh, It’s a FIRE TRUCK because he’s a fireman. Maybe NOT.”
It turned out, that most of our customer complaints after the event were related to poor communication and weird requests.
This can be reduced significantly by having FAQs & Agreed Procedures (and FADQs too).
What’s a FADQ You Ask? (Good Question)
A FAQ is a Frequently Asked Question and a FADQ is a Frequently Asked Difficult Question.
All Staff should learn the answers to the FAQs and really good answers to the most difficult questions – the FADQs.
You can put your FAQs on your Website, Function Kits and print sheets for the wall near the phone & front desk so that the team can ALL say the same thing, every time.
My biggest pet peeve at all my venues was when a member of my team would say “NO!” to a customer. I would explain that it is much better to say “I’m sorry we can’t do XXX but we can do YYYY” as this would end up with a better resolution to the issue and a happier customer.
It turns out that there are NICE ways to say things and there are BLUNT or RUDE ways to say things. It is helpful to prepare your BEST Answers in advance to these frequently asked venue questions so that we give consistently good answers.
Nobody likes to hear “It’s our policy” or “Because that’s the way it is”. It is better to give people a REASON and offer ALTERNATIVES if possible.
Even worse than saying “NO” is a guest or an event organiser being given CONFLICTING answers or incorrect information from different staff members or at different times during the lead-up to the event. “He said I could do it, She said I couldn’t but they said I can”.
Make up your collective minds and be consistent to deliver a quality service experience.
Only answer these types of questions if they are ASKED by customers or prospects.
It is useful to have really good answers prepared beforehand – but I would NOT put them up on your website!
Creating FAQs and FADQs is a great way to improve your systems and processes at your venue.
It is much better to brainstorm & decide in advance what the answers are to critical operational questions.
It’s a great way to ensure an AWESOME Customer Experience.
Just keep adding to your FAQs & FADQs , policies and procedures every time you find out something new or an unusual requests come up.
READ the BLOG about setting your Terms & Conditions for your Functions, Events & Weddings.
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