Wedding Reviews ~ For Your Professionals
So...you got married, or had a celebration. You had to hire people to service your event and hopefully as I do, they under-promised, and over-delivered. The day of your wedding, and for days afterward you got THOUSANDS of social media notifications and were overwhelmed just with that alone! Maybe you left for a honeymoon too, and then came back to not only a TON of mail and emails, but review requests from all the nice people who helped make your event a success. UGH!
Most wedding couples are working with at least a dozen or more professionals: caterer, venue, planner, entertainment, photographer, videographer, florist, rental company, invitations, jeweler, officiant, rehearsal dinner, gown and dress provider, formal wear provider, limo company, gift and favors... and the list goes on!!! Most of them, have at least 2-4 places you can do reviews too = "OMG I'm losing my mind with reviews Mark!!!!!!"
Personally, I send out review requests two times...right after the wedding and then again one more time some time after usually a month or so after things have settled down for the couple. Many do complete them and it's soooooo awesome! Some do it right away (which isn't necessary) and some within a month or so. (Love you!) I also give the platforms they can review me on and let them decide: A) WeddingWire B) The Knot C) Facebook D) simply by responding to the email with the form I provided. Many of us professionals love when you do all the platforms...even copying and pasting the same review because remember, each platform will be seen by different people. Here's a sample review from one of my pages, The Adirondack-Albany Wedding Association:
There's no competition to have the most reviews, but each one helps us. Some platforms provide us an incentive or discount for each review we receive and that helps us save on our advertising. Some platforms use the review SEO to help us get found better, so the advertising pays off more for us. And some platforms simply show activity in news feeds, which helps us with referrals.
Whichever you chose to use, when provided by your pro, please take a moment to complete them. Create a checklist of the pros you used (or that crafty wedding planner binder you no longer need) and check them off as you go! I have got reviews as simple as "Mark was great! He did everything we wanted and made our wedding so awesome for our guests. Thanks Mark!" Nothing wrong with that at all. Then I've got reviews lengthier and in more detail like this one:
Then the review score...some pros dread this. Is it 5.0? 4.8, 4.2, 2.0...UGH! Listen, anything over a 4.0 is a good review for our ratings. So many people think a review HAS to be 5.0, but honestly, name one person you know who is perfect. If you feel it was a perfect job, and it warrants a 5.0, by all means, god bless and thank you for that rating! On the other hand, if it warrants a less than 4.0 rating, do it. If you do though, explain in detail why you feel the review is lower. I'm not talking about a bash session (unless it really was THAT bad!) but explain why. There may have been circumstances involved you did not know about beyond the control of the provider. It's also advisable to talk to the provider first and communicate with them what your intentions are. I recently was privy to a caterer who forgot one of the main dishes at the wedding...they handled the refund to the clients satisfaction afterwards, and the client advised they would not do a review at all, neither favorable or unfavorable. If it was something that major though, will it happen again? Sharing the review and giving them a decent score rating (less than 5.0, they did mess up!) but mentioning the mishap will help reaffirm the pros attention to detail in the future and let future clients know too, what should be double checked beforehand. A review educates everyone!
And my final tip, for the pros....RESPOND to ALL your reviews if possible! It means so much to the client too!
If you would like to help any of my personal brands with a review, no matter when you used our services, here's how you can do it. I send many thanks and hugs in advance. xoxox ~Marky
1-Use this link for Weddingwire/Eventwire for Total Entertainment or CSGI Events:
2-Use this link for The Knot for Total Entertainment or CSGI Events:
3-Using this link for Facebook social media page for Total Entertainment or CSGI Events:
4-FOR HONEYMOON SERVICE ONLY at Sandals or Beaches Resorts from Mark, you can do a separate review here of the agents service provided to you, not about the resort (that's done on the resort page):
5-For the Adirondack-Albany Wedding Association's free service (not the vendors you hired, just how our office helped you save time and or money) use this link only please:
