7 Reasons Event Businesses Don't Get Back To You

If you've ever tried to organise a special event and tore your hair out with the number of event-related specialists who didn't get back to you (it was one of the reasons we set up our business), here's a few reasons why.

1. Spray and pray
All of us have received cut-and-pasted queries via our Contact Us page which clearly don't relate to our businesses and what we provide and which has been sent out as an email blast.

This is usually someone who doesn't yet have a clear timeline, brief and/or budget (see You Need Good, Fast Or Cheap Event Decor - Pick Any 2 Out Of 3) and sends out a vague request in the hope someone - anyone! - will respond. If you haven't done your homework by physically checking what products and services the website offers via a basic Search, you're highly unlikely to hear back from anyone.

If the business owner has time, they just might refer you to a more appropriate event company, but this doesn't happen much in the lead-up to peak party season.

2. They don't check the details
A related problem is the potential customer doesn't read the product description, announcements or terms of use.

This typically happens when they want to hire far less than the minimum hire quantity of hire units or hire fee threshold, or they request an event quote for a city far outside the metropolitan limits listed or send an enquiry when the website is covered in messages to announce they are closed for the holidays.

3. They don't leave a voicemail
There are a number of ways to ensure you get the speediest response to your initial enquiry. The way to ensure you don't get an answer at all is not to leave a voicemail. With the rise in spam and telemarketer calls, if it's not important enough for you to leave a clearly detailed message, we'll assume a) it's not urgent or b) it's probably a spammer. 

4. They use No Caller ID
An unfair trap for young punters aka event coordinators, is to unwittingly leave a voicemail message from a business line which for whatever reason does not reveal the number called from. If you go to the trouble of leaving a message but don't leave your phone number, we will never be able to call you back.

5. They misspell their contact details
You'd be surprised how often customers accidentally leave a digit off their mobile phone, or mistype their email address by a letter and/or number so we'll never be able to contact them. Check your details before you click that Submit button.

6. They contact us via social media
If you're of a certain age, you may not think to check your Messenger tab on your phone for days at a time. Since you have to click on it to see there's a Message request, it is all too easy to overlook a potential customer reaching out. Days go past and we haven't gotten back to you. 

7. The social media channel is suspended
All too frequently, Meta suspends business accounts for Facebook and Instagram and/or they're hacked by spammers. If you don't check it often anyway, and then your account is suspended, you have no way of accessing original requests and are none the wiser anyone has tried to contact you. Solution: don't use social media as your only channel of contact.

To be on the safe side:

• fill out the contact us details with as much detailed info as possible
• leave a voicemail message with your phone number, name and company
• try texting us with your query as well.

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