Every Wedding Pro Should Know This Business Vocab
Well hello there, darling!
Welcome to Le Blog, your new favorite resource for elevating your wedding business and perfecting your client experience. Pour yourself a cup of tea and light that candle. The entire purpose of this blog is to help you feel knowledgeable and confident moving forward with your client experience strategies, whether you DIY your system or end up hiring a client experience manager.
Oh! And before we start, let me introduce myself – I’m Chloe, a client experience strategist for wedding pros like yourself.
Okay, but what does that actually mean?
As a client experience manager, I help wedding creatives win hours of time back in their schedules every week by updating all of their client processes to run smoothly and get this: hands-free. I do this by streamlining your client experience, creating email automations, and designing beautiful (and super powerful) questionnaires to gather info for every stage of the client journey, from inquiry to offboarding.
Maybe you’ve been peeking around my website, or maybe you heard something about “client experience” and want to learn more. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve been banging your head against your keyboard asking, “Yeah. but wHaT doEs CRM eVen MeAn?!” Darling, you are going to loveeeeee this one.
A few weeks ago, I realized that we use a ton of industry jargon in the tech/business systems world… but hardly anyone outside the industry knows what it means! So I started writing down the ones I use most often and made a list for you!
You might recognize some of these from social media or podcasts, and others might feel totally foreign. That’s what this post is for!
Class is in session! Here’s the cheat sheet for the client experience vocab and abbreviations we use daily in the industry. Hint: there may or may not be a pop quiz at the end 👀.
15 Terms Your Client Experience Manager is Using (and You Should Be, Too!)
- CX: Client Experience
- CXS: Client Experience Strategist (aka Client Experience Manager). That’s me! I create system processes to help you manage your client information and experience. These save you time and energy, plus, clients adore working with pros who have easy, straightforward systems in place!
- CRM: Client Relationship Manager. This is the name for software that specifically helps business owners manage their clients and client interactions. Most wedding professionals use Honeybook, Dubsado, Pixieset, 17Hats, Sprout Studio, or something similar.
- ROI: Return on Investment. (Like when you pay a client experience manager to perfect your back-end processes,and then make all that money back and more because you finally have time to do more with your business AND clients rave about you. Shameless plug, I know 😜)
- Backend: Noooooo, not that backend. “Backend” = the nitty-gritty, technical processes that make your business run smoothly.
- Dubsado: A popular CRM for creatives & agency owners. I recommend Dubsado to wedding pros who have been in business for at least 2 years, and have used automations (even super basic ones!) in the past. If you’re currently using Dubsado, or wonder if Dubsado would be right for you, click here to learn more about our Dubsado-specific services!
- Honeybook: Another super popular CRM for small businesses! Honeybook is perfect for newer business owners with businesses less than 2 years old. It’s also the perfect stepping stone if you’ve never used a CRM or automations before! If you’re currently using Honeybook, or wondering if Honeybook is right for you, click here to learn more about our Honeybook setup services!
- Canned Emails: You’ll hear this one a lot. Canned emails are pre-written email templates you create and save in your CRM ahead of time. These templates are made from your most-written emails – imagine the hours of keyboard time you’ll save by having these messages ready to go!
- Automation: The best and easiest way to save time in your business without hiring a VA or OBM. Contrary to popular belief, automations aren’t always these super complicated, confusing systems. They can be simple, like your CRM reminding you to send a follow-up email after a lead doesn’t respond. Or one of my personal favorites: Your CRM automatically sends out your whole onboarding process to clients, a few days at a time– way less overwhelming for your clients!
- Proposal (we’re not talking about the diamond ring kind): The doc you send to interested leads (usually after a consultation call) with the recommended package(s), a contract, and the invoice. The best proposals are 3-in-1, allowing your clients to progress through the entire booking process in one fell swoop!
- Contract: A contract is a written agreement between you and your client that outlines each party’s role in the business relationship you’re establishing. This is step 2 in the Proposal process! Without a CRM, you may be sending your contract with Docusign or HelloSign (such a pain!)
- Invoice: If you’re making money, you know what this is! An invoice is a document notifying your clients when payment is due and, ideally, connected to a payment portal so clients can pay right away! If your CRM is set up properly, it’ll send out invoices automatically! Goodbye, chasing down late payments and keeping track of invoices manually!
- Onboarding: Your client has signed the contract and paid the invoice, yay! Now what? Well, it’s time to onboard them! The onboarding process typically includes: a Welcome Packet (digital ofc), a Couples Questionnaire, and scheduling an Onboarding call. With the right help, you can automate all the steps of your onboarding process in your CRM! One less thing on your to-do list!
- Offboarding: Okay, this one feels obvious BUT ask yourself: Do you have an offboarding process for your clients? If the answer is “uhhh no”, then we need to fix that ASAP! Offboarding is the perfect cherry-on-top for your clients, usually consisting of 1-2 emails about next steps, an Offboarding Questionnaire, and a review request! Want to sweeten it even more? Send a little goodbye gift! PS- all of this can be automated too, right dow to the goodbye gift!
- Lead: A potential client! Whether they’ve reached out in the DM’s, downloaded your Price Guide, or scheduled a consultation call with you. If they haven’t signed the contract & paid the deposit, they’re still a lead!
And on that note… if you have a list of leads who are taking their sweet-a$$ time to respond to your proposal, or schedule a consult call, you need a Follow-Up workflow… and a great CRM setup. (Pop Quiz Time: What does CRM mean, again?) And if you want a great CRM setup, you need a great client experience strategist.
It’s not that you can’t do this stuff on your own. You absolutely can! In fact, I have full confidence in you, love!
You just… won’t.
Because you don’t have time to learn the in’s and out’s of that entire system. You don’t have time to customize allllll those forms and SmartFiles, write all those canned emails, and figure out how to piece everything together. I understand! Listen, I think we’ve all learned that being a creative entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart.
But please, please, please (cue Sabrina Carpenter) hear me when I say you don’t have to do this alone! You wouldn’t expect your couples to plan, photograph, design, cater, and decorate their own wedding, would you? Absolutely not!
Then why do you expect yourself to plan, design, and execute a perfect client experience AND set that all up in a CRM by yourself? You can’t.
But I can.
If you’re ready to streamline your business, creating a truly elevated experience for your clients, it’s time for us to schedule a coffee chat. In 30 mins, we’ll go over your current client experience, chat through which CRM system is best for your business, and you’ll get all the answers to your CRM & CX questions.
Byeeeeee, overflowing inboxes and endless hours of to-dos!! Today is the day your business CRM starts working for you, not against you.
Schedule Our Coffee Chat
That’s all for now, darling. Check back with Le Blog soon to learn more client experience strategy, ways to streamline your backend business, and how to save time and energy so you can be present with the people you love instead of checking your email.
A bientôt!
Chloe
