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This week I had the honor of speaking to bridal shop owners from all over the country about marketing their bridal stores at the Wedding MBA conference in Las Vegas. We covered a lot of ground, and one of the big items I shared about was how to differentiate yourself from your competition and have success at your local bridal show.

Due to time constraints, I had to leave out one of the most important pieces of our strategy for successful bridal shows, our appointment follow up strategy.

As I mentioned in my presentation the number one goal for a bridal gown boutique attending a bridal show should be to book appointments. However, in our experience bridal show appointments have about a 50% no show rate, even if you are promoting an unforgettable offer that can only be redeemed on their first visit.

Over the past 9 years we have worked hard after every bridal show to minimize our appointment no show rate. And while we still want to see some improvement in this area, we’ve made great strides. I hope these tips will be helpful for you as well and will maximize your businesses ROI from attending a bridal show.

The main goal is to follow up with every single bride who booked an appointment at your booth via multiple contact points.

Emails

If your appointment booking system sends out automated appointment confirmation emails, great! Make sure it is set up to send confirmations and reminders to your bridal show appointments with relevant bridal show language. If you don’t have an automated follow up system for your appointments, make sure to have an email written and ready to send out after the bridal show. Send this email to every bride that booked an appointment with you ideally within 48 hours of the bridal show.

Phone Calls

In addition to the bridal show specific emails make a follow up phone call to every. single. bride. This is definitely a task that can be delegated to your team as long as they have strong phone skills. Yes you will get a lot of voicemails, but even if you talk to a few live brides it is worth it.

Text

Appointment confirmation text messages are by far the most effective option for minimizing your no show rate in 2019. If you are using a platform like Acuity Scheduling, then you have text confirmations built in to your workflow. If you are using a platform that doesn’t offer a text option, appointmentreminder.com is a great 3rd party platform that integrates with programs like Google Calendar and offers an affordable solution for texting your brides about their appointments.

For busy season bridal shows

1. If you are following up on appointments booked during a busy season bridal show (typically January-March), politely give brides a deadline to confirm their appointment with you in your call, email and text messages. Let them know if they do not confirm their appointment by “X” date you will open up their slot to other brides because it’s busy season. There is always a juggling act that happens after busy season bridal shows because you will have a calendar full of bridal show appointments (with a 50% no show rate) but you don’t want to turn away brides who will want to book appointments with you organically. Giving brides a deadline to confirm by definitely helps open up space on your calendar.

2. The appointment no show rate increases exponentially the further away you get from the bridal show. Plan to extend your store hours for the first 4-6 weeks after the bridal show so you can accommodate as many brides as possible - as soon as possible - after the show. Do this on an appointment only basis so you know how to schedule your staff appropriately If you close at 6:00 pm on Wednesday but the only time a bride can come in is 6:30 pm on a Wednesday, make it happen.

I know this sounds like a lot of communication but you need to stay top of mind with these brides. You have invested so much in getting them to book an appointment, we want to do everything we can to ensure they will keep that commitment. As part of my spiel when I am booking appointments at a bridal show I will tell brides, “You are going to get emails, calls and texts from us. We’re not trying to bother you, we just don’t want you to forget your appointment.” I set them up to expect the amount of communication they are going to get so they don’t become annoyed when they start receiving all of our messages. And often they will thank me and are appreciative that they don’t have to remember their appointment on their own.

If you were in attendance at my Wedding MBA presentation then you will remember our Big Idea was to get more brides to say “YES” at your store by differentiating yourself from your competition. This follow up protocol is a lot of work. A lot of work I would bet your competition isn’t doing after their bridal show. Put in the work and watch as your appointment no show rate declines and your revenues increase!