3 Questionnaires You Should Have in Your Planning Process

The difference between a well planned event and the other kind is effective communication.

Infact, the event planning process is a whole chain of communication: from client to the planner, from the planner to vendors, back and forth till there is a common goal and everyone works in-tandem to achieve it.

And when the communication is effectively done, a successful event is the end result. To affirm this, look back at any event mishap you’ve had in the past and you would realize that at the root of it, is a communication problem.

Effective communication as you can see is quite important. That is why today’s post is about the secret ingredient to solving communication problems in event process.

Do you want to know what that is?

Active questioning

How is this?- Well, lots of talking and chatting happens over the course of planning events and as such mis-communication happens easily. So actively asking questions through QUESTIONNAIRES grants one intentional answers in written format which aids clarity and effectiveness in communication.

Functional and thorough questionnaires force your clients to thoughtfully and intentionally write out answers. Answers that would help you deliver your best work.

Questionnaires are powerful tools for Savvy Planners, and because we love you: here are three (3) must-have questionnaires in your process.

1. Get-to-know-you questionnaire

This is the questionnaire where you would ask your clients about their vision, guest size, love story (if it’s a wedding), event objective, how do they get to know you etc.

You most likely already have and or use a “Get-to-know-them questionnaire” The question however is, is it functional?(continue reading to know what makes a questionnaire functional)

2. Before-the-day questionnaire.

This is the most functional of all three (3) questionnaires. It helps your client answer questions about the event day. For example; 

How should the cake be shared?

What specific playlist should be played for the different segments of the event ?

Who is assigned to help them pick money sprayed?

Is the best man or best lady aware they are in charge of the order of photographs?

Do they have all the items on their checklist?

Who should you hand-over their gifts to?

Imagine having written answers to these questions that you can refer to on the D-day instead of walking up to the couple or trying to remember what they told your team.

Makes your work easier & faster!

3. Feedback Form

This is a questionnaire they fill after the event and it’s important to the growth of your business. Here, you can ask questions like;

What were your expectations when you hired us?

How well did we meet this expectation?

What specific benefits did you get by hiring us?

Did you enjoy working with our team?etc.

As you can already tell, the prerequisite to asking a client for feedback is the knowledge that you did a great job. So do great work if you want clients to fill your questionnaires without hesitance or you running after them.

Also note: that you did a great job doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done better or that your clients enjoyed every part of your service- and this is why feedback (Negative or Positive) is important. You get to know how to improve your services.

And that is pure gold!

So, how do you make sure your questionnaires are functional?

1. It should be online: This should go without saying but I’d say all the same. Your questionnaires should be done online in a Google form or any kind of form (Type form too), that saves answers for multiple clients. So you can generate one link for multiple entries.

2. Make all the questions a must fill( required) so you don’t have empty form submissions

3. Add hint/description to open ended questions.

For example:

4. Add introduction that encourages them to fill the form : Form filling isn’t something many clients enjoy doing, they however will do if you attach importance to it, with a compelling introduction.

For example;

5. Ask important questions only; If you’re to make all the questions a must fill, asking the right ones is important. Don’t also bore them with many, a 6-10 range should work!

6. Continue to refine; A functional questionnaire is one that gets updated regularly. Every feedback from events should be used to improve your process and that includes questionnaires.

So, your couple didn’t get to do their order of photographs in church and they blame their wedding planner?

No problem, apologize to the client and going forward, add a question that solves it to your Before the D-day questionnaire.

E.g Is the best man/ best lady aware that they are in charge of the order of photographs in church?

If your client fills NO, you can ask them for the CBM/ BM number: call and brief them so they understand their role

Refining & fine-tuning is how you keep your forms functional & useful.

That’s it savvy planners- all you need to know about doing questionnaires right. You’re welcome 🤗

And so, to finally wrap up this effective communication series, here are two (2) hot tips in dealing with situations where questionnaire doesn’t apply, especially with vendors.

1. Contracts: include every single detail in your vendor contract. You don’t want decorators to start packing up while the event is still ongoing? Include that in the contract.

The music band should work peacefully with the DJ, include that in the contract for both band & DJ- SIMPLE AS ABC

The rule of thumb really is don’t verbally agree on something when you can agree on writing.

 And that bring us to tip number 2 

2. S-W-A: Summarize verbal conversation, Write it back to them and get their Acknowledgment.
3. So, you’re on a call with a client or vendor and some amendments were made to the initial agreement. Do you need to send back another contract ? Not necessarily. You can S-W-A: summarize the conversation, write it back to them and get their acknowledgement

See a sample :

And cut!! 😍😇

Now to action points: Take a breather and note down all the thoughts that came to mind as you read this post. 

What are the changes you need to make?

Take a look at the previous mishaps you‘ve had in the past- what question can you add to your Questionnaires that can resolve it?

How can communicating effectively change the game for you?

Are your questionnaires functional? 

How can you make them functional?

What part of this post resonated with you? Let us know this in the comment section! It would mean the world to us!

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If you enjoyed reading this blog post. Then you would like our Audit guide for planners.

This Audit guide would allow you to strategically finetune your event planning business and processes. You get to figure out what you’re doing right and what can be improved on.