Last night after midnight, I got a text message that said “how much are you?” Fortunately, I was still awake and wasn’t woken up. But I chose not to respond to that message until the morning. The next day, I actually reviewed my packages verbally with the client over the phone instead of by text.

Short text requests are more than a pet peeve of mine. I avoid the “text tag” at all costs. They are not a strong way to make service reservations when customers are requesting specific and custom services. There is a much better way to do straight-forward business!

I’ve run an event company that books event services since the 90’s in Silicon Valley. I realize that customers may not always be available to discuss services over the phone. They may be at work, and not able to pick up the phone. They may be running errands or driving. The best plan may be to ask them when they can arrange to chat for a few minutes comfortably.

Why is there a problem with texting??

Your Timing Could Be Bad

You might not be in a good place to respond accurately when a text comes in. If you’re around town or driving, a typo can be a big problem. A text should be returned quickly. Quick response time really helps when booking special services for events. Time is of the essence. They might be hiring someone very quickly.

You Can’t Give Value Over Text

Text message are far too brief to cover any details at length. At this point, you simply become a transaction worker just on money issues. You won’t really be able to cover the full services of what you do. As an event professional, you sell your services more fully by phone, email, web pages, and/or brochures. Your services can be fully spelled out on your website, but the client may not have read or understood what’s there.

You Can’t Give The Client Many Options Or Packages

If you don’t vocalize your benefits to the customer and the value your services give, it will definitely not help the sale. If you can’t convince the customer you provide more or better than other vendors, it will all boil down to money. The customer can probably find the services cheaper elsewhere, with quality becoming no longer important.

There’s Not Enough Personality

Many times, the texts can be your first contact with your client. Oftentimes, they don’t know you, your services or your reputation. Simple responses to rate requests have no tone. The customer may sound a bit short when they don’t mean to. Your responses may be misinterpreted too. Clients will typically need reasonable human contact in order to know you care about their special event.

Important Details Can Be Left Out

Clients can omit the city and location of the event. Then all of a sudden, you’ve given wrong prices. You might agree to some gig that’s way out of your coverage area. In that case, you might agree to a price without travel expenses – only then to have them come out of your pocket. There’s always some small detail that is forgotten in short text message conversations. Event management can get difficult without all the necessary information at hand.

Yes, you might need the gig badly. You might be tempted to land the gig by giving a low price and see if the customer agrees. Go ahead and take your time, and see if this client is a good fit for you.

What do you do when a prospective client texts you for an event?

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Long Term Solution?

Is there a long-term solution for this problem? I highly recommend a booking app that tracks and manages leads, gigs and details – lightning fast! Part of the solution is providing immediate attention to the client looking for instant information. GigBase uses a lead-receiving tool that requests the important information instead of going through 10-20 texts! GigBase treats the “how much are you” texts with a couple different tools.

GigBase Pro booking app was born during the busy celebrations of the Dot-Com-Boom era in Silicon Valley, CA. Our own events have numbered over 10,000 containing multiple artists and talent bookings. GigBase is the booking solution that will free up your time, make you more money, and give you a better tracking system to navigate more successful events. Give your prospective leads the attention they need!

Click here to know more . . 

photo credit: Generation Y via photopin (license)