Have you been looking for a way to share your wedding availability with potential clients without allowing them to instantly book? Whether you’re a photographer, florist, wedding musician or live painter you will probably find yourself spending a lot of time managing your diary and responding to date enquiries.
As a wedding harpist I’ve found it really useful to have an availability calendar plug-in on my website, to show potential clients whether I’m free on their date. The app doesn’t let customers instantly book and it automatically syncs with my google calendar so I don’t have to spend time manually updating the calendar on my website.
I actually started using an availability calendar as a tool to handle the dilemma of lock down postponements. It made it a lot easier for clients to find a new date which their suppliers could do and I was less likely to get left behind when the new date was booked.
However as the postponements stopped and normality resumed I found that the calendar stayed on my website. I’d got over the initial squeamishness of sharing personal information and all I could see were the upsides!
I was fortunate to have dobu.uk created with my input to create an attractive and modern way of doing this.
Let’s have a look at the pros and cons.
THE PROS
Save time
If you’ve worked in the wedding industry for any amount of time you’ll be quite familiar with turning down work for that same Saturday in August over and over again. The availability calendar cuts down on a lot of unnecessary emails and lets me get back to current and potential clients more quickly.
Less broken hearts!
Not only is it less time consuming but it’s better for the couple. Having experienced the planning side myself I know that it’s easy to spend a lot of time researching a supplier, looking at pictures, watching videos and reading all of their info. Basically getting too attached before finding out they were booked months ago.
Build trust
There’s a lot of trust involved in trusting a stranger with one of the most memorable days of your life. Seeing that other couples are also trusting you with their big day can be very comforting.
Encourage bookings
Without an indication of other bookings filling up your diary it can be easy for the client to forget that the clock is ticking to make sure that they can secure their wedding date. It’s hard to imagine that many other people are also in this rare scenario; choosing a rare instrument for a once in a lifetime event. It’s often a shock to couples that they really do need to start booking over a year in advance to get their favourite suppliers nailed down.
Carve out time for yourself
We all know it can be difficult to turn down work after putting so much effort into marketing yourself. Securing days off in your availability calendar for birthdays, holidays and whatever else can help you to avoid the temptation to take a booking during that valuable time off.
THE CONS
What if I get a cancellation?
It can be nice to have a few names saved on the rare occasion that this happens to try to replace the date. However I usually find that clients will go on to book someone else quite quickly if you’re unavailable so going back to someone who enquired a month ago doesn’t usually earn you a booking (or worse can create an awkward situation where they want to drop their current musician for their plan A)
People still have the option in the app to register their interest on a booked date if it’s a case of you or no one!
What about nosy competitors?
It’s difficult not to be comparing yourself to those around you and wondering if you’re more or less busy than other professionals. There’s many factors that go into a musician or supplier’s workload, including location and pricing. On the whole I’m able to support myself from my career so although I could always be busier I don’t personally feel that I’m underperforming. It’s irrelevant if someone else is performing better – also important to remember when browsing instagram!
I don’t want to let clients book me without talking first
The whole idea behind dobu.uk was to solve this issue. Most wedding suppliers’ services are way too intricate to allow for instant online booking. This plug-in allows you to display your availability and then take an enquiry before taking the next steps.
It seems complicated to set up
As the app is currently in its early days now is a great time to get one on one advice from the creator himself to integrate it with your website. No chat bots, or impersonal, dismissive responses.
HOW IT WORKS
Sync your google calendar and you’re away. Any date you enter or delete from your google calendar is quickly reflected on your website.
If you don’t want to fill up your availability calendar with reminders to book your next dentist appointment and pay your bills then simply make a separate calendar. Mine is called Personal and I also have a calendar called Enquiries so that a date isn’t marked as unavailable until the deposit is paid and booking confirmed.
You can link the calendar to your existing enquiry form or use dobu.uk’s built in form.
Click here for step by step instructions.
Copyright © 2022 Christine Palethorpe. All Rights Reserved
Have you been looking for a way to share your wedding availability with potential clients without allowing them to instantly book? Whether you’re a photographer, florist, wedding musician or live painter you will probably find yourself spending a lot of time managing your diary and responding to date enquiries.
As a wedding harpist I’ve found it really useful to have an availability calendar plug-in on my website, to show potential clients whether I’m free on their date. The app doesn’t let customers instantly book and it automatically syncs with my google calendar so I don’t have to spend time manually updating the calendar on my website.
I actually started using an availability calendar as a tool to handle the dilemma of lock down postponements. It made it a lot easier for clients to find a new date which their suppliers could do and I was less likely to get left behind when the new date was booked.
However as the postponements stopped and normality resumed I found that the calendar stayed on my website. I’d got over the initial squeamishness of sharing personal information and all I could see were the upsides!
I was fortunate to have dobu.uk created with my input to create an attractive and modern way of doing this.
Let’s have a look at the pros and cons.
THE PROS
Save time
If you’ve worked in the wedding industry for any amount of time you’ll be quite familiar with turning down work for that same Saturday in August over and over again. The availability calendar cuts down on a lot of unnecessary emails and lets me get back to current and potential clients more quickly.
Less broken hearts!
Not only is it less time consuming but it’s better for the couple. Having experienced the planning side myself I know that it’s easy to spend a lot of time researching a supplier, looking at pictures, watching videos and reading all of their info. Basically getting too attached before finding out they were booked months ago.
Build trust
There’s a lot of trust involved in trusting a stranger with one of the most memorable days of your life. Seeing that other couples are also trusting you with their big day can be very comforting.
Encourage bookings
Without an indication of other bookings filling up your diary it can be easy for the client to forget that the clock is ticking to make sure that they can secure their wedding date. It’s hard to imagine that many other people are also in this rare scenario; choosing a rare instrument for a once in a lifetime event. It’s often a shock to couples that they really do need to start booking over a year in advance to get their favourite suppliers nailed down.
Carve out time for yourself
We all know it can be difficult to turn down work after putting so much effort into marketing yourself. Securing days off in your availability calendar for birthdays, holidays and whatever else can help you to avoid the temptation to take a booking during that valuable time off.
THE CONS
What if I get a cancellation?
It can be nice to have a few names saved on the rare occasion that this happens to try to replace the date. However I usually find that clients will go on to book someone else quite quickly if you’re unavailable so going back to someone who enquired a month ago doesn’t usually earn you a booking (or worse can create an awkward situation where they want to drop their current musician for their plan A)
People still have the option in the app to register their interest on a booked date if it’s a case of you or no one!
What about nosy competitors?
It’s difficult not to be comparing yourself to those around you and wondering if you’re more or less busy than other professionals. There’s many factors that go into a musician or supplier’s workload, including location and pricing. On the whole I’m able to support myself from my career so although I could always be busier I don’t personally feel that I’m underperforming. It’s irrelevant if someone else is performing better – also important to remember when browsing instagram!
I don’t want to let clients book me without talking first
The whole idea behind dobu.uk was to solve this issue. Most wedding suppliers’ services are way too intricate to allow for instant online booking. This plug-in allows you to display your availability and then take an enquiry before taking the next steps.
It seems complicated to set up
As the app is currently in its early days now is a great time to get one on one advice from the creator himself to integrate it with your website. No chat bots, or impersonal, dismissive responses.
HOW IT WORKS
Sync your google calendar and you’re away. Any date you enter or delete from your google calendar is quickly reflected on your website.
If you don’t want to fill up your availability calendar with reminders to book your next dentist appointment and pay your bills then simply make a separate calendar. Mine is called Personal and I also have a calendar called Enquiries so that a date isn’t marked as unavailable until the deposit is paid and booking confirmed.
You can link the calendar to your existing enquiry form or use dobu.uk’s built in form.
Click here for step by step instructions.