Image by Jenny Cuerel Photography via  Magic Moments – Love and Laughter

The Hidden value of vendor reviews

Today our friends over at Brisbane City Celebrants are filling us in on why checking your wedding vendor reviews is even more valuable than you may realise.

When choosing your wedding suppliers, it’s not uncommon and definitely recommended to do a little research by checking reviews from previous clients, on platforms such as Facebook pages and particularly on Google.

The intent when checking reviews is usually to ensure there is nothing untoward that you should be aware of, and to ensure the standard of the supplier is going to meet your expectations. However at Brisbane City Celebrants we have become aware that there is some very valuable insights that you can gain from reading through wedding vendor reviews.

When the experience we have provided our clients results in us receiving a notification that we have just received a 5 star review, we literally jump for joy/ high five/ crack open the bubbles! Which brings us to our first point:

A vendor highly motivated to receive 5 star reviews is likely to provide a high quality service.

You can easily spot a vendor that is motivated to provide a 5 star service from their many 5 star reviews and kind words from former clients.

A review motivated vendor is likely to go above and beyond with the service they provide to clinch that 5 star rating, which is fantastic news for their couples.

We all know wedding planning can sometimes get stressful, so having suppliers that are doing everything possible to ensure you have an exceptional and stress-free experience is simply a godsend.

At the beginning of 2017 we set one business goal for the year, our goal wasn’t financial or a target number of weddings we would like to officiate, instead our goal was to reach 100 x 5 star Google reviews by the end of the year.

While to us this was definitely a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and we really didn’t know if this was realistic or achievable, to our surprise we achieved it! In fact we actually ended up finishing the year with 105 x 5 star Google reviews!

The best bit of all is that this translates to many very happy couples, so cheers to that!

Event EMTI Consulting Wedding Ladies Lunch &Venue Gerards Bistro

We personally love to check google reviews before making any reasonably major purchase, and we are aware of the lengths Google go to to ensure the integrity of reviews so you know these are genuine. Google verify the reviewers identity from their IP address, preventing multiple reviews being placed on one business by a single reviewer. They also make it near impossible (if not completely impossible) to remove or hide negative reviews, so what you see are genuine reviews and comments.

You can learn so much more about the vendor from their former clients

If asked to describe ourselves as Celebrants, we would likely respond with a single sentence answer, humbly describing the kind of ceremonies we specialise in. Thankfully we’re a little better at being Celebrants than we are at selling ourselves!

On the other end of the spectrum our couples are amazing when it comes to describing our service, when reading our client reviews we realise that there are different aspects of the service we provide that are appreciated by different clients, while some may appreciate efficient, timely, and thorough ceremony planning, others may appreciate the seamless ceremony or coordination of guests on the day. Or perhaps it’s the little fires we put out that come to mind, as one groom even commented that ‘Jamie saved the day by simply checking if the Best Man had the rings’ (it turned out he’d forgotten them but following Jamie’s prompt was able to head back and collect them just in time).

All photography by Soda Wedding Photography

It always intrigues us to hear what our couples have to say and how well they explain the aspects they enjoyed of their experience with us as their Celebrant.

In summary it’s well worth reading what your potential vendors’ former clients have to say about their experience with them and you may well be pleasantly enlightened.

Ms Zigzag says: You can get such a genuine feel for your wedding vendors from former clients. Thanks Brisbane City Celebrants for this interesting insight and congrats on smashing your goal achieving over 100 5-star reviews last year. Seriously impressive and much deserved! 

About Brisbane City Celebrants: Brisbane’s most highly recommended Marriage Celebrant duo specialising in modern, simple, meaningful, sweet, happy weddings. With a choice of an experienced and passionate female or male celebrant, our couples describe us as warm, friendly and calming. You can find Brisbane City Celebrants on the Polka Dot Bride directory here.