It may seem like a silly idea but let’s examine how it can work for wedding professionals, event planners and bridal consultants. Any business that has limitations on doing business based on their availability should consider recommending reputable competition as a reciprocal pre-arranged understanding. If you are a wedding photographer and have one other staff photographer, thus only being able to photograph two events at a time, you likely have times when a customer calls you and you are booked.
If your local competitor is a one man studio and receives a comparable amount of inquiries, she or he will likely be unavailable even more frequently than you. So if you agree to refer each other when booked, you accomplish the following:
- You help a customer that contacted you and gave them a good resource which is a positive reflection on your customer relations.
- Both you and your competitor can gain bookings that you never would have had, plus the quality of these referrals will be very strong. It makes quite a statement when one wedding business in a particular category recommends another.
- You have a competitor that is a friend and that can be a “wedding day saver” some day.