Professional Event Service Providers
A
Professional Service Provider's understanding
"People won't
remember the drinks they drank,
People won't remember the food they ate,
but people will always remember how those
that provided the
service made them feel."
SPECIAL EVENT SERVICE PROVIDERS
Understanding the role and dedication special event professional
service providers play in the creation and actual delivery of your event
is critical to proper planning and contracting of event services. Not
understanding who or what you are hiring and the level of service that you may
be expecting from them, but falsely assumed that you will be getting, could mean
the difference between having a
successful event or producing a flop. True event service professionals are the actual ones that will
provide all the personal services the day of the event. They will take care of
the pre-event planning, the set up, break down and clean up of the actual event
while serving you and all your guests. They are the ones
that provide the service that makes it all happen. One thing is absolutely
clear about the service at any event, the service is only as good as the
training, experience and
dedication of those in the varies roles and positions of a service provider. Clarity in
understanding the positions and/or roles of professional service providers
versus vendors and the hired help is very necessary in this day
and time especially since some segments of the special event industry have become a revolving
door for inexperience and untrained employees.
What to look for in a
professional service provider
The practices of a Professional Service
Provider
-
Possesses a healthy, positive,
mental attitude.
-
Puts themselves in the customer
shoes.
-
Eminent attention to details.
-
Demonstrates a strong work ethic.
-
Treats customers in a fair,
honest, helpful and courteous manner.
- Has a desire to provide excellent service.
- Practices sound business principles, policies and ethics.
- Uses a clear, precise and detailed written agreement.
- Has a sincere passion for the service they provide
- Believes that every event is unique.
- Professionally trained, educated, qualified and experienced
- Full time professional service provider
Do you desire a professional to show up at your event?
The practices of Non-Professional Service
Providers
-
Classifies and treats every
event the same.
-
Produces surprises and
hidden costs after the event is over.
-
Make excuses the day of
the event if things are not as agreed upon.
- Cut corners or compromise their commitments for their own
convenience.
- Doesn't give a full discloser but reveals it after services have been
purchased.
- Taking advantage of first-time buyers or naive clients.
- Deliberate practices of nickel and dime and bait and switch techniques.
- Excessive overpricing and gouging practices.
- Forced or mandatory gratuities and hospitality charges.
- Hires inexperience, untrained & unqualified bodies to perform
professional services
- Part-time, paycheck-oriented, punch-the-time clock non-professional
- Does not honor an agreement that should be Grand fathered in from the previous
management or owner of the business.
Or would you prefer a non-professional
to show up at your event?
Remember that the service you will be employing will only be as good as
those who actually show up on the day of the event and deliver the services they
have been contracted to perform.
Professional
service provider, vendors and hired help
Understanding the difference
between Professional
Service Providers, vendors and the hired help
or common laborers can make all the difference in the world when you go to hire
individuals or businesses to do specific duties or services for your event.
I have had people on many
occasion while at an event ask me if I have seen so and so. Many times I
have had a client find out on their event day that it was a sales person or
vendor who sold them some goods, service or item, but the sales person had no
intention being at the event the day the event took place. Their only purpose
was to make a sale.
Many facilities for example
will have sales people who gather information from you and sell you services.
They then turn over all the information gathered and details of your event over
to their staff who will actually provide the services the day of the event. One
only hopes that all the details that have been given them over months of
planning will accurately be conveyed and deliver to those who will actually
provide the services.
Having an understanding of the
entities you hire and the positions and duties they provide will better assist
you in knowing who to hire and what level of service and commitment they have
towards you and your event.
 
SERVICE PROFESSIONALS
VENDOR
Contracted to provide personal
services
Sells goods by peddling
Intent on
Service
Intent on sales
Concerned with serving
individuals
Concerned with selling items
SERVICE
PROFESSIONALS
HIRED HELP
A chosen career
profession
Just a Job
Educated/Trained/Experienced/Skilled
individual
A Common Laborer
Occupation trained for and pursues as a life's
work
Applied for the position
Proactive in thinking and acting before being
told
Does only what is told
Goes beyond responsibility to fulfill
expectations
Only does what is required
One who creates the design that
unfolds
One who sits and waits to be told
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS
The true professional service providers in the field of event services are
those individuals who possess the knowledge, training, experience, talent and
skills of their trade or profession. Professional service providers also
maintain professional business standards and practices and choose their
profession as their life's career choice. Service providers provide their
services with a courteous and helpful attitude in an ethical manner. True
professionals have made a conscious decision to go through the "Rites-of-Passage"
by obtaining the proper education, training, skills and experience to be called a
professional.
The true professional service providers in the event industry are the ones
who are the experts in their respected field of service. They provide
professional services in a specific trade or skill. Unlike vendors they do not
sell goods, but provide a service for the event with the skills they have
acquired through years of education, training and experience. Some professional service providers
may simply work for a business in their respective field while others may
actually be the business owner, partner, president or CEO of the business.
In catering the professional service providers are the head chefs, bakers,
and managers. In the professional musical ensemble, band or orchestra
they are the musicians and bandleader. In the area of professional photography
they are the professional photographers. In professional videography they are
the professional videographers. In the event planning field they are the
professional event planners. For the venue they may be the owner, general
manager or site manager. In the apparel industry they are
typically the owners and designers. In the
décor and floral arranging field they are the usually the
owner and professionally trained floral and décor designers.
Not all professionals are equal and not all individuals who are in these
positions of their respected trade or fields are professionals. Some may lack or
possess little knowledge, skills, training, experience or talent of a true
professional. One must look at the training, experience, skills, talent,
business standards and practices to distinguish a true professional level of
service from an amateur or unprofessional one.
Consumers need to know and to be cautious to understand that there are
several levels of service or lack of service in the event service industry.
Simplifying the level of service into 3 sometimes groups
(Professionals, amateurs, novices or beginners) is a simple way to
understand and to distinguish true professionals from those who are not. At the
top level of the service pentacle are the professionals. They are the ones who
have made a conscious decision to pursue their field of trade and skills as a
full time career. Professionals have the passion, education,
training and talent to do what
they do best and have obtained the credentials and experience to posses a strong
work ethic to be the very best.
Amateurs on the other hand are not
professionals. Amateurs are the ones who may or may not be aspiring to be
professionals. They lack a full time commitment, limited on training, skills and lack the credentials
and experience of a professional. For some amateurs they
may be dabbling or working to obtain the skills and experience to possibly one
day become a professional, but for most amateurs the
work they do amounts to basically a part time job to obtain extra income. Following the amateurs
are the novices and beginners who typically have no skills, no training and no
experience.
Hiring amateurs, novices or beginners to do a job that highly trained and
skilled professionals do on a daily
basis may seem like a great idea at the time and appear
to be a bargain for the budget savvy individual, but in reality
you probably will have sub-standard or embarrassing
experience and find out that they were no bargain at
all. Once the event day comes and the bargain services you've hired either don't
show up or worst have very little skills or experience
to perform the duties required you'll find out quickly
why they were such a bargain. However, you
may find that out at the cost of your whole
event. The only real bargains in special events or any field of endeavor is to
hire qualified trained and experienced professionals. This will give you the
greatest return on your event investment dollars and grant you the security of
having real piece of mind.
VENDORS
Vendors are most typically the stores or businesses where you
buy or rent the wares, goods or products that you will have at your event.
Stores and businesses that sell items are where sales individuals or vendors are
most likely to be found. Where you buy linens, materials, dresses or suits these
places are considered to be a vendor. When you rent an event site and talk with
the sales person to rent space or a facility that business is considered a
vendor. Where you rent or buy tables, chairs, dinnerware, glasses these
businesses are considered vendors. Where you buy your flowers or décor for your
event is considered a vendor. Some businesses that vendor a product may also
provide services to support their sales. The department or individuals who
actually go out to the event and do the set-up, arranging of flowers or décor
and monitoring the event with services are service providers. These businesses
provide a duo role first in vending
or selling a product and secondly actually being at
the event to provide a service
that will generally
support the product they sold or
leased to you. Vendors are the
sales individual who are intent on the sale of an item whereas service providers
are the service individuals who perform personal services
usually on the event day or during the event and are intent on
service.
HIRED HELP
Hired help personnel are typically the unskilled common labor individuals who
work for the various professionals and are under the professional supervision
and guidance of the professional where or with whom they are employed. Some are
full time, many are part timers and some are temporary service individuals hired
only for specific events. The hired help generally does what
they are told and really don't or can't make any discretionary decisions no
matter how simple they may seem to be.
versus
Professional Service Provider
Vendors & the Hired Help
Understanding the differences between service
providers, vendors and the hired help will render greater insight on
understanding what one is actually hiring and the commitment level and invested
interest of each entity involved. It will
also help you to understand the differences between true professionals and those
that are not.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDER
(Professional Service Provider, Service Professional or
Service Provider)
A Professional Service Provider's attitudes, behaviors,
and mindsets vs. a non-professionals.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE ATTITUDE
vs. NON PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE
Watching for the needs of those they
serve
Watching the clock mentality
Has
pride in their work that it is done superior
Has pride in that they got by with doing as little as possible
What time does it start? I can’t wait for it to
begin!
What time is it over? I hope it ends early
Accents & augments your ideas to build on
them
Diminishes your ideas to replace with their own
Listens and looks up to professionals for
insight
Talks down to event professionals
Talks about what can and will be
done
Talks about what can’t be done
Gives professional insight to the overall
plan
Gives a self-serving opinion
Taking the time to serve
individuals
Individuals are a waste of time
Follows up about
everything
Forgets about things
Discusses problem areas to find
solutions
Creates problems to prevent solutions
Commands the
situation
Demands of others
Dialog with
others
Monologue to others
Assist
others
Resists others
Motivates Manipulates
Pragmatic Dogmatic
Objective Subjective
Communicates
Dictates
Inspires and reassure the consumer's
objectives
intimidates the consumer & professionals
Uplifts & respects others who work with
them
Demeans others to be subject to them
Treats others as mature
adults
Treats others as annoying children
Works with
others
Works against others
Concerned with the whole
team
Only concerned with their own self-esteem
Concerned with event and individual
safety
Negates and deliberately ignores safety issues
Concerned with guests comfort and
enjoyment
Concerned only with their convenience
Jumps in to lend a hand where
needed
Jumps back to avoid pitching a hand if needed
Delivers the service the day of the
event
Makes excuses the day of the event
A Once-In-A-Lifetime
Event
Just another event
Takes a hands on approach to completing
tasks
Takes a hands off approach to completing tasks
Concerned with the sum of all the
parts
Concerned only with their part
Innovated approach to do things new &
unique
We’ve never done it like that before
Proactively planning to prevent event
problems
Operates in a crisis management mode
Sees that proper legalities are taken care
off
Ignores or overlooks important legalities
Has great mutual respect for other
professionals
Has no respect for real professionals
Refers to professionals as Service
Providers
Refers to professionals as vendors
Out of the box
thinker
Strictly an in-the-box non-thinker
Schedules proper & adequate pre-event
time
No proper pre-event time understanding
WE (Winning Event) (Wonderful
Evening)
ME (My Event) (My Ego)
TEAM (Together Each Achieves
More)
SELF (Selfish, Egotistic, Lethargic, Failure)
Honesty who do you really prefer to perform services for you
at your event?
These are
just a few characteristics
of the major differences between
professional
service providers and non-professionals
The
Three most important considerations before hiring a
professionals
The three most important
considerations when interviewing and contracting any professional service for
your event. Considerations are prioritized in the proper order as listed below.
Chemistry
Chemistry is the personality factor. If the chemistry isn't right nothing
else matters. During the interviewing stages you will soon have a feel if you
click or connect with the individuals you are interviewing. Do they listen
and associates to your needs, ideas or concerns. You will be communicating and
working closely with the individuals whom you have contracted to perform
services while at your event and may spend numerous hours with them planning and
going over the many details of your event weeks and months prior to the actual
event date. Since this is a close relationship personality conflicts or
chemistry considerations must be thought of as a two way mutual respect
relationship. The chemistry must be right for the service provider as well as
the buyer for harmony to exist. Personality incompatibilities can cause needless
stress for both parties involved. They also can inhibit both the buyer from
being happy and the the professional themselves from truly being uninhibited so
as to perform their services in a peak capacity. Personality
incompatibilities are no one's fault they are simply part of the human
experience that make us different.
Quality
Quality has to do with the value and the overall final result a service
provider provides for a particular event. Quality relates to the years of
experience, service and training. It also relates to having the right service at
the right event to produce the right effect. But underlying all of the
service is the passion and commitment the professional service provider has for
their work and their service they provide. If the chemistry is right but the
quality of work is not what is expected all the good feelings aren't going make
the expected quality of service any better. Compare apples for apples in the
quality for the cost you are paying to see what value you are getting for the
cost you are paying.
Cost
The last consideration to contracting a professional service is the cost. It
is an important consideration, however if the chemistry and quality aren't right
then no matter what the bargains may be the cost will not matter. Compare
apples-for-apples with quality for the cost you are paying you should see the
value you are getting for that cost. Some individuals base everything on cost
and negate value, quality and chemistry only to find out their event may be a
mediocre one or at worst a flop. Cost is not everything when it comes to special
events. If you didn't get what you really wanted or you settled for second or
third best whereas it made your event less successful and people left early then
the bargain you got wasn't really a bargain. Again, if the chemistry isn't there
and the quality either, the cost no matter how much the savings bargain wasn't
really a bargain.
Class Act
(770) 497-0520
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