As part of my Workflow series this month, I’m sharing a tool for getting to know clients and vendors: questionnaires! If you don’t have questionnaires implemented in your workflow, today is the day to make a change! There are lots of different types of questionnaires that you can use in your business and today I’m going to share three of them. But first, let’s talk about why they’re a good idea.

The advantages of using questionnaires in your business

Questionnaires allow you to gain insight into your clients and vendors while helping you connect with them. And if that’s not a big enough reason, questionnaires also save you valuable time! By having a set of questions to send a client or vendor you are avoiding reinventing the wheel and having to come up with questions each time you want to connect with a new client or vendor. Below are three of my most favorite questionnaires.

Engagement Session Questionnaire

I send this questionnaire after we deliver our client’s engagement photos and before I blog their session. This way, I have a written record of their love story that I can use to get to know them better, connect, use for the blog, and review before the wedding day so that I can be reminded of their story and what is important to them. Here are some sample questions you might ask before prepping an engagement session blog post for your client:

• How did you meet?
• What do you remember about your first date?
• When did you know he/she was the one?
• Tell us about the proposal.
• Tell us one thing you love about each other.
• Tell us about the wedding you’re planning.
• Besides getting married, what’s the one thing you are looking forward to on your wedding day?

Wedding Questionnaire

I send a wedding final details questionnaire within a couple of months leading up to the wedding to finalize vendor lists, family shot lists, etc. This year we added on a few more questions so that I can better understand their approach to the day aesthetically speaking. Here are four questions you may consider using:  

• Where did you draw your inspiration from when planning your wedding?
• How did you choose your venue?
• What are some of the unique items that you’ll be incorporating into your day?
• Where will you be going on your honeymoon? What are you most looking forward to regarding your honeymoon?

Vendor Spotlight Questionnaire

I sent these questions any time I am preparing a vendor spotlight post for our blog. When I send it to vendors, I tell them that they are free to adjust the questions as they see fit so that they don’t feel limited when telling our clients about their business. I think they like that it gives them a starting point so that they can easily start sharing about themselves and their business.

• Tell us a little about you.
• Tell us about your business.
• What do you love most about what you do?
• How would you describe your work?
• What should our clients know about your process and about working with you?

How to send out questionnaires

Ideally, you would include questionnaires in your CRM so that you easily send them out as part of you automated workflows. However, if you’re in the beginning stages of your business, I can understand why you’re not ready to commit to spending money on that so I would recommend using Google Forms or Jot Form. Both of those will allow you to gather information from clients in an easy way.

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