5 Questions To Ask Every Vendor Before Hiring Them

It takes a lot of people to pull off a successful event, and as a planner, you are likely to deal with multiple vendors like catering, florists, audiovisual, venue, etc. Working with vendors is an essential thing when it comes to being a professional Event Management Agency. In the beginning, you'll spend a lot of time sourcing vendors with building relationships and good reputations with them.

Once you short-list a few promising candidates, schedule a vendor meeting to gather more data. Your vendor meeting will be similar to the interview. Here in this blog, we have listed a few questions to ask a vendor before you hire them:

1. Who is the main point of contact?

It is essential to know who you'll deal with every day and if that person will be available on-site to help manage the task at the event or not. If not, you'll want to be sure to be in touch with the person who will be on-site beforehand and understand all the details of your event for a smooth transition.

2. How far in advance do they need the event details?

It is crucial to know about the vendor's timeline and how far in advance they need the event's information. Finding this out upfront will help to establish expectations. This way, you won't end up surprised when the vendor needs something a few weeks earlier than you were anticipating.

3 Ask for quotation and payment schedule

It is crucial to find out upfront about the service estimate and what is included in those services. It helps to make sure that you understand the upfront costs, and if there are any additional fees, you were not aware of, and much more. Also, ask the vendor about the preferred method of payment. The reason is that some vendors will charge you a fee to pay with a credit card so that you can be sure and know in advance the payments due and how to pay online so that you can send the payments timely.

4. Ask about their cancellation policy

Events are unpredictable, and you never know what will happen, so you must be ready for any scenario. It also includes the event cancellation. Ensure that you know about the vendor's cancellation policies and if any of the deposits are non-refundable. It is also best to try and get a reschedule clause included in the vendor contract so that any non-refundable deposits can be applied to a future event.

5. Ask them to share customer referrals

If you are working with a new vendor, it is always preferable to find out what past customers think of their service. You can do this by asking them to provide you with the contact information of a previous client or see if they have any customer reviews/testimonials they would like to share. Most vendors are usually happy to put you in touch with past clients, and word of mouth is the best marketing tool in itself.

Conclusion

The above are simple questions that are helpful to get an idea about the vendor you'll be working with in the future. In the business of event planning services, the questions are essential to ask, and it is better to jot them down somewhere before you make calls or meet them. Do not be shy in finding the answers before you make any commitment.