What The Client Experiences
The event industry has become very good at selling the finished picture. But the client begins experiencing the event long before the first guest arrives. They experience the unanswered inquiry. The proposal that takes too long. The question answered differently by three different people. The detail discussed in sales that somehow never reaches operations. The vendor who assumes someone else is handling it. The promise nobody remembers making. And the moment the client realizes that if they don't keep track of everything themselves, something may fall through the cracks.
That is part of the event, too. After 40 years in hospitality, more than two decades of it owning a business planning weddings, corporate events and private celebrations, I have learned something I believe every event professional and hospitality business should understand: A beautiful outcome does not erase a difficult journey.
Your guests may never know what went wrong behind the scenes. Your client will. And when the event is over, that journey determines whether they recommend you, return to you, write the glowing review, or quietly decide never to work with you again. That is why I believe client experience has to be designed with the same care we give the event itself. Not only the room, the menu, the timeline. The journey.
Where does the information go? Who owns the next step? What happens when responsibility moves from sales to planning to operations? Does the customer have to chase, or are we already there? Does what we deliver match what we promised? Those aren't small operational questions. They are The Experience. And sometimes the most important thing an experienced professional can do is stop looking at the pretty picture and ask: What did it take for the client to get here? This philosophy is also the foundation of The Wendy Hartigan Client Experience Audit, created for hospitality, event and service-driven businesses that want to understand the experience they are actually delivering, not simply the one they intend to deliver.
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