Quality versus Price

This is an age old discussion and it can relate to any industry, but it is something we are all aware of within the special events industry. Whether it is the fees you charge or the fees you are being charged by your suppliers, it still comes down to Quality versus Price.

At the Academy of Wedding and Event Planning we often get asked why our courses are more expensive than any of the other courses available and the answer is simple. It’s not just the quality of our courses, we could all say our courses are the best, but it is the additional services we offer on top of the courses. It is the ultimate balancing act – keeping your prices affordable but offering a service that is second to none.

So how do you explain to your potential clients that you are worth paying extra for? Well I will use the Academy as an example. In our case we are talking about education and training for wedding and event planners. So the first thing I always look at is the things we do and don’t do.

We Do…

1. Constantly update our course material
2. Offer our courses via the latest technology – we are working towards offering our courses in Ebook format and currently offer E Learning via our Virtual Campus and Correspondence – all our competitors offer paper based only
3. Stay up to date with industry trends
4. Develop software for use within the industry
5. Train students to use industry tools
6. Maintain a Job Board with new jobs being posted each week
7. Help students to secure work experience
8. Offer a library of industry articles which are updated monthly
9. Give detailed feedback from tutors on ALL assignments
10. Access to tutors via email and phone
11. Offer after course support – our staff work with students after they have completed their courses to help them where possible
12. Attend industry conferences and make podcasts available of our experience for our students to listen to so they don’t miss out
13. Offer a program of Webinars for students
14. Feature students on our website once they have graduated to help them launch their businesses
15. Send leads to our student when we receive enquiries from brides or corporate clients
16. Actively seek out areas to promote wedding planning and special events so it becomes a more accepted career
17. Devise new courses based on student feedback – we now have 6 courses specialising in different areas of special events
18. Answer all queries promptly within 24 hours

We Don’t…

1. Send out certificates with the course material. No student should receive their certificate unless evidence of comprehension of the course has been seen by the training establishment – this would usually be by completing assignments
2. Send out certificates 6 months after the students has graduated
3. Offer only information – all our students have to submit a minimum of 16 assignments which are graded by our expert tutors with extensive feedback
4. Make promises we cannot keep
5. Allow students to think they can learn all about the business in one weekend
6. Let them think this job is easy
7. Leave them high and dry once they have enrolled

In order for us to do all this though we need to be realistic about our prices. We can’t offer a quality course with all these additional features and not charge a reasonable fee. We aren’t extortinate, but for us to keep tutors on staff who are industry experts we have to pay them a good fee. We could offer tutors who are slightly inferior who don’t have the same level of expertise, but then our students would be missing out on all their guidance and invaluable insights into the industry which many of our students say is one of the highlights of the course.

I guess what I am trying to do here is to make you think about all these things the next time you are asked to explain about why your services are more expensive than the planner in the next suburb. Stop and think about what makes you valuable. Are you professional? Do you go above and beyond the call of duty? Do you offer an out of office hours service? Do you have access to the best industry professionals in your state?

Don’t lower your prices justify them instead.