Party entertainer - AIBU?

[puppymouse]

I am sorting out some of the basics for DD's 6th birthday party. It's a while away but the first one she's ever had and I wanted to do the bits that need booking now so it's done.

I did a bit of research into local entertainers. Found one I liked the sound of and messaged them. I sent a nice chatty message explaining dates and times and asking what their availability and set up time was.

They responded quickly but have just sent me a generic image of a flier with their prices on. No hello, thanks for your enquiry, yes I'm available etc. This pissed me off slightly as it's well over £100 and I just feel a bit of friendliness doesn't go amiss in dealing with potential customers.

However this person gets good reviews and is clearly great with kids. So am I being petty and that's all that matters so I should book, or do I look for someone who'll actually talk to me?

Book them! They might get hundreds of enquiries a week and not have time to respond to each of them personally!

Thanks @joopy79 - I am probs BU but wasn't sure!

How quickly did they respond? Might also be an automatic response?

It probably just means they’re busy enough to need a quick way to reply. Maybe have a phone conversation before you book to get a better idea?

I think it's a bit shit.

It could be an automatic response.

They probably get 100s of messages asking for prices and then never get any bookings.

YABU

It's probably an automated reply, and they'll reply personally in a few days. It happened to me a few times while trying to find similar.

If it says at the top of the message thread 'usually replies straight away' or similar, it will be an automated reply.

I think they replied within an hour but it wasn't instant so guessing not automated.

Can you imagine how much time they’d spend if they personally engaged with every single enquiry? Your enquiry was detailed but what’s to say you didn’t copy and paste it to ten entertainers (as many people do)...but you want a personalised response?

I agree I would expect they get tons of enquiries that don't end up as bookings so send that in the first instance then engage fully if you seem interested

I don't think it's too much to ask for them to check their diary and reply with whether they are available.

I can totally see the point of those saying IABU. But this is a rural area and if you have a small FB page with a few nice reviews I wouldn't have thought they're overwhelmed. But I don't work in a customer-facing job so I may well be overthinking it.

But I don't work in a customer-facing job

That might be why there are varying perceptions. Customers will make dozens of enquiries, all purportedly very serious, but as soon as they find out the price they’re off. Similarly, they spend hours trying to negotiate over the smallest sums so it probably helps this entertainer weed out utter rubbish and time wasting by sending out prices in black and white early on. I’m sure if you engage further on the basis of the stated price you will have a much fuller conversation.

Thanks @LostInShoebiz - it sounds like you have to face into this yourself and speak from bitter experience! I totally sympathise. I'm not nice enough to work with the general public

But I think your point about "utter rubbish" is my food for thought here... that if you're a small business offering a service perhaps that's a harmful way of seeing new enquiries?

I don’t think you are unreasonable to be irritated by this, but poor email etiquette is a personal bugbear of mine. It takes 30 seconds to write “Dear so and so, thanks for your enquiry, please see attached price list”. If it’s automated, you can set up the automated email to include some generic text. You can even set up a keyboard shortcut so that it takes seconds to add some polite preamble if you don’t have time to write a sentence or two. In my job, students have to email me work frequently, and those who just send a blank email with an attachment, or with the work pasted in, with no salutation or information about who they are and what the work is, make me bristle. I tell them that it’s the equivalent of throwing the assignment on my desk and walking away without saying a word. But they still do it.

However, if this person is a popular entertainer you should probably just book them! Seems like they are like gold dust around here.

@badb my exact thoughts!

It's not very good marketing, as you have demonstrated the lack of personal approach may lose them some bookings.

But I would not worry much about it & book them if you think they are suitable.

I'd be a mildly irritated, too. If they were pressed for time you'd think they'd have a pro forma reply they could send with their prices, to which they could add a personalising sentence. This is what I do (I'm not a party entertainer - but I am self employed and field random enquiries about pricing etc).

Perhaps the entertainer is constantly badgered about prices so likes to get that out the way before looking at dates etc and doing the admin. If you gasped and said that was far too much then that would have been time wasted.

Yes to prices as I guess people do balk. What has anyone else paid for an entertainer for a couple of hours?

I don't know what I expected - I had an open mind.

Tbh id be happy they replied! When booking DDs birthday party last year I contacted 6 entertainers and 1 replied... I was furious. I'd planned bouncy castle and either a local animal experience guy or magician but ended up with the bouncy castle and doing games myself because they wouldn't reply to messages or answer the phones.

But, yanbu. Even a generic pasted message of 'thanks for your enquiry, I've attached our prices please reply for availability' or something

it's probably not the best, but not everyone has all the skills! If you do book them and get on with them, you could suggest that they do start having an automatic response to say thanks for the enquiry, please find attached info, pleased to hear if you want to go ahead with the booking etc etc.

But OMG yes, if you're self employed (I am) you do need some system to protect yourself from giving too much time to business development. It is a balance between seeming not to care and not spending time writing careful responses that are going to lead nowhere, to the detriment of your business. It's not an easy balance to strike, definitely something that comes with practice.

Well over £100! Is this the normal cost of an entertainer, for an hour or so, at a kids party? What do they do?

That would annoy me.
I send out automated messages and it’s set to say thanks, here’s my price list and hours, any additional questions get in touch.

A generic one with just price I would look at what else is available. Because as far as I’m concerned good customer service starts from the initial contact.

Oh my god @codenameduchess that puts it in perspective. That's awful!

@Playmysong disco, games that kind of shiz.