Customer Management

As a clown, I have a new client for pretty much every event that I do.  Not to say that repeat customers are unheard of, but it IS usually a once a year or less kind of situation for most people.  This means that I have a LOT of different customer information to organize.  So, I thought I'd take a blog post to talk about some of the ways that a clown can keep it all straight.  I'll try not to make this sound like a commercial for all my little gadgets by mentioning some "low tech" methods that I've used in the past too.

When I first got started with all these parties, I had a paper binder that I sorted this stuff in.  There were two sections to it:
1. Calendar - a day timer type page with things divided into morning, afternoon and evening because I'm not comfortable booking things too close together.  I'm obsessed with being early for everything, so I need lots of time between things. ;)

2. Booking Sheets - pages that I fill out for every event with blanks for all the information that I need to get on my phone calls.

This worked well for me for quite a while and I kept all the past event forms in a duotang.

If however, you happen to have an ipad and/or iphone...

Cozi has been a fantastic calendar app for my family.  It updates everything between the Cozi website and all connected mobile devices.  It has a calendar (sorted by family member), shopping lists, to-do lists... it's just a really good app.

As far as sorting customer information by events, what you need is a database.  There are a few different apps that do those, but the one I'm using is pretty easy to use and customize.  It also exports files to a spreadsheet so you can keep a backup of all your information periodically.  My choice is called TapForms.  I use the one for ipad rather than iphone because I like to have more room on the screen while I'm doing it and I can do it while I'm on my iphone without switching to speakerphone.

What information do I collect?
Date
Time
Customer Name
Guest of Honour
Phone
email
location of event
mailing address (if different from event)
type of event (select from: party, greeting, hourly event, fundraiser, stage show, pay per face/balloon)
character (select from: Perry Noia, Cadenza, Freddie Farensquair, Chicken) ... probably adding an elf soon
estimated number of children
length of time
price quoted
deposit paid (check box) (although you could do an amount if your deposit amount varies)
party show (check box)
balloon twisting (check box)
face painting (check box)
stage show (check box)
greeting (check box)
large balloon sculpture (check box)
contact source
notes

I can edit fields, add fields, etc as needed and it goes really fast to take information down on a call.

The most important thing when taking customer information though is to keep it very well organized and up to date with ALL of the information that you have.  It's a good idea to keep as much of your old info as possible as well.  You never know when you'll want to look back at that information and if it's as simple as keeping a few spreadsheet files, it's not as hard as some very full duotangs.

Keep Smiling! :oD
Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown