This week I am taking you through the concluding part
of the questions and responses from the panel discussion session of the Event
Planners and Vendors summit held on 22nd September, 2015
Here we go
Question 7
Vendor and Planner conflict! How can this
be managed?
The industry is a fast growing institution undergoing
series of corrective measures and structuring that will take a while to achieve
its peak and standards. The place of the planner and vendors has to be well
spelt out on a job and also the relative line of expected job deliveries of the
vendors.
Reasons for many vendors claiming not to be willing to
work with event planners or a particular event planners varies with interest
and collective experiences they had in past jobs.
1. Your
event planner should be your backup and a helping hand to aid swift delivery,
but in cases where your planner doesn’t have your back or support you in making
impactful decisions then certainly there will be a clash on interest. A line of
cordial relationship is required between the planner and the vendor team, he or
she is expected to make the job seamlessly easy for the vendors not complicate
matters by imposing the mounted pressure of the event on the vendors. Likewise
a vendor placed on a job is expected to be on top of the job by creating
lasting impression on the mind of the planner by delivering the service to
almost perfection.
2. Credibility:
this is a key factor killing the industry, how credible with financial facts
are the planners? Vendors believes that
planners do short change them when it comes to professional charges and
referral charges. Planners are urged to maintain standards in charging and keep
the channel of financial matters clear enough to manage the issue of distrust
and credibility.
A conflict “is a situation in which people, groups or
countries are involved in a serious disagreement or argument”. It also refers
to “a situation in which there are opposing ideas, opinions, feelings or
wishes; a situation in which it is difficult to choose”. Majorly conflict of interest may arise in “a
situation in which has two jobs, aims, rules, etc. and cannot treat both of
them equally and fairly at the same time” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
Conflict between planners and vendors may arise in the
areas of commission (or referral charge), costing, remunerations, scope of
work, quality, quantity, integrity or standards. These conflicts can be
resolved very quickly if there is a contract agreement document stating lucidly
the expectations of each party to the agreement. Usually the way and manner
that jobs are offered to vendors is by oral or verbal instruction such that the
terms of engagement are not fully spelt out and there are no clearly stated
dispute resolution channels. Where this type of verbal engagement is utilized,
conflicts are usually difficult to resolve.
Sometimes a planner may also be a vendor for that
particular event. And when this happens there will be conflict of interest. The core thing really is to avoid accepting
jobs through verbal contracts. No matter the pressure of time or hurry,
planners and vendors should endeavour to capture their terms of engagement in a
contract agreement document, stating vividly the conflict resolution channels.
In a recent case which we discussed in our group chat
forum, a planner was engaged in the act of swindling vendors with promise of
payment as soon as the client pays. Unknown to the vendors, the client has
already paid the planner who withheld the money but kept on promising to pay
the vendors. The situation became so bad that the vendors ganged up against the
planner and delivered an unpleasant service experience to the client. There has
been different views on how this issue should have been resolved but the key
lesson here is that the client was unhappy and may probably not want to deal
with the planner and vendors involved again. This is a very bad precedent for
the event management industry which every stakeholder must work hard to prevent
in other to restore client confidence in the operators.
Question 8
How do we manage the issue of Refundable Deposit
mostly charged by hall owners?
Answer
Every rental service outfits or Venue owners have
their laid down rules and at times contract letter to be agreed to by clients.
Agreeing to this binds you to conform to their in house rule and tradition.
Addressing this issue will require a collective forum of the affected service
providers as we have till date they all parade different rules and charges.
Meeting at a common ground could be difficult based on variations in capital
investment each facility cost in putting in place and maintaining, as we all
will agree that the just concluded summit couldn’t give a final resolution to
the issue, which boils down to the fact that all vendors should build a
collaborative working environment with the hall owners and rental providers so
as to manage the issue of refundable deposit.
Refundable deposit should be refunded at the end of an
event provided the conditions which were set down before the event was met
after the event. I don’t have any problem with refundable deposit but where I
have problem is the refusal to refund.
To get it right, both the Hall/venue owner/manager
should have a checklist of the condition of things that is expected of the
planner before and after the event in other to qualify for the refundable
deposit. The list should be reviewed by both parties and if acceptable, it must
be signed off accordingly. When this happens, it will be difficult for any of
the parties to renege on the agreement.
1.
Always
make use of professional contract note to be agreed and signed
by stakeholders
2.
Have a
well-designed payment plan from your client
3.
Pay
your VAT, Taxes and all government related business rules
4.
Always
charge VAT fee
5.
Be
open with your vendor and build a relationship as the business grows on the
wings of referral
6.
Jack
of all trade NOT allowed
7.
Set an
in house business standard and practice professionalism
I have now rounded up this series. I hope you enjoyed it.
Merry Xmas and Happy New year 2016 ahead.
Special thanks again to Ajibola Olatomirin-Richards of Vivid
Entertainment Ltd. All credit goes to APPOEMN for organising such an educative
summit.
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