LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - May 2, 2013) - It is high season for the growing wedding industry -- the average wedding costs over $28,000 and is at its highest level since 2008 . 1 With June being the most popular month for American weddings , 2 bridal businesses are saying "I Do" to mobile apps and cloud services that help them plan the perfect event.
From using mobile apps to sign and fax contracts on the go, to a virtual phone service that can route calls from a business number to a cell, home or other phone, small business owners who specialize in event planning, including photographers, planners, coordinators and wedding officials, can manage the busy season while working on the go.
The popularity of spring and summer ceremonies means wedding planners are working harder to meet seasonal deadlines, and often times juggling tasks while working on the move. The betrothed can be notoriously finicky and experienced industry professionals know that a couple's desires can change in a heartbeat. 24/7 accessibility of the planner is crucial to pre wedding plans, so smart small bridal businesses are choosing cloud services and mobile apps such as eFax ® and eVoice ® in order to be productive and efficient while on the go.
eFax is an online fax service that is ideal for small bridal businesses who need to securely send and receive documents that contain sensitive personal information, such as credit card number, home address, social security number, etc. Online fax comes in handy for transmitting event contracts or catering agreements, without a fax machine. A planner can confirm a song list or sign and send a contract via online fax from any iOS, Android or mobile device. All sent and received faxes are stored online, searchable by keyword, and available to view by date or content whenever and wherever needed.
eVoice is a virtual phone system that provides wedding planners with a business phone number that is seamlessly routed to up to five phones, including home, home office or cell. Callers are greeted by a recorded message with customized menu options. The small business phone system's Auto Attendant feature helps screen calls to ensure that important calls get immediate attention, while lower priority calls are sent to voicemail and addressed at a more convenient time. Calls sent to voicemail are transcribed into text and delivered via SMS or an email.
"As an event planner, wedding season means spring is one of the busiest times for me," says LaVerne Mathews, owner of That Special Touch Events. "The very nature of my job means I'm almost always on the go, and need to have a mobile office. I rely on eVoice's automated system and recorded greeting to give my business an extra professional polish, and also ensure all my calls get routed to me while I'm on the road. eVoice allows me to be seamless with my clients, and accessible at all times -- it really sets my business apart."
Click here to listen to a podcast interview about eVoice ® with LaVerne Mathews.
Here are four tips to help bridal industry professionals stay connected with clients while working on the go:
1. Save the Paper for the First Anniversary, Not the Wedding Cumbersome paperwork can clutter any pre-wedding meeting. Rather than toting a stack of papers around to each planning session, retrieve documents as needed from an online archive. eFax ® stores all sent and received faxes and indexes them so you can pull them up by client, vendor, date, or any word in the document. Any file is available to you anywhere, any time.
2. Say "I Do" To Call Recording From menus to flower arrangements to photo shots, there are a number of details that must be managed when planning the perfect wedding. eVoice's Call Recording feature helps capture important verbal details on the go -- without taking notes -- ensuring that nothing gets overlooked. Last minute changes and drama come with the territory for a wedding planner; keeping recorded calls on file helps keep misunderstandings and difficult conversations about expectations to a minimum.
3. Connect With That Special Someone In addition to managing the needs of brides-to-be, wedding professionals are called upon to coordinate with other vendors and suppliers to get pricing quotes and date availability. eVoice helps ensure that mobile business professionals such as wedding planners don't miss important calls. Incoming calls to a business line can be automatically set up to route to an office, home or mobile phone number. And with eVoice's voicemail to text feature, messages are transcribed and delivered to a personal email inbox, for easy reading on the fly. No more straining to listen to voicemails in a quiet ceremony or noisy reception.
4. A Proposal in the Palm of Your Hand Send proposals, invoices, and floor plan layout sketches by using a mobile device's camera to snap and fax a document, eliminating the need for a fax machine. Documents can be viewed, replied to, forwarded and saved online anytime. And, eFax's digitized signature feature enables documents to be signed with the touch of a fingertip in seconds flat.
About eVoice
eVoice is a brand and registered trademark of j2 Global, Inc. (
About eFax
eFax is a brand and registered trademark of j2 Global, Inc. (
About j2 Global™
j2 Global, Inc. (
1 According to the 2012 Real Weddings Study by TheKnot.com and The Wedding Channel. See http://blog.theknot.com/2013/03/07/average-we...cost-2013/ and http://finance.yahoo.com/news/theknot-com-wed...UALuDQtDMD
2 According to the 2012 Real Weddings Study by TheKnot.com and The Wedding Channel. See http://blog.theknot.com/2013/03/07/average-we...cost-2013/ and http://finance.yahoo.com/news/theknot-com-wed...UALuDQtDMD
Press contact: Bill Threlkeld Senior Manager, Public Relations Email: pr@j2global.com
