One space per client, not one folder per event
The first decision is where a client’s work lives. Folders per event, inside one shared account, work until the third client: then templates are copied between them, guest lists are merged by accident and a junior coordinator can see every client’s contacts. Give each client their own space instead, holding their events, their guest lists, their designs and their reports, and nothing that belongs to anyone else.
A client space also makes repeat business easier. The second event for the same client starts from their last guest list, their approved templates and their known sender details, rather than from a search through last year’s email.
Guest data belongs to the client
The people on a client’s list are the client’s relationships. The agency processes them on the client’s behalf; it does not own them, and it should never reuse them for another client or for its own marketing. Write that down in the agreement, and make the tools reflect it: one client’s guests should be invisible from another client’s space, not just filtered out of a view.
Agree at the start what happens to the data after the event: how long the agency keeps it, in what form it is handed back, and when it is deleted. Clients increasingly ask, and an agency that can answer in one sentence looks like one that can be trusted with the next list.
Invitations in the client’s own branding
Guests should feel invited by the client, not by the agency. That means the client’s colours, fonts and logo on the invitation, wording in the client’s voice and a sender name the guest recognises. Build a small brand kit for each client once, with the approved logo files and colours, and start every invitation for that client from it.
Keep the agency’s own name out of the guest’s view unless the client wants it there. A guest who sees an unfamiliar agency name in their inbox is more likely to ignore the message or to treat it as unsolicited.
- Approved logo in light and dark versions.
- Brand colours and fonts, with the ones not to use.
- The sender name and reply address the client approves.
- Tone of voice notes and one approved example invitation.
- Who on the client side signs off, and how fast they usually answer.
Approvals without an email chain
Most agency delays are approval delays. Agree for each client who approves the guest list, who approves the invitation and who approves the final numbers, and give those people a single place to look rather than a thread of attachments. Set the approval dates into the timeline backwards from the send date, with a buffer for the client who always answers late.
Keep a record of what was approved and when. When a client later asks why a guest was not invited, the answer should be a dated approval, not someone’s memory.
Team roles across clients
An agency team rarely works on every client. Give each person access to the clients they actually serve, and within each client the role they actually play: building the guest list, designing invitations, scanning at the door or only reading the report. Freelance door staff hired for one night should see that night’s door list on their phone and nothing else.
Client staff can be part of the team too. A client who wants to watch replies come in, or to add a few names of their own, can be given a role inside their own space without ever seeing the agency’s other work.
Reporting to the client
The report is what the client remembers after the evening is over. Decide with them before the event what they want to know: invited, replied, accepted, attended, by group; who did not come; walk-ins; how the evening went. Then make sure the data that answers those questions is being collected, because a report cannot show door numbers that nobody recorded.
Send the report quickly, in a form the client can forward upstairs without editing. A short written summary on top, then the numbers, then the exports they asked for.
Running several client events in one week
Busy weeks are where separation is tested. A coordinator moves between three clients in an afternoon; a door team works one event on Tuesday and another on Thursday. Name events so that the client is obvious from the name, check which client space you are in before sending anything, and never reuse a door device without clearing the previous event from it.
- Event names that start with the client’s name.
- A second pair of eyes on every send to a full list.
- Door phones signed in to one event at a time.
- A short handover note per client when a coordinator changes.
- The client’s report sent before the next client’s event begins.