Wedding Business Solutions

Here are the stats for our secret shopping this year!

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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Are you following up enough with the couples who already reached out to you? What could your business be missing out on if you only reply once—or not at all? In this episode, I break down the latest secret shopping stats, what they reveal about wedding businesses, and how simple tweaks—like ending your emails with a single question or not overloading messages with attachments—can make all the difference in response rates and bookings. If your biggest opportunity is working with leads who haven’t said no, are you really maximizing it?

Listen to this new 11-minute episode for actionable insights on raising your follow-up game and rethinking how you reply, so you can turn more interested couples into happy clients.
If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

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View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

Here’s the secret shopping stats for this year. Listen to this episode. Hey, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast.

At the end of the year, I like to recap what’s been happening with our secret shopping because we do a lot of it. Over the past two years, we’ve shopped 834 companies as of this point. I think it’s actually more than that, but the stats I have here are for those companies.

I wanted to update this to encourage you with the fact that our biggest opportunity—you, me, everybody—is the people who have already reached out, already shown interest, and haven’t yet said no. That’s where your biggest opportunity is.

This is all across the spectrum: lots of venues, lots of entertainment companies, but also photographers, florists, planners, officiants, dress shops—you name it.

So here we go. Drumroll. We’ve shopped 834 companies overall.

Here’s the first stat I never thought I’d need to track, but I do: what percentage replied at all? That means we went to your website and filled out your contact form. Overall, 84% replied at all. That means 16% never replied.

At one point, when it was 15%, I had my assistant reshops them. A third of those didn’t reply the second time either. Technical issues or nobody paying attention—I don’t know. But those companies are losing money every day.

This year is worse. Nineteen percent of companies never replied. Only 81% replied at all. Last year was 85%. In 2023, it was also 81%.

Another stat: only 46% fit their message onto one phone screen. Less than half. We know people are reading your messages on their phones. How many of you want to read something longer than one screen? Not many—and your customers don’t either, especially Gen Y and Gen Z.

Only a third of you ended with one question. I can’t emphasize this enough. Years ago, Alan Katz dropped this truth bomb on me: end every message with a question because it gets more answers. Of course it does—it continues the conversation instead of ending it.

I even wrote about this in my books, Why Don’t They Call Me? and Why Are They Ghosting Me? But it’s not just whether you ask a question—it’s what question you ask.

Forty-five percent of you are only asking for a tour or appointment right away. Gen Y and Gen Z are phone-averse. If you ask for a call or Zoom too soon, you’re going to get ghosted. Pushing for a tour immediately is a high-commitment, high-pressure move.

Your biggest opportunity is the ghosts—the people who already reached out and haven’t said no. They already like what they’ve seen, read, heard, or watched.

If you were the customer just trying to get information and the company said you need to come in, would you ghost them? Probably.

Here’s the hard truth: all of us are ghosting somebody right now. That doesn’t make someone a fake lead. It just means you’re not the priority at the moment.

Auto replies showed up 29% of the time. We don’t count that as a first reply—it’s just a confirmation. Some are written better than others. I only use auto replies when I’m out of the office, and even then I still respond quickly.

Attachments showed up 38% of the time. Please stop sending attachments. Open a PDF on your phone—it’s not formatted for a phone screen. Most of the time it’s just your printed brochure. Brochures are meant to get inquiries. If they already inquired, don’t step backwards.

Links showed up 81% of the time. If you send me to your website, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or a Google photo gallery, you’re distracting me from the one thing you want me to do—respond to you. If I already reached out, I already like what I’ve seen. Don’t send me away.

Now here’s the big one. Overall, 52% sent one response and never followed up. This year it was worse—55% gave up after one response. Only 27% tried three times. Four times dropped to 19%. Five times, 13%. Six times, 11%. By ten times, only 1% this year.

The average number of follow-ups is about two and a half. The bar is low. If you’re only following up once or twice and giving up, you’re leaving money on the table—money other people are getting by following up more.

Engagement season is upon us. How are you going to keep up? Can you use technology? Automated replies, follow-up sequences, AI agents—there are tools that can handle conversations and even book tours for you.

Not following up is leaving money on the table. You’re chasing more inquiries when you should be squeezing more value out of the ones you already have. They’ve already shown interest.

People aren’t fake leads just because they’re ghosting you. They’re just not ready yet. Follow up again and again and again. That’s a lot easier than spending more money to get new leads.

I recently increased my own follow-ups from eight to ten because people were replying to the sixth or eighth message saying, “Still interested, not yet.” If I hadn’t followed up, it wouldn’t have been top of mind for them either.

So those are the stats for this year. I’m not pleased. Nineteen percent not responding at all and 55% giving up after one response. That’s easy money being left on the table.

End of the year—take this as some motivation. Let me know how I can help. All the info is in the show notes.

I hope you have a great new year. Don’t make resolutions—make commitments. I’ll see you in the new year. Thanks.


I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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