Guest Blog – Managing Expectations

 

 

Photography clients have many reasons to be nervous, but the photographer should not be one of them.  AlbumExposure President and CEO, Gary Sikes, wants to help you keep your client out of the dark.

 

It seems that there are too many things to remember these days.  This is true no matter what business you are in, but this is especially true in the photography industry.  You’ve worked hard to learn your craft, and you continue to grow in knowledge daily.  You have a pre and post shoot plan that you continue to refine and execute with each successive client (if not you should).  Each plan has too many steps or details to list here, but you get my point – there’s a lot to do before the final product is delivered, and often the client doesn’t realize or even need to know about most of it.  The catch is, if you leave too much of the work behind-the-scenes, your clients may feel that they’ve been left in the dark.

People tend to get nervous in the dark…they start to get anxious, even scared, and eventually they begin to make noise so they can be found.  This is true in the business process as well.  Clients left alone, with little understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes, tend to get nervous and start making noise.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when my clients get scared or nervous.  I used to convince myself that they were just difficult people, but it’s more likely that I wasn’t managing their expectations well.  That was on me.  If you own your business, it’s on you too.

That being said, it’s imperative that part of your plan is to manage the expectations of your clients.  Don’t allow this to be an afterthought, rather integrate it as a key part of the client experience you provide.  You’ll find that things will go more smoothly and your clients will enjoy the process so much more.  Plus, happy clients mean more referrals, while exhausted clients…well, don’t.  But just remember, they don’t need to know everything. Don’t burden them with all the fine details…that’s just going to the other extreme.  A wise man told me once – “no surprises, good or bad” and he was right.  Managing expectations helps everyone keep a level head and enjoy the outcome.  Surprises throw a wrench into the mix, so I’d suggest that you’re better off keeping the line of communication open as much as necessary.  Don’t keep clients in the dark, rather keep them informed, and execute according to those expectations.  Keep up the good work friends. Cheers!

-Gary Sikes, President and CEO of AlbumExposure

 

PWD is the featured partner this week over at AlbumExposure, and we’re celebrating with a special offer: This week, save $30 on a one year AlbumExposure subscription.

PWD uses AE as our exclusive design proofing solution.  The AE site is simple and elegant, and we think you’ll love using it with your clients too!  Head over to AlbumExposure and use coupon code “PWDWeek2011″ when you sign up.  The offer is only for new users and expires on 11/20/2011, so sign up today!

A Little Love Note About Outsourcing

Erica Schneider, of Acres of Hope Photography, has been outsourcing post-production work to PWD Labs for over a year and has no plans of going back to doing the work herself. As a successful wedding and portrait photographer, Erica knows that her time is better spent connecting with clients and running her business. Erica explains it best: In the midst of a busy 2010 wedding season, I found myself completely overwhelmed with editing jobs. Struggling to keep up with thousands of images a week, I began to loathe sorting and dreaded the editing even more. I was stressed, busy and unable to focus on the aspects of my business I wanted to focus on – primarily, customer service. I longed to have enough time in my day to send little email love notes to my clients the day after a shoot telling them how great they did, or a welcome-home-from-your-honeymoon love note. I wished I could hand-deliver prints to my clients instead of shipping them off in the mail. I wanted to pour more effort into styling my shoots and developing more personal relationships with my clients. That’s when I decided to look into outsourcing post-production. I “interviewed” four different companies that July. PWD met my simple, must-have criteria: the ability to create a custom editing profile and easy uploading of files. I don’t believe they were the cheapest or the most expensive option, so the deciding factor came in customer service. PWD “wowed” me from the start. They were extremely responsive, answering all of my questions via email and phone. Melissa, Jerry and the rest of the team welcomed me like I was their top priority. To this day, I’m still surprised to learn that I’m not their only client! Over the course of the year, I handed over more and more post-production in order to streamline my workflow: color-correction, black-and-white conversion, sharpening and finally retouching. At one point, I had a boudoir client that was interested in full-body retouching on her images. I had not ordered retouching from PWD before, so I emailed about pricing and details. The next day, I received a response from Jerry, CEO – on a Saturday! I was blown away. Little efforts like this (and there have been many more) have made a lasting impression on my mind. Nothing trumps excellent customer service. Oh yeah, and to finish my story, I got set up so I could deliver boudoir images that are always retouched, making my clients feel absolutely glamorous and amazing! PWD recently shared their news with me about partnering with Pictage. As a long-term Pictage member, what’s better than hearing that two companies I utilize on a daily basis are joining forces? I’ve always believed in working with the best, and now the best are working with each other. PWD has exceeded my expectations as a business partner time and time again. All in all, PWD is one of my favorite companies to work with. Ever. I am relieved to know that for as long as I am in business, PWD will be my post-production studio of choice. And the Pictage/PWD integration is going to be the best thing since sliced bread. Seriously, this is going to be awesome! Written by Erica Schneider Erica is a San Diego based Wedding, Lifestyle and Boudoir Photographer who loves capturing people in LOVE.  Erica is an active member of WPPI and PPA, and has been featured on popular wedding blogs such as Style Me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes, Junebug Weddings, The Wedding Chicks, DIY Bride and The Knotty Bride. Learn more about Erica at Acres of Hope Photography.

Life in the Balance :: Let Go

Guest author Emily Potts runs her own photography business, heads the exceedingly popular Moms With Cameras blog, and still finds time to be “Mom.”  As a fan of PWD, Emily has honored us by extending to our readers the same kind of heartfelt advice and insight Moms With Cameras has become known for.

(Ok folks, you’re going to be able to tell I’m the mother of a small child, but here we go . . . )

Do you remember the moment in Finding Nemo when Dory tells Marlin, “It’s time to let go!” Poor, control-freak Marlin clings to that whale’s uvula and struggles to summon the emotional strength to take the risk and release his grip. Marlin and I have a lot in common.

The last time I chatted with you all, I asked you to circle items on your overpopulated to-do lists that you could delegate to others or simply discard. I also asked you to highlight the items you felt were extremely necessary that you and only you complete. The first time I ran through that exercise, the vast majority of my items were struck through in technicolor pink. I mean, surely my assistant can’t package orders; I need to check the images and make sure they’re all okay. And I can’t hire someone to clean my house; it will mean that I have failed in my role as a wife. And retouch my images? (Insert huge, appalled gasp <here>.) What if the lab screws them up? What if they don’t understand my artistic vision? Forget the fact that most of my retouching is blemish removal! What if they do it wrong?!

You know what? Upon pulling myself out of near-hysteria, I stopped pondering the depths of everyone else’s ineptitude. Instead I started to consider the possibility that maybe (just maybe) other people had some talent of their own. It could be possible that they may even be better than me at some things. For example, maybe (just maybe) an accountant may be better at tax preparation than I am. And that new cleaning service may plow through my house in half the time it usually takes me. And my lab may know how to color-correct and remove a zit. They might even be faster and better at it. Hmmmmmm . . . .

So my friends, I am going to thank you so much for reading this. I ask you to take one more challenge. Embrace your inner Dory. Let go. She sure seemed to be the one who had more fun.

Life in the Balance :: Evaluate

Guest author Emily Potts runs her own photography business, heads the exceedingly popular Moms With Cameras blog, and still finds time to be “Mom.”  As a fan of PWD, Emily has honored us by extending to our readers the same kind of heartfelt advice and insight Moms With Cameras has become known for.

My grandmother was recently in the hospital. During one of my mother’s visits to check on her, a nurse struck up a conversation. She and my mom chatted about all of the usual small-talk topics, including the welfare of their children. When she got to talking about me, my mother mentioned that I had been under quite a bit of stress in the past few months. Upon discovering my line of work, the nurse was shocked. “What does she have to be stressed about?” she asked. “All she has to do is point the camera and shoot!”

Ahhh if only it were that simple. That’s really what I would like to be doing . . . pointing and shooting . . . (A camera, folks!  I’m not that mad about the comment!)

That really is what I would like to be doing, though. I would love to devote the majority of my time photographing people. It is the part of my business that I love, that energizes me, that stokes my creative fires. In my personal life, I’d like to be reading books to my son, working in my garden, cooking meals for my family and taking dance classes. At this point, I’d love to be doing anything in my personal life on a regular basis! But lately, I haven’t been. I have been hacking away at the to-do list I mentioned in my last post.  In doing so, I have come to the realization that I have only 24 hours in the day. And I’m human. (I would so love to be Superwoman, but the sheer fact of the matter is I’m not.)

What does this mean for me? That I have to get help. I have to admit I can’t do it all on my own and that trying to only makes me a tired (and sooooooo cranky) wife and mother, and that it’s probably prematurely aging me.

For this challenge, I am going to ask all of you to pull out the lists you made last time. Take a highlighter and highlight those things that YOU absolutely, positively MUST do yourself or your business/home will crater in on itself. For me, this includes things like photographing sessions, conducting sales appointments and running the family schedule. Those are the things you have to keep doing. (It should comprise maybe a third of your list or so. If your whole page is neon yellow, you need to try again!) Now I would like you to look at the list and determine what things you know you can unload on someone else, or simply stop doing. In my world, these are things like retouching, packaging orders and scrubbing baseboards. Circle those things. Now, I am going to ask you to find someone else to do these things or make the decision that these things (like baseboards) simply don’t belong on your overcrowded task list any longer.

Life in the Balance :: List

Guest author Emily Potts runs her own photography business, heads the exceedingly popular Moms With Cameras blog, and still finds time to be “Mom.”  As a fan of PWD, Emily has honored us by extending to our readers the same kind of heartfelt advice and insight Moms With Cameras has become known for.

 

I sometimes feel as if my work & personal to-do lists are a pair of opposite-sexed rabbits. Every time I look at them, it seems the tasks have multiplied exponentially. Other working parents tell me this is just what life looks like in this stage, but sometimes I feel my task list will never stop the out-of-control breeding.

Do any of you feel this way? My guess is yes. I recently returned from WPPI and a recurring theme in many speakers’ programs was the desperate quest for balance. I think those of us who own their own businesses are mostly in the same boat, aren’t we? We are all struggling to juggle the seemingly endless tasks that accompany running studios and we feel that our lives are consumed by an unending list of to-dos.

I was so honored when I was asked to write for all of you reading this. When I decided to write specifically about working towards a life in the balance, I knew I wanted to make this a series of posts as opposed to one longer article. At the end of each installment, I am going to ask all of you to take a challenge, and hopefully, each challenge will lead you a little closer to equilibrium. I do not expect this series to be a panacea for the daily to-dos brought on by small-business ownership. I do hope for it to offer a little clarity for what you need and want to do for your business and what you can relenquish so you can do what you need and want to do in your personal life. I hope it helps you take steps towards having the life you really want instead of watching it speed by in a frenzy of busy, but dispassioned activity.

For this challenge, I am merely asking all of you to make two (probably very large) lists: one of everything you routinely or frequently have to do for your business and another for all of the tasks you need to do for your home-life. And that’s all for this time . . . I know you’ve got other things to do.