Best Business Practices for Photographers [190]
Summary Letters: What We Discussed
All too often, there is a miscommunication resulting from a telephone call between you and the client. Usually, people do not intentionally misremember points of a conversation—they just honestly don't remember.
Although we talk with clients all the time about various things, when there is a point about changes in location, clarifications on stylistic details of an assignment, or other things that could adversely affect the outcome of the assignment, a letter summarizing the conversation can assist by providing a point of reference in the future. This is also helpful when, for example, an accounting department person says they are going to get the check cut "this week."
Further, should you end up in court, summary letters—more than likely summary e-mails— are admissible as evidence in most circumstances. So, if nothing else, write a CYA summary to send to the client. It will make your life so much easier and the resolution so much swifter if you have the letter in your archives.
Following the same style for e-mails (or letters) mentioned earlier in this chapter, the body could read something like this:
That will make sure that the client knows that you're doing "almost all verticals" for the cover idea and "almost all horizontals" for the inside idea. It also puts them on notice that you're not going to use gels (well, maybe a few subtle ones), and it keeps the communication lines open between the two of you. This e-mail also gives the client peace of mind that you heard what he or she was saying. And, it is a professional way to bring closure to the pre-shoot dialogue.
CCs and BCCs: How and When
It's important to be very thoughtful of who the message is to and who should get a CC and a BCC. In case you're not aware of what these mean, CC means carbon copy and BCC is blind carbon copy. These terms originated when business correspondence was all via paper and everyone receiving the correspondence needed to know who else had received it, and those BCC'd needed to know that others didn't know they had seen it. Today, with e-mail, the CC indicates everyone who's copied on the message, and a BCC hides the recipients.
Be extra careful—many a problem has arisen when someone BCC'd hits Reply to All and reveals that they have seen the message. Instead, use the Forward feature to forward the e-mail to those you were going to BCC, in order to avoid this potential revelation.
Ask yourself, though, does everyone in the To, CC, and BCC lines need to see the e-mail? Also, how would you feel if the contents of the e-mail became public knowledge?
CCs are typically done for legal reasons, to ensure a broader paper trail, and to keep a colleague or client abreast of developments associated with what you're working on.
I typically use the BCC when I want my office manager or production manager to see that I made a promise to a client about a deliverable, a change to paperwork, or another internal issue that needs to be done on behalf of whomever I was sending the e-mail to. I will, though, use the Forward option if I need to pass along guidance to those in my office, rather than use the BCC. If you are sending out a mass e-mail (and be careful about that!), especially to a group of unrelated recipients, make darn sure that you use the BCC field. Perhaps it's a promotional e-mail to existing clients and fellow photographers. If you did that in the To field or the CC field, all your clients would know who the others were, and your colleagues could learn who your clients are. Not cool.
One last point: Some corporate e-mail servers handle CCs, and especially BCCs, very carefully. CCs usually get through, but BCC is the preferred method of most spammers. One solution is to send the e-mail to yourself in the To line and then include the string of recipients