Best Business Practices for Photographers [232]
Oh, and one more thing about gold: Knowing how and from where clients came to you is of the utmost value. It allows you to determine where to continue mining for that gold, and, in turn, you can return their trust in you to complete the assignment by treating them like the gold that they are to your karmic and financial bottom line.
How to Improve the Odds That Your Clients Will Come Back Again
There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your first-time clients will become repeat clients. The first thing to do is figure out what role you are playing: Are you their first choice, fallback choice, or a benchwarmer called in when the first-stringer gets sick?
Steve Chandler discusses client growth—and retention—this way:
If price is your only selling feature, you are in a losing battle...one in five customers doesn't need to fret about price. We have all bought things that were expensive but worth it. Price is just a detail, not the deal itself…. According to the latest income surveys, 20% of the population controls 47% of the disposable income. That means that one out of five people has so much money to buy things with that, relatively speaking, they're not concerned about the price at all. Does it make sense to focus your ad's message on something that doesn't concern them? …[T]hose 20% are your ideal customers. Money is not the main factor in their decision to shop with you. You are. You are the main factor in their decision, and that's how you want it to be. Your quality, your service, your commitment to them. That's where you want it to be, because that's where your profit margin is, and that's where your database of lifelong customers comes from. Not from onetime price shoppers.
If you are the client's first choice, they are likely to become a return client. Simply continue to deliver at or above the quality of your last assignment, and the likelihood that this will continue is great. If they found you on the Internet or via a referral, then you'll want to be able to demonstrate that what you offer will meet and exceed what they are looking for. This will maximize the chances of their becoming a repeat customer.
If you're their fallback choice, tread carefully. Perhaps the client thought they could afford someone more expensive than you (perish the thought that these photographers exist!) but could not, and now you're the because-we-couldn't-get-so-and-so photographer. You have a bit of an uphill battle in this instance, but relish the challenge. I take the position that the masses stop at the mountain's base, but there is plenty of elbow room at the summit. Here, too, meeting and especially exceeding the client's expectations means that you could have a new repeat client.
On more than one occasion I have been asked by a client, "Are you available tomorrow? Our photographer came down with [insert virus here]." Here I am the second-stringer. Sometimes the referral came from the photographer who's sick, but often I am some offhand random referral or search-engine find. This type of client is almost always just grateful to have a body with a working camera on hand. The bar of success is set so low that it's an easy win. That said, don't sit back and coast through the assignment. Treat the client as if he or she is a regular one with high standards, and then meet those standards.
Think long and hard on this one: If you can offer a unique service that no one else has thought to provide or can provide, then you have a "hook" that surpasses the other photographers the client might consider, and this will further diminish the role that price plays in the decision-making process.
Steve Chandler makes this point in 9 Lies on why customers return. They do so "for many reasons other than price. Once you believe this you will attract customers that will continue to prove it to you and verify your belief. Higher-value customers who like your unique offer are the ones that stay