The business side of photography
The Western Canada Lottery Corporation today released this handout photo of a $40 million winner:
Maybe I’m being too critical but someone at the Lottery Corporation doesn’t know how to fill out a cheque properly.
It’s just a ceremonial cheque being used as a photo prop, but why not take an extra minute and do it right?
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In a 1989 interview, Steve Jobs was asked, “Where do great products come from?”
His response included:
I think really great products come from melding two points of view – the technology point of view and the customer point of view. You need both. You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.
(…)
It sounds logical to ask customers what they want and then give it to them. But they rarely wind up getting what they really want that way.
Commercial and corporate photographers need to think the same way. Successful business photography comes from knowing what the client really needs and then building a good photo from there.
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The usual way for a commercial photographer to quote a job is to provide the client with a price for the requested photo assignment. But another method is to provide the potential client with a few variations of their proposed assignment along with the corresponding price for each variation.
Wedding photographers have always done this. All wedding photographers usually offer at least three packages of photo services. A small bundle of services for a low price, a medium bundle with a medium price and a large bundle of photo services for a higher price.
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Here in the Toronto area, the Ford Motor Company is currently running a radio commercial promoting its new vehicles. During the radio spot, a man exclaims that the technology in his Ford is so advanced, “I feel like I’m driving a computer!”
Huh? Who wants to drive a computer? Who wants their car to feel like a computer?
Many car companies promote the high-tech gadgets in their cars because that’s the easy thing to do. But technology isn’t an end point. It’s a tool. It’s a description.
What does this have to do with photography?
Clients don’t care about the technology behind photography. They don’t care about megapixels or megabytes. They don’t care what’s under the hood.
All they care about is results. Good pictures on time. No surprises, no excuses.
Clients want value not technology.
Chasing a dream can sometimes turn into running from a nightmare if you’re not prepared.
The most popular web site in the world is, of course, Facebook. The site with the lowest customer satisfaction rating is . . . Facebook.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index just released its 2011 survey results for customer satisfaction of social media web sites. For the second year, Facebook is in last place. Since Facebook has almost no competition (yet), it has no incentive to be good.
But considering Facebook’s low user satisfaction, its current size dominance cannot be taken for granted in the future. For companies that provide low levels of customer satisfaction, repeat business is always a challenge unless customers lack adequate choices, as in the case of near monopolies. It is possible that Facebook’s gigantic user base in and of itself might provide a certain monopoly protection.
Since a photographer doesn’t usually have a monopoly on photography services in their area, the photographer has no choice but to provide good customer service. This is more important than producing super artistic photography.
Customer service isn’t just about promptly returning phone calls and delivering the pictures on time.
Good customer service includes such things as: understanding the customer’s photography needs, foreseeing and then addressing any potential problems before they become problems, making sure the delivered photographs meet the proper specifications for the required use, suggesting alternative ideas for the photography, and knowing how to properly use all your tools (camera, computer, software).
If customers are not satisfied then the photographer hasn’t done their job. Delivering only pictures isn’t enough.
When things go wrong, what are some excuses a photographer can use?
My computer crashed.
The lab didn’t print it right.
This is how all photographers dress.
The sun moved.
You can fix it in Photoshop.
No one told me it would start on time.
The picture is fine, the building is crooked.
It’s art. It’s supposed to be out of focus.
It’s not underexposed, it’s “moody.”
It’s called “negative space.”
It’s supposed to look like that. That’s my style.
The bride’s dress was too white.
It was subject failure.
(This was Kodak’s excuse when a Kodak camera or Kodak printer failed to produce a good picture).
I’m a photographer not a magician.
I’m a photographer not a plastic surgeon.
