The Death of Customer Relationships

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Most larger companies outsource their customer service to the Internet. Got a question or problem? Use the online user forum, online help pages, online chat, or search the company web site. The customer is pretty much forced to self-serve, self-diagnose and self-fix their problem.

This reliance on the Internet allows companies to cut costs. But outsourcing to the lowest bidder, in this case the Internet, pushes customers away. It kills personal interaction and eliminates customer relationships.

No customer relationship => no customer loyalty => no business.

Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.

– Jeffrey Gitomer

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Photographer or Psychologist

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A portrait photographer’s primary job is to make their subject feel good about themselves. Sure, you also have to do flattering photos. But if the subject doesn’t feel confident about themselves, they won’t like the photo results.

Why might they not like the finished pictures? They might think their nose is too big, their jaw is crooked, their eyes uneven, their hair not right, their smile not good enough, or any of a hundred other things.

A person doesn’t see themselves the same way as others see them. This is partly due to lateralization of emotion: a photograph shows the real us and not the reversed mirror reflection that we’re used to.

It’s also due to expectation and hope. We expect to look as young as we feel and we hope to look like a movie star. We expect to look better than average and we hope no one can see our flaws.
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Original photography for social media

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Recently I produced a number of photos for a sporting goods retailer to use on its social media channels. The company doesn’t do too much hard selling on social media. Instead it offers fitness tips and tries to motivate people to exercise more.

This retail chain uses a lot of original photography and video to get its message across. And that message is that the retailer cares about its customers’ fitness and well being.

Some companies make the mistake of using social media for advertising. But for long-term gain, you should be showing customers that there’s more to you than just selling product.

Help your customers use and enjoy your products. Cheer on your customers. Otherwise you’re just another store.

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Placebo Photos

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Most companies want to use custom photography because they know the importance of being authentic. But instead of following through, they’ll use cheap stock pictures since they think these photos are just as good.

We like to believe in our decisions. We want to think that we make smart choices. So we always try to justify the decisions we make. If you use cheap photos for your company’s marketing, you might think:

“At least we have pictures on our web site!”

“Other companies use cheap stock pictures so they must work.”

“We saved a ton of money by using cheap stock pictures, so we made a good choice.”

A cheap stock picture is just a placebo. A sugar pill. It’s a substitute for the real thing. Placebo photos only provide a psychological benefit to you. They do absolutely nothing for your customers.
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Portraits and self-esteem

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It’s long been known that portraits boost the self-esteem of children. Family portraits are the most effective but sports and school portraits also help. These portraits have to be on display in the home and not left on computer hard drives or hidden away in drawers.

If you have young children, including adolescents, be sure to get many portraits done throughout their early years. Formal family portraits, sports portraits, school portraits and casual portraits. It’s important.

And it’s not just for children. I’ve seen the positive effects that good portraits have had on girls in their late teens and early twenties. I’ve also seen what can happen with older women.
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Average Good Looks

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Do you think these two people are attractive?

 

The woman’s face is a mathematical average of 55 female business portraits I did last year. The man’s face is an average of 50 male portraits. The headshots used included a wide variety of people ranging in age from early 20s to early 70s.
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The Science of Business Portraits

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If you’re reluctant to get a new business portrait because you think you don’t have the looks of a movie star, then science is on your side.

A 2013 Princeton University study (link to PDF) found that a person with average facial appearance is perceived to be more trustworthy than someone with above-average looks. In fact, the perceived trustworthiness of a less than average-looking person was found to be about the same as for a very attractive person.

. . . we found consistent evidence for the notion that face typicality is an important determinant of perceived trustworthiness . . .

We’re also more attracted to average-looking faces. Many thousands of years of evolution have hardwired us to prefer average looks. Remember that most actors and models are only average looking (link to PDF) and they just have better stylists than the rest of us :-)
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