business practices

Great Expectations

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If anyone else can do the same pictures as you, even an amateur with a cell phone, then you’re probably out of a job.

Every customer expects that you own the necessary camera gear and the appropriate computer and software. They expect you know what you’re doing.

Customers expect that you can do more than just take pictures. After all, anyone can take pictures.

Customers also expect that you:

• Are self-motivated and have up-to-date skills.

• Know something about the legal, moral and ethical issues surrounding photography.

• Understand picture usage and licensing.

• Have suitable people skills.

• Have project management skills.

• Can think and act in the best interest of the customer.

They also expect that you know their expectations.

As a professional photographer, you’re expected to be the expert when it comes to all things photographic. You’re expected to be more than just a camera owner and operator.

Are you marketing yourself as a camera owner and operator or as a photography expert?

An owner and operator markets what equipment they own and their technical abilities. These photographers are essentially nothing more than a human photo booth.

A photography expert markets their experience, their management skills, their willingness to be a team player, their trustworthiness and their effectiveness. This is the best way to show that you’re not just someone with a camera.

Customer expectations are about much more than just pictures.

 

Insurance for Canadian Photographers

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(Updated August 1, 2023)

It should be obvious that insuring your camera equipment and your business is very important. Some customers and some locations may require that you show proof of insurance (i.e. a certificate of insurance). In some situations you may have to increase your coverage or temporarily add a customer or venue to your policy as an additional insured. Any such additional insurance costs should be billed to the customer.

Here are some Canadian companies that offer photo-related insurance. This is not meant as a recommendation.

Disclosure: I was insured with CG&B Insurance (aka. Unionville Insurance) from about 1985 to 2016. I’ve been insured with Front Row Insurance since 2016.

For annual insurance, I currently pay about $1.22 per $100 of equipment insured, plus $260 for $2M liability insurance, plus other insurance options, plus provincial sales tax. The cost may vary from province to province.

 

PhotoPac from Arthur J. Gallagher Canada is insurance for photographers and filmmakers. Photographers may recall PhotoPac from Unionville Insurance Brokers (late 1970s to mid-1990s). Then it became PhotoPac from CG&B Group (late 1990s to 2010s). It’s now PhotoPac from Gallagher which is part of an international insurance brokerage. Note that the provided link to stepinsure.com is correct but it doesn’t always work which isn’t reassuring.
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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 and hope you find something. 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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Don’t phone it in

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Why not give a customer a price over the phone?

If a photographer simply tells a potential customer, “The price for your photography project will be $4,000,” then the customer may be left wondering about things like:

Does that include expenses and sales tax?

Does that price include post-processing?

When and how do we have to pay?

Exactly what are we getting for our money?

After we pay, we own the pictures, right?

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Discard Discounts

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A photographer can’t discount their way to success. If it was possible, don’t you think every photographer would be doing it?

When you discount, you penalize customers who pay your normal price. For example, after buying a $400 winter coat, do you feel cheated the following week when the same coat is discounted 50%?

When you discount, it means you have no other value to offer the customer.

Discounting attracts price shoppers. Is that what you want? If you offer a discounted price of, say, $99 for a business headshot, then you’ll attract $99 customers. If they like your work, they’ll tell all their $99 friends and you’ll get more $99 customers.
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Ninety-nine percent chance

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There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that the next potential customer who phones will ask, “How much?”

So how are you going to respond? Just hem and haw? Mumble something like, “It depends”?

Ideally a price should not be given over the phone. It’s always better to use e-mail. When you give a price over the phone, the customer will remember only the price and nothing else you said.

A customer asks “how much” usually because they don’t know what else to ask. While price may be important to them, the true reason they call is that they’re trying to figure out if you’re the right photographer for them. Do you understand their needs? Can you do the work properly? Do they feel reassured by you?

When that inevitable question is asked, you have to be ready without missing a beat. The way to do this is to have a prepared script or checklist which includes a number of questions for the customer, for example:
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Working on Spec

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Working or shooting on spec (speculation) means the photographer does all the work first, and pays all expenses themselves, in the hope that the client will like the finished work and will then pay some sort of fee. Even then, there’s rarely any contract covering the work.

Why would any photographer agree to be exploited like this?

When a potential client asks a photographer to work on spec, it shows that the client doesn’t value the photographer’s time or expertise.

Toronto ad agency Zulu Alpha Kilo (which phonetically spells out its CEO’s first name) this week published a video about working on spec. While not aimed at photographers, it certainly still applies.

 

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