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Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Client Questionnaires: What to Ask & How to Utilize One
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Today's episode is very practical and I think it's going to be a fan favorite. We are talking all about client questionnaires, what to ask and how to utilize them in your photography business. Let's go. Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mama to two and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here. Just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in. Okay, this topic of client questionnaires is a very popular one. Everybody wants to know what is being asked in a client questionnaire, when to use them, how to use them, all the things. And so I hope that this episode will answer all of your questions and it will also give you a client questionnaire that you can use immediately. I am going to give you access to the client questionnaire questions that I use currently in 2025. And so you can go to Brooke jefferson.com client questionnaire and you can download that there. You'll just put in your name and email address and then it will reopen to a client questionnaire template. You can take that, you can use it again. Make sure that you edit this for your business. This one for me is primarily targeted towards families, but of course you can edit this to fit couples or whatever else you do in photo geography. So let's talk about some of the types of questions you want to be using in a client questionnaire. And these are, these are basically like the, the categories of questions you want to have. A couple caveats too. Before we get started. There typically are quite a few questions in a client questionnaire. I try my hardest to ask as few questions as possible to get to the point, but I also want to make sure that I am putting in appropriate questions that are really going to help me with the session planning and prepping as well. So a couple of things that you want to make sure you ask, and this is what every photographer should ask first is going to be some fundamental questions. So things like the basic logistics of what are their vision and goals for the session. This way you can collect an address or a phone number or any type of communication. Location preferences. You want to find out who will be participating in the session. So make sure you're getting names, ages, if that is accurate for you, if that's something that you need. If you just work with adults, you probably don't need any ages. Another qu. This one is one that you can ask if you want to. It's very optional here, but previous photography experiences, like if they've worked with the photographer before, you could just ask a simple question, like, have you ever worked with a professional photographer in the past? And it could literally be a yes or no question. If this is something that helps you, like, okay, I'm going to need to give them a little more prep than most clients or oh, they've worked with someone before, so they're, you know, they kind of know what to expect. That's a question you can ask if that is important to your business. I don't ask that in mind currently, but I wanted to put that out there in case it's something that you are curious to ask. The next section of questions that you want to ask are going to be niche specific questions. So I'm going to give you guys a couple of examples here for different types of niches. So for family sessions, you probably do want to get the ages of the children and ask about family dynamics. For newborn sessions, again, this is. These are just examples. Okay. But if you want to ask what the nursery colors are, if that's something you want to incorporate into your props or wraps or you know, wardrobe colors, if there are any important details that they want captured for maternity, this could be how far along they are or their due date, their comfort level with poses, are they open to more intimate posing or is this just going to be a solo session? Great things to ask. So those are the top three. And then for a wedding questionnaire, I do have a wedding questionnaire as well. I don't typically do weddings all the time, but I do find myself with about four to five weddings a year that I will say yes to if everything aligns perfectly. So things that I ask in a wedding questionnaire, specifically the wedding. Okay, would be, you know, I like to ask if they are wanting a traditional like bride and groom portrait following the ceremony or if they are wanting to do a first look. That's really important in the timeline planning for me. Another thing that I will ask them is who is in their wedding party. So I like to know the numbers and then who the people are to them. That's usually Pretty helpful as well. And then I ask them if they have, like, any specific details that they want captured. And that's typically where, you know, if the brides have something unique like, yeah, we're going to exchange letters. We'd love for you to photograph that. That's kind of where they could put that in there. So there's a couple examples there for a wedding questionnaire. Then the next category would be a pre session planning questions. So these are things like, what questions do you need to ask that is going to help you help them prep for the session? So this is where your wardrobe preferences come in. You know, are you going to help them with styling? Do they already have a color palette picked out? How are you actually going to help them pick their wardrobe location details? Great time to ask that as well. If there's any special requests or a must have shot that they have in their mind. I ask this in my questionnaire and I ask this at the end of every session that I have because it is important to me. Now, I don't want people pulling out their Pinterest board being like, here's all my shots. Here's the shot list. I'm like, yeah, I don't work like that. But if you guys have anything in your mind that you absolutely want captured, whether it is a specific pose or a location or something, I want to know because I want to make it happen for them. So those are pre session planning questions. And then I. You can always throw in a couple more, like if there is something that you're really wanting to ask or if it has to do with, you know, what is your favorite drink? This was my favorite one. So here's a golden tip for those of you that work with either maternity sessions or newborn sessions. I love to ask what mom's favorite drink is and then bring her her favorite drink. And I do this mostly at newborn sessions. Foreign Interrupting today's episode to tell you about our incredible podcast sponsor, the Contract Shop. If a storm damaged your home, you'd have insurance to cover it. But what about protecting your business from unexpected legal storms? From client contracts, terms and conditions and privacy policy templates to LLC setup and trademark support, the Contract Shop has everything photographers need to build a legally sound business. Each template has been created and reviewed by lawyers and are designed not only to protect you from legal liabilities, but to be easy to use and free of legal jargon. Each template includes a Hold my hand video guide so you know exactly how to use your new contract. Join thousands of business owners who have secured their businesses with products from the contract shop as a book. More photography clients listener. They're offering you 30% off your first order with code Brooke. That's B R O O K E in all caps. Focus on growing your business, not dealing with legal headaches. Head to Brooke jefferson.com/contract shop to get protected today. So I like to if she's like, oh, my favorite is the sonic sweet tea, like, amazing. I go get a sonic sweet tea and I bring it to her whether she drinks it or not. That is totally her choice. But I love to just, you know, surprise and delight in that way for my clients. So things like that, if there's extra questions that you want to throw in there where you could turn around to surprise and delight, you can absolutely do that. An example that I used to do for my families was I would ask in the questionnaire, is it okay if I let your kids, you know, have a sucker or pick something from my my box at the end of the session? And then they would put yes or no. So that's another example of some additional questions you might want to ask. So I have pulled up my questionnaire and I know you guys can totally have this for free, but I just wanted to read you a couple of things that I asked in my questionnaires, and this is mainly for families that I'm reading right now. So the first question that I ask are any family dynamics you would like me to be aware of? And then I give a couple examples. Blended family, foster children, etc. And I have actually photographed several foster and adoption children. And so there are certain pictures that I can't post online until an adoption is finalized or sometimes they don't want it on there at all. And that's totally fine. So that's why I asked that question. Another question that I ask, I ask if any of their children are special needs and if there's any way that I can better prepare or interact with their children. You would be so surprised how much information I get on this question. And then one other question that I'll go ahead and tell you is in my questionnaire is when you think about your gallery, what types of images are you hoping to see in there? And then the examples are lots of candid or laughter, cuddling, lots of smiles, etc. And I love this question because it helps really craft that vision that they have for their session and it allows me to make notes about certain prompts that I might want to use during their session as well. So having a client questionnaire is a great tool but if you just have a client questionnaire and you don't utilize it, it does nothing for you and it does nothing for your client. And your clients are going to spend a good five to ten minutes really filling out this questionnaire for you. And so you want to make sure that you are going to turn around and then utilize it. So don't just have a client questionnaire because it sounds flashy and because you listen to this episode, I really want you to make this a part of your prepping and planning for your photography sessions. So, all that being said, a couple things you want to think about. How can I utilize a questionnaire? So you want to think about, when am I going to look at this, when am I going to request this, etc. Etc. So first thing I want to answer for you is, when do you send a client questionnaire in the booking process? So this has worked the best. I've tried lots of different ways. Here's what works the best for me. I send the client questionnaire one day after they book their session, so it's set to send to them the following day because they already went through a big process. They already went through signing my contract, paying the retainer, going through and checking their calendars and communicating with their spouse to figure it out. Right. They've already done enough action for the day that I don't want to send it to them the same day. So I send it to them the next day. And then I have a reminder email that goes out three days later. So that one just says, hey, this is just a friendly reminder. If you haven't filled out that client questionnaire, here's the link again. If you could just take the five to ten minutes to fill this out. I know it's the biggest step, but once it's done, you know, it's fun from here on out. And then I say, if you've already filled it out, disregard this email. Thank you so much. So that is an example of when you can send it and how to have a reminder. All of these are automated, so I'm not physically sending this. It is set up in my Iris Works app. Okay. Digital tools and platforms for creating questionnaires. So the question is like, well, where do you actually create the client questionnaire? And if you have a customer management system, so an Iris Works, a honeybook, a Dubsado, 17 hats, whatever it is that you have, that's where this client questionnaire would go. If you have not invested in a CRM yet, there is a free version that you can Use just through Google Forms. So if you have a Gmail account, you can have Google Drive access and you can just create this client questionnaire in a Google form. Now, there's not any automation that's going to be used here, so you're going to have to notate. When someone books, I need to make a reminder task on my Google calendar to send it to them the following day. Okay. So just keep that in mind. There is a free way to get around this. If you are tight on money, brand new to photography, or you haven't found the CRM that you love yet, that is a free option. So what do you do if clients do not fill out this questionnaire and you have already, you already asked for it 24 hours after the booking and you sent a reminder. All you have to do is if you've been emailing this, which is my first method of communication, try a second form of communication. Did they give you their phone number when they booked? Could you send them a quick text? Could you give them a quick phone call about a week later just to make sure that they fill out that client questionnaire? That's all you have to do. Just go to the second form of communication and try asking that way and see if you get a different response. People are busy, you guys. We have got to remember this. Are there things that you let fall through the cracks or are there things that you're going, oh, my goodness, I meant to do that, but I forgot. Right. I just want to encourage you that your clients are the same way. Everybody's busy. Okay. All right. I think that's it. That covers all the questions. That covers some of the questions that you want to ask. And again, again, if you want to view all the questions on my client questionnaire, you can go to brookejefferson.com client questionnaire. We also have it in the show notes for you. So you can just click on it and that'll take you straight there and you will get immediate access to that. So I hope you loved this episode all about client questionnaires. I hope that you will either update yours or implement one for the first time. I hope you found this helpful and I will see you on the next episode.