← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
How to Increase Client Reviews (Without Feeling Awkward)
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Let's talk about reviews. We all know they're powerful. They help potential clients trust you, they boost your credibility, and they can absolutely help you book more sessions. But here's the question that you ask all too often. How do you actually get more of them without feeling pushy or awkward? That's what we're breaking down today, so let's dive in. 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, I know you want to boost your reviews as we all do. How do you actually get your clients to go and leave you a professional review? Here are a couple of tips that I have for you that's going to help you increase this one. Again, I know I say this all the time, but your reviews trace back to your client experience. So make sure you that you are truly wowing them. And you will know if they had a good experience or not because there are usually some signs going on. So if their experience was just okay, if there was something that you felt like upset them along the way, or maybe you encourage their expectations to be really high but then you dropped the ball because maybe you were busy, you were overbooked, maybe there was a miscommunication, maybe they were running late and you acted irritated when they showed up. I don't know what it is, but if you have given them a less than great experience, they're probably not going to leave you a review. And I know that stinks. I know that the gallery was probably beautiful and you got amazing images and it reflects your portfolio and your editing style and maybe they were even good enough to put on your website. But if your client did not fit feel like the experience was great or up to par with what you promised, you're not getting a review. It's as simple as that. So go back, listen to some of my past episodes on client experience if you haven't yet, because that is really going to be the key to getting these reviews in the first place. Next tip is you've got to ask for the review sooner rather than later. And I will tell you, I will throw myself under the bus. I, I used to not only teach this, but do this in my own business. I would wait far too long to ask for the review. Now I was lucky that I still had a handful of clients that would leave me a review. But I have learned, okay, that everybody is busy and that you have such a small window to get them to leave you a review to where the excitement is at an all time high and they are going to remember the kind of experience that they had with you. So you don't want to wait weeks after your gallery delivery, right? Because by that time the excitement has faded. You want to ask within one to two days of gallery delivery. The experience is still fresh, the excitement is still there. They are probably still, you know, checking their gallery or they've downloaded it so they're looking at their pictures over and over and over again. And that is when you want to ask. You don't want to wait three weeks, four weeks from their session or gallery delivery because again, at that point it is too late. So look at when you're asking for reviews and see if you need to tweak when you ask for it. My next tip is to make it easy for people to leave you a review. Don't go write an email that you're asking for the review and there's nothing linked up. There's no examples, there's no links, there's nothing. If they have to go search for it, they're not going to do it. I'm sorry, like we are lazy human beings in this generation and we want everything to be instantaneous. Click of a button, super, super fast. So if you're not providing that experience or that option for your clients, then it's no wonder that you don't have as many reviews as you want. People aren't avoiding writing a review because they didn't like you or they didn't like their images. They just don't want to jump through hoops. So give them a direct link to your Google business or wherever it is you're trying to get reviews. And then make it clear as day, click the button below and share a sentence or two about your experience. Here are some examples of past reviews or here are some questions to think about when writing your review. Like trigger their brain to where it is going to be super easy for them to to leave you a review. My next tip is to remind them in multiple ways. Okay. You cannot ask one time and expect everyone to do it that one time. You need to build in follow ups, different touch points to continue to request a review. Now, you don't want to annoy somebody or blow them up and continuously ask if they're not going to give you one. But my magic rule here for me is three touch points within a certain time frame. Typically for me it's three touch points in two weeks and then I'm done. Okay? So the first one can come by email, the second one could probably be a follow up email and then the third one, you want to switch it to a different method. So for me that would be, I would then text, I would then text the same thing that the first email said and I would text that to my client. So this could be whatever you want it to be. But that's typically what I do. Some clients, they just need reminders. They are just freaking busy. Okay? It's not that they don't want to leave you or review, it's just that maybe the time they opened the email, they had a toddler climbing all over them. Or maybe when they opened your email they were on their work computer and so they couldn't leave you one right then and there. Maybe they were driving. I know, I hope not. But maybe they were at a red light and they checked their email real quick and they saw it come through and then Lord knows they didn't remember by the time they got to where they were going. So make sure that you are, it's okay to follow up. You just don't want to ask six, seven times again. Three times in two weeks is great. Okay, Last thing here is just playing devil's advocate. Okay? What if someone didn't enjoy the experience and they're not going to leave you a review? This is tough, but it does happen. I have experienced this myself. If you get negative feedback, you've got to be so careful that you do not take it personally and that you don't get defensive. Okay? In that moment, what most people want to hear and feel, they just want to be heard, okay? They didn't say negative feedback like if you asked for it. So just, I'm just saying, okay, if you asked for honest feedback and they give it to you, you cannot be defensive. That is unprofessional. If they're giving you feedback, all you need to do is you need to hear them out and you need to see where they're coming from and you need to take it as an opportunity to improve you're going to thank them for their honesty. You're going to apologize or somewhere around that neighborhood for how they feel, even if you're in the right and they're in the wrong. I know. And I'm not saying you're going to let people walk all over you. I'm just saying if how you were with them is how you are with all of your clients. And 99 out of 100 had a great experience, but this is just one person that's hard to please. Okay, this is what I'm saying, right? Not, oh, this person's trying to walk all over you and get a free session and get a refund and all things. I'm not saying that. I just want you to hear them out. Just be a sounding board for them, okay? And just let them say their piece and then move on. You never have to work with them again if you don't want to. But I am so sick of seeing these Facebook groups where. Which I don't even follow the photography Facebook groups anymore. Like, I literally cannot. When it's literally just client bashing and complaining all of the time. I can't believe my client said this. Oh, my God, look what they did. Guys, stop being entitled, okay? I really don't think any of my listeners are this way. But I'm just saying, like, stop being entitled. You don't. Like, I don't understand why photographers think it's okay to talk to people like that or to treat people or to blast their full name in what they said in photography Facebook groups. Like, I don't understand that. Just be professional and understand that you're not going to please 100% of the people you work with. Now, you should absolutely be up in the 90 percentile for sure. If you're not, then we definitely need to do some digging into what you're doing. But I'm going to say, like, if you would confidently say 90% of your clients are happy with your work and your experience, then you're fine. Okay, so that was just a little tangent. Just, again, just. Just take the feedback. If you feel like it's something that you want to do right by them and you want to correct it and it truly was a mistake on your part or you dropped the ball, then offer a resolution. You know, offer a second chance. Most people are willing to do that. Okay, so here's your action step. Create a simple review system. Come up with your email. Decide when you'll ask again. Decide email or text. Get that direct link. Build it into your workflow. You Turn it to where it's automated to where that third follow up is the only manual thing you're doing. The more reviews you collect, the easier it becomes to earn trust from people that have never worked with you before. It's going to increase your bookings because your happy clients are basically doing the marketing for you. Okay again, if you missed the word of mouth episode that I did a couple episodes ago, scroll back, look for that one. If you this was kind of like a continuance of that because I talked about getting client reviews and so this is more in depth of how you can do that. I have a full template. I talk about this in the Fully Booked method. If that is something that you are interested in doing. It is an eight week program. You can take it now at any time you want. So if you're like, hey, I want to start this today, then for the next eight weeks you'll be able to dive in and it releases like a week worth of videos and lessons and feedback at a time. And then each week you'll get to submit your homework, which is basically like I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do. You're going to complete it by filling a form out and then I am going to email you back a personalized loom or zoom video going over all of your homework and giving you that personalized coaching. If that is something that you're interested in, go check the Fully Booked method out@brooke jefferson.com SL Fully Booked thank you so much for pressing play on today's episode. I will see you guys next week.