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Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Photography Cancellations, Reschedules, & Refunds (What To Do)
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This month's episodes were inspired by you guys. So thank you so much for sending in the topics that you wanted to hear on the podcast. If you're listening to this and you're like, wait, what? I missed it? If you have a specific topic or something that you want me to cover on the podcast, just shoot me an Instagram dm. My Instagram handle is at Brooke Janae Photo. Come send me a DM and and I will get your topic on the list so that we can cover it. 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 today's episode, we are talking about something that none of us like to talk about and we certainly don't like to experience it, and that is cancellations, reschedules, and refunds. What do you do when a client cancels last minute or when someone asks for their money back? Do you say yes in some situations because you feel bad? And do you try to stick to your to your contract in other situations? Here's the thing. If you don't have a plan for when cancellations, reschedules or refunds are requested, then you're probably losing not only time but money every time it happens. And I don't want you to continue to lose profit in your business. So today I'm going to walk you through how to protect yourself with a solid contract when and if refunds make sense, how to handle these conversations without feeling like a jerk. We'll even go over a few real life scenarios so you know exactly what to say when these situations pop up. All right, let's dive in. Cancellations and reschedules. And of course refunds are a part of business, but here's the truth. They don't have to ruin your calendar or your income. When you set clear expectations from the start, your clients will not only respect you, but you won't be as stressed out and you won't find yourself in these awkward situations. So we're going to dive into several different points today because I want to make sure that we cover it all. First things first, your contract needs to back you up. This is what keeps you from having awkward conversations later. So here's a few things that I want you to take notes on and ask yourself if these are in your contract and they are super clear and understandable. The first one is non refundable retainers. This is a must if you are running a photography business. I remember once upon a time when I was brand new to the business side of things, I did not have a retainer in place. It's not that it wasn't refundable, it was just that I didn't even require one. So my cancellations were way higher because nobody had any skin in the game. They would reach out to me and we would pick a date for them and then I would drive all the way out to the session. And there were several no shows or last minute cancellations. So first and foremost you have to have a non refundable retainer. It is not called a deposit because typically a deposit is defined by money you put down, but you will get it back. So a lot of times Airbnb, hotels, places like that are going to have deposits and it's money that you get back if you meet certain conditions. For photography. You have what's called a retainer, meaning that they are putting a portion of the total amount that they're going to owe you up front. They're going to pay part of that because you are taking the time to reserve their date and to basically prep them for their session with you. So make sure that you have a clause in there that talks about non refundable retainers, how that works, what it means, and the fact that you are not going to give refunds. Second thing, cancellation policy. A lot of questions for you to think about here. What happens if they completely cancel? Like they no longer want this session, they want to get it off your calendar. What are you going to do? Do they lose their retainer? Are you going to refund it? What are you going to do? And if you're following along here, it's a non refundable retainer. So you're not going to refund someone's retainer unless you have a specific clause for reasons of why you would do you offer credit? So if someone cancels on you, are they able to get a credit for a certain period of time? You've got to spell this out in your contract. Some other questions that maybe you haven't thought about what happens if you cancel the session. How late do your clients have to arrive to their session before it's an automatic cancellation? Is it 10 minutes, 15, 20? What is it? What results in a cancellation and what are you going to do when someone requests for a cancellation? Third thing I want you to check your contract for is reschedule policy. How many times can your client reschedule? Are you going to have a one time max? Do they need to rebook it within a certain time frame? 3 months, 6 months, 1 year? Make it super clear. And what happens if the weather isn't cooperating? This is where you know and this happens a lot, especially where I live. The weather, the wind, it is so unpredictable. And I'm finding myself having way more reschedules in 2025 and last year. I remember last year was really bad, but more so now than I did a decade ago. So crazy things are happening with the weather there. Do you have a clause that protects you and that spells out exactly what's going to happen if the weather isn't cooperating? The last place that I really want you to pay attention to in your contract is a refund policy. If you never issue refunds, then you need to say that and be super clear about it. If you do case by case, then you need to explain what that means and what is going to qualify. I typically usually do credit only and I tell them that up front. So I don't do refunds. I tried to get them to reschedule, to move that date out, to, you know, basically come make it up. I have issued, I'm gonna say, less than five refunds in the entire 11 and a half years that I have been running a photography business. And those refunds typically came from, I can tell you, two off the bat, came from really difficult clients and they felt more like a nightmare to deal with than just to cut them loose and let it go and find someone else to replace them. So I can tell you that's what two of them were. And then the other three were case by case. One was a death in the family and the other two, I'll be totally honest, I don't remember off the top of my head. So think about your refund policy. Do you offer refunds or are you a. I never issue a refund for any reason and I'm going to hold true to that. I want to give you another pro tip when it comes to your contract. Don't just stick all of this in your contract and then hope that every single One of your clients reads it. A lot of people don't read contracts. They just don't. They might skim a couple parts and then they might sign it. Some people never read a single thing on your contract. They're just trying to sign it and get their session booked. So what I want you to do is I want you to pull out some of the most important clauses of your contract and I want you to add them in your email workflow. For example, on my booking calendar, I include a reminder of my non refundable retainer policy. In one of my session prep emails, I remind them of the cancellation and reschedule policy and so on and so forth. And so don't rely solely on your contract to do all of the explaining. You need to pull some of these things out and highlight it for your clients when they're booking you and all the way up until their session. The second part of today's episode is I want to talk about some scenarios of what do you do if this type of situation happens? How can you respond? What can you say? And so feel free to take these scripts, you know, copy and paste them and use them when you need them. So what happens when someone asks for a refund or cancels their session? Again, my rule is super simple. I'm going to stick to my contract, but I'm also going to be kind and understanding. So I can be, I can be personable, I can be respectful and kind, but I can also stay completely professional and within my own boundaries that my contract lays out. Here are some scripts that you can literally steal. Like I said, whatever you want to do. Scenario number one, they cancel two weeks before the session. I would say something like, hey, name, I totally understand. Plans change. Per our contract, retainers are non refundable. Since I've reserved your date and turned away other clients, the good news is I'd love to reschedule your session instead. I can offer a credit to use within the next six months. So that's an example of how you could handle that. If they're trying to cancel a couple weeks before their date, the second scenario client wants a refund because they can't afford this session anymore. Guys, this one is probably the number one reason I've had a lot of clients come to me and say this. Not a lot, like not a ton. But a few have definitely come to me and have said like, oh my gosh, we've had some finances come up or whatever it is. And, and so this one I use often. I could say something like, I completely understand finances. I know things pop up and it can be tricky. Since your retainer is non refundable and it already holds your date, I'm not able to refund that portion, but I can absolutely work with you on rescheduling for later this year or applying it to a smaller package. So these are options, something that you could say if you find yourself in this situation. And the third scenario is a client asks for a refund after they already canceled the day before. Let me give you the whole situation here. The client told you the day before on their session date that they wanted to cancel it. And so that was scenario number one. And you already told them, great, we can reschedule, right? Or they're trying to cancel on you the day before the session happens. So this is going to be similar to scenario number one. So I could say something like since the session was scheduled for tomorrow and I've already reserved that time, I'm not able to offer you a refund. I'd love to work with you on rescheduling though. I can apply your retainer as a credit for a future session within six months. So again, anytime that they are trying to cancel on you, you are going to move them into a reschedule rather than a cancellation if you can help it. Because 99% of you are going to be like me and you're not going to offer refunds. So notice the tone and all of those. They were firm, but they were friendly. Now let's talk about preventing cancellations before they happen. Because 9 out of 10 times when someone is trying to cancel their session or tell you they've changed their mind, sometimes it actually is because they don't feel seen and supported by you. They feel like they booked, they got really hyped about it and then now they feel like their expectations aren't being met. And that is why a lot of people start second guessing their decision and wanting to back out. So here are some ways that you can prevent cancellations. It's by being proactive. So tip number one is to send reminders leading up to the session so that they don't forget and they feel excited. Number two, give them a prep guide or prep emails so they feel ready and excited. 3. Have them finish payment plans or any remaining payments before the session takes place. Place. This is going to cut down on your no shows, your cancellation request, the random finance situations popping up. And tip number four is to build excitement. Make sure you're having a conversation with them. Share behind the Scenes Cinda I can't wait to see you guys text. Clients will cancel way less when they feel committed and served. And this traces back to your client experience, which is something that I am really big on teaching and was one of the topics that was requested for this month. So later this month you will hear a podcast episode all about client experience. Okay. Just to run you through a couple of real life scenarios. I know we kind of did some of the scenarios as far as, like, the reason they were canceling, but a couple more bullet points just to kind of sum it all up. If you got nothing else out of this, hopefully these three things right here you can, like, burn into your brain. So here we go. One, if a client cancels for financial reasons, try to offer a credit and a reschedule, not a refund. Number two, if the client gets sick the day of the session, allow them that one, reschedule with no extra fee out of courtesy, but let them know that this is the only, you know, reschedule you're going to be offering them. And if there's bad weather, make sure you have that weather clause in your contract and, and make sure they know what it is and when you're going to reschedule for the next available date. Okay, that was a lot. I want to give you an action step because you guys know, yes, anybody can press play on a podcast, but I want you to utilize this free resource to make your photography business better. So here is your action step. I want you to take 15 minutes this week to look at your contract. Does it clearly say what happens if a client cancels reschedules or asks for a refund? If not, I want you to update your contract. Right now, we are literally in the midst of busy season. You need to have a solid contract that you're not dealing with 50 different reschedules, cancellations, and refund requests this fall. You don't have time for that and you can't afford to lose out on all of that money. The goal isn't to be harsh. It's to protect your time and your income and your client relationship. And trust me, when you're super clear, your clients will respect you more and you will see cancellations, reschedules, and refunds happen. Very, very few. Okay, if you loved this podcast, if you've been a longtime listener of the podcast, can I ask you to leave a review? Whether you're listening on Spotify or Apple podcast, I would love it if you would take two seconds. When you leave a review, I get a notification and I'm able to go in and read them. And I would really, really appreciate it if you could just take one to two minutes. Go leave that rating and that review. I can't wait to see what you say. And I will see you guys on the next episode.