← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Streamline Your Client Experience: 4 Automation Secrets Every Photographer Needs
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A big part of providing an exceptional client experience is having streamlined workflows. A common fear I hear when I talk about this topic and automating workflows is that photographers will lose out on a genuine connection with their clients. And this couldn't be further from the truth. When you allow yourself to be more hands off on certain parts of your experience, you can ensure that every single client is gets a top tier experience. You'll be able to free up more time to focus on conversations that you want to have with your clients. Fun conversations like styling their wardrobe, getting to know them and giving them final reminders for their session. More personalized emails like where you're going to be meeting, where the session is actually going to take place, things like that. There are simple automations that you can set up once that will make your client experience feel 10 times better and save you hours every week. Today I'm breaking down four automations every photographer needs. If you set these up, your clients are going to feel taken care of and you're going to feel way less stressed. So let's get into 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. Automation number one is for you to make sure that you have an automatic booking confirmation email. You know that feeling when a client books and then there's this awkward silence because you're busy and you don't email them back right away. They're sitting there wondering did it go through? Did she get my payment? Like what's going to happen next? That's where this automatic booking confirmation email is really going to save the day. It doesn't matter if they're booking when you're sleeping, they're going to get the automatic booking confirmation email. You could be at work, you could be at the gym. And so you want to make sure that there are no gaps from the time that they are booking you and putting down money for that session and when this email goes out, because you don't want them to sit there and wonder when what in the world happens next? Like, did I actually book it? Because then they're going to message you and try to get you to respond to them. So as soon as they book, they need to receive a quick, friendly email that confirms that their booking went through, gives them their next step, which for me, I give them a client questionnaire at this point and reassures them that you are just as excited as they are. So it could be as simple as, hey, name. I'm so excited that you booked your session. As a reminder, here is the date and approximate start time. Here's what's going to happen next. You're going to fill out this client questionnaire and I'll be in touch. As we get closer to your session, I cannot wait to capture your family. Thank you again for choosing me as your photographer. So. So something as short and friendly as that is really going to help you. It's going to help your client know that their booking went through, that you are professional and that their money truly is well invested. So make sure that you have this set up if you don't already. And the easiest way to get your workflows streamlined in your business is to use a CRM system. I have used irisworks for six years and actually the day that I'm recording this, this is my anniversary with Iris Works of six years. I have never strayed from them. I have used them from the very beginning, even before they had really cool features and I, I'm just, I feel at home. I absolutely love them. So if you're looking for a CRM system, I want to introduce you to Iris Works. I would love to help you save money in investing on Iris Works. And so you can use my link and my code, which is Brooke all caps. I will have that down in the show notes if you want to check it out. They do offer a free trial so that you can get in there and you can see if you like it, see the features and all of that. And then I also have a course that goes with it to where if you do invest, you can just send me an email saying, hey, I purchased Iris Works, I will send you my Iris Works course for free and that will help you get started and set up in less than three hours. Automation number two is all about payment reminders. So I don't know about you, but I think it is so awkward talking to clients about money. I've always thought this. Someone told me when I was in the beginning of my photography career that I would eventually outgrow this. And talking money with people won't be awkward. I'm just here to tell you, 11 and a half years in the game, it is still awkward and it still makes me feel bad having to ask for money. You don't enjoy chasing clients down. I'm sure the clients don't enjoy you chasing them down either. And so if we can, you know, set up payment reminders along the way to get that payment, and it's more like in a professional email format and it's going to make it so much easier for us to be able to focus on the fun part, which is getting to know them, building that relationship and of course, the actual session. So a couple things that I want you to think about is using automated payment reminders. You can set up one reminder, you can set up a couple of different reminders. So for example, maybe a week before their balance is due, you send a reminder email letting them know that their payment is coming up a week from, from today or their payment due date or however you want to word it. You send one the day before and then you send one more on the day it's due. I think that probably two out of three of these is efficient. So maybe the week reminder and then the day before reminder, because most people will pay it on that second reminder. So again, short and sweet email will do this. And then you're going to put your invoice or your payment instructions in there. So again, it could say hi, name. Just a friendly reminder that your final payment is due on insert the date. Here's the link to go ahead and take care of that. Thank you so much. And I cannot wait for your session. No stress, no awkward text messages. It's handled automatically for you. And your clients will probably actually appreciate that reminder because they're going to be expecting it anyway. Automation number three, this one you are probably already doing, I hope you're doing, but I know that maybe there's, there's an email in here you might be missing and that is to have automatic session reminder emails and texts. So you've probably had a client either completely forget about their session or never check their emails that you're sending, right? Or maybe they show up late because they mixed up the time. Or maybe you are manually sending these reminders and every now and again you get a week that's really busy and you keep meaning to get around to it, but you don't. That's why automatic reminders are so important. And when you Automate them. You don't have to stress yourself out and hope that your brain remembers to do it. It's already going to be done for you. So what I like to do is I like to start sending emails about two weeks prior and I have one that goes out at two weeks, one that goes out the week before, another one that goes out three days prior, and then the texting starts picking up about a day or two before their session. So those reminder emails all have something different in them. My one week is more like a prep, like here's how to prep for your session. You know, here are some tips for dad, tips for mom, tips for the kids. And everyone loves that email. In fact, I need to go update that email myself and I just, I, I just kind of want to go through there and edit it just a little bit more. But that's what I do on the one week. The three days prior is, is super short and sweet. And then I start texting them probably a day or two before letting them know I'm super excited. Here is again the final start time, location, except. Etc. So that is what I would recommend that you do. And I would recommend that you do both email and at least one text. The reason why is because some people are email people and other people are phone people and vice versa, right? You've got the people who never read their text, never text you back, and then you've got the people who are literally like never in their inbox, but if you text them, they respond immediately. So make sure that you are contacting your clients in a variety of different methods because it's going to be different for different people. Again, these session reminder emails and text are going to make your client feel super taken care of and it saves you from panicking and wondering if they're actually going to show up for their session. The last and final automation that I want to talk about and man, you guys, this is so such an important one is the testimonial request. I want to make sure that you guys are automating this and not only automating this as an email that goes out, but doing it in the correct time frame. So I'm going to throw myself under the bus here because we are always growing and learning and evolving and I love to be transparent. I used to ask for the testimonial way too late, way too late. The happiness has died down, the excitement died down and now they're back to their busy life and they're not even thinking about me or their session anymore. So there Might be a podcast from years ago that you guys are listening to. I'm just here to tell you that I no longer do it that way. Here is what I recommend. This is what I teach all my clients and in my programs. You need to be sending a testimonial request within 24 hours of gallery delivery. Typically what I'm seeing and I'm tracking this when I in my gallery hosting system, which is Pixie Set, by the way. That's a whole nother conversation. But I am using Pixie Set now and so I will check the activity and I can tell when I deliver a gallery, there is a lot of traffic the first 48 hours because they're excited, they're looking at them again, they're sharing them with their family or friends, they're ordering prints and products, downloading the gallery. There's so much traffic going on because they are so excited. So I'm not going to ask for the testimonial request in the gallery delivery email because there is too much going on and they're not going to read it. So I send it the very next day because they already have their gallery, they've been able to look through the pictures and they're sharing them, they're excited, they're giving me feedback. And so I want to move them into that testimonial request so they are the most excited when they get their full gallery. And so I want you to come up with an email, short and sweet email, giving straight instructions on what you are looking for. And also link in your Google business or wherever it is you're wanting them to leave the review. Don't just tell them. Literally make it so easy to where you're giving them. Hey, here are the steps. 1, 2, 3, click this link and then write me a review and bam, you are done. Okay, I'm going to read my testimonial request email for you so that you can have an example. The only thing that I ask, the only thing that I ask is that the thousand of you that listen to this every week, please don't just like copy and paste it and use it as yours. Pop that thing in a chat GPT and say, hey, here is a testimonial email template. Can you make it sound a little more like me? Can you make it sound more casual? Can you make it sound more professional? Can you apply it to me as a wedding photographer? Okay, so let's, let's change it up a little bit. And I did not use chat GBT to write this. I wrote this myself and it's not even that great. But anyway, I just want to read it to you. It's very bland. So here we go. Hey, client, first name. I really enjoyed working with you and hope you are still swooning over your images. Can you take 60 seconds and write me a review? It means a lot for my business and helps others make a confident decision in choosing me. You can leave your review on my Google Business page, then it's highlighted and linked. Here are a couple of reviews to help you write one. And then I gave them three reviews that people wrote about me and then it literally says thank you so much, Brooke. That's it. I told you it's not even that good. It's very generic and you can fluff this up, you can make it shorter, you can make it longer, whatever you think. But this is so important. So don't skip this because I know you want more reviews. You want more people to give you high ratings and and wonderful reviews over on Google Business. And so the only way to do that is to grab them when they are the most excited. It's not going to feel pushy at this point because you're catching them at a time when they're already raving about you. So put this into an automated email or at least an email template to where after you deliver their gallery, all you have to do is schedule the email or press the button that says send email. Okay, so there you have it. Four automations to make your client experience smooth and professional. You've got. As a quick recap, we talked about your booking, confirmation, email, payment, reminders, session reminder emails and text and that testimonial request within 24 hours of gallery delivery. Take some time this week to make sure all of this is set up or go in and alter yours a little bit. You're already in busy season so help yourself out. Go get these automations set up or make them better and you will thank yourself in about a month from now. All right, that is all for today. I will catch you guys next week on the next episode.