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Great Follow-Up

By Ira Gostin © 2003 www.gostin.com

Follow up with the client is just as important as the initial contact. We all like to be told we are appreciated, and even if your clients don't rant and rave about your photography, you need to let them know that you appreciate their business as well as remind them that you are available for the next shoot.

The following are some tips to stay in touch with your clients after the shoot.

1. Telephone. Seems that photographers just hate getting on the phone, but pick up the phone and just utter the magic words, "Thank you!" Sometimes you get lucky and it turns into a follow-up job.
   
   
2. E-mail. Touch base with your clients via email to insure that their needs were met. Be blunt. Ask them straight out if they are happy with the shoot and if there were any problems. This is how you learn for the future.
   
   
3. Logo Items. Try a small, inexpensive logo item to drop off at a client following a job. We have coffee mugs, pins, and sharpies that we rotate around. These are also great gifts for someone that refers a client to you. Just keep your name in front of them.
   
   
4. Customer service. Be customer service oriented. Start thinking about the level of service you deliver. Are you the "cheap motel" or the "elegant top hotel?" Think about who else is out there making pictures, and how a higher level of customer service will put you at the top of that list.
   
   
5. Handwritten notes. Try and get in the habit of dropping a note to a client now and then - not asking for work, just saying hello. Another way of staying in the front of their mind, rather than the back.
   
   
6. Throw a party. Have an annual, themed party and invite all your clients as well as prospective clients. Make it some fun theme that will become the talk of the town!
   
   
7. Say Thank You. This is the most obvious, yet amazingly, many photographers never say thank you to their clients following a job. Get in the habit of it and it will set you apart from the crowd. A nice card works - or even better, a card with one of your images.
   
   

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