At the start of every New Year, I always ask myself: “If I was starting this business today, what would I do differently”? You’d be amazed at how quickly this gets you to focus on what’s working in your business and more importantly what’s not working. It can lead to some gutsy changes and prevent the dreaded “same old, same old” dead-end. So what would you do differently if you were starting over today? Better yet, ask your clients what THEY would like you to do differently. If you’re really serious about improving your business, you’ll get all the feedback you need.
Last year, we started surveying brides to find out what they like and don’t like about working with professional photographers and thought you’d like to hear the feedback. In an industry where almost 80% of the brides are contracting for a disk only, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the majority of brides still do want an album. They just don’t want to have to work too hard to get it.
Brides told us they don’t want to wait weeks to see their images for the first time; and that when they do see them, they are overwhelmed by the number of images (in most cases more than 1000) they see. Lastly, they told us that the album process takes too long and is too painful – they want it to be easier and quicker. Have you heard similar feedback? Interestingly enough, the average album we ship is completed 9 months after the wedding! And since it takes us less than 2 weeks to complete any album; that means it takes 8.5 months to get it to us! No wonder why clients are so frustrated with so many photographers and are opting to go the “shoot and burn” route.
So we set out to help solve this problem. We know that if we can help you make the bride happier, then the groom be happy and if your clients are happy, then you as the photographer will also be happy. We then asked ourselves: “Why shouldn’t newlyweds have their albums 30 days after the wedding?” This jump-started the creation of an operating system to help make this happen; we call it zookie pro.
You may think that having a high quality, hand made album in a clients hands in 30 days seems impossible, but it’s actually quite easy. Here’s how: For starters show fewer images. We’ve been creating albums for over 15 years, and in the days before digital, most albums had 80-100 images and photographers showed 400-600 images. Today, most photographers show over 1000 images….yet most albums still have 80-100 images. All of this overshooting is overwhelming your clients with more images that will not go into their album, while creating unnecessary work for you and your staff.
Photography is like perishable fruit – the sooner your client sees the images, the more likely they are to place an order. So help them out and pre-select your favorites and have us design the album before they even see any of the images! You are the artist and the pro, and you were hired because they trusted you. Take charge and finish the job! Simply select your favorite images and upload them to our new service called zookie pro. We’ll color correct the files and create a ‘simple and elegant’ design that best tells the story. We’ll need 1 week to design it, and then we’ll send back an electronic layout that includes a personalized cover that will blow your client away! We’ll provide a shopping cart that you can forward to your client that will allow them to buy additional products….like parent albums and frames. We’ll even give you the ability to set pricing so that your client sees the price you want to charge! Once the order is finalized, we’ll need 2 weeks or less to complete the album.
Add up all the time involved and the newlyweds will have their albums less than 30 days after her wedding! See how easy that was. Imagine the buzz that you’ll create? Imagine the hugs you’ll get from your clients? Imagine how much bigger your orders will be since the bride is still on a ‘wedding high’! Now compare this workflow with your current workflow. Which better serves your client? Which better serves you? With zookie pro, we’ve solved every workflow problem AND given you a solution that is actually less work for you. It leads to Happy Brides, Happy Grooms and Happy Photographers. So ask yourself, “What would I do differently if I were starting my business over?” If you want your business to grow, let us help you with zookie pro!
