You can have all the information, all the skills - but people should like working with you
Welcome to another installment in the blog. We're covering how to interact with clients. Let's begin.
“Your personality should sell your business just as much as your skills.”
Have you ever watched the show "Two and a Half Men"? Well remember how Charlie Sheen was the main star for the longest time? Well (spoiler alert here), know why they wrote him off the show? He was an ass. People hated working with him, therefore - even though he was a lead role. He had to go. Don't make a scene - Don't be a Charlie Sheen.
The Client is sometimes right
I personally don't believe in the original saying: "the customer is always right". I know some may disagree with me, that's fine. But this is a great mindset to employ into your business. The client obviously gets final say on the output of photos and whatever you're creating: make sure they're happy. HOWEVER: there is a line with this. After a few revisions. You can charge extra because ultimately it's time that you're spending to do re edits. You need to be compensated. It also means they'll be more choosey for revisions.
No Volcano
If you're a hothead or can't take criticism well, pay attention to this especially. With being a creative, not everyone will like what you create. Get used to it.
No one likes being yelled at - client or business. So make sure to take everything with a calm outlook. If you have something mean to say, especially to a client, write/text it down on a notepad (no risk of accidently sending), and forget about it. It'll be off your mind and you'll feel better.
Personally, I'd just respond to them positively, for example, lets say I was being told that " You're an incompetent fool". Instead of firing back at them, say - "I'm sorry you feel that way, what makes you say that?" Obviously my tone and stuff is different but you get the gist of it. There are so many ways to calm yourself down that can immediately deescalate what anger is present
Open mind
This was probably obvious, but for those who didn't know, I'm including it. Especially for photos and videos, you may want a certain output in your mind, quality and color and so on.
Just allow yourself to bring other's ideas in as well. This industry has people with so many different outlooks on how to do things and why they do it too. Something someone tells you may make something better or be done quicker. Personal story: I had a friend tell me to use a flash for most shoots the first year or two I was doing photography. I didn't. I resisted so much because I hated the fact of using batteries and throwing them out. Especially having them die so quickly/not feeling like using its full power to preserve battery. Years later I tried it with rechargeable batteries. Guess what? I leveled up. I found my photos in the dark looked way better (shocker right?!) but also gave me so much more to work with.
Point being: keep an open mind, try new things, and be hungry for innovation into your business.
That's it. That's the end for this one. I may make another installment some time in the future but this post should give you enough to work with till then. Check out the next post about business structure/setup (admin stuff).
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