I know for a fact that I’ve secured bookings purely based on a quick and thorough response to both email and phone enquiries. It’s also nice to get response emails that start with “Thank-you for your rapid response”.
We have become somewhat of an impatient society, one that wants instant gratification and information on demand. Whatever you think of this whole state of affairs, one thing is clear: being a rapid responder is becoming more and more important.
Becoming a rapid responder
You might consider yourself pretty much on the ball when it comes to this sort of thing but there might be a few ideas here you haven’t considered. There’s also things you do which might seem a good idea but could be harming your client experience for your business.
Auto responders
Personally I’ve never been a fan of auto responders especially when they’re connected to everyday contact forms. Simply sending an email saying that you will respond as quickly as you can and then sending a manual response minutes later seems silly to me.
That’s not to say they don’t have their uses and they can be very good if you know you’ll be off the grid for a few days.
Be careful how you phrase these types of emails as you could just be telling potential thieves when your studio with thousands of pounds of equipment will be empty.
Using a smart phone
Having landline calls redirected to your mobile is a great way to stay on top of things if you do spend a lot of time on location. Personalising your answer phone messages adds a nice touch as it let’s people know they’ve at least got the right number.
It almost goes without saying but having your emails pushed to your phone will enable you to reply on the fly.
Answering services
Depending on how busy you are an answering service can really add something to your client experience. Pricing and quality of these types of services do vary so shop around first. This might seem an unnecessary expense but to be honest this will be the cheapest secretary you’ll ever hire!
Creating templates
One technique that I’ve found to be extremely useful and time saving is to use different email and text templates.
If you are sending out an enquiry response then the chances are you’ll be saying pretty much the same thing to most people. I use Evernote to store all of my templates as it means that I can get to them from my phone, iPad, laptop and desktop. As my company is not a one man band it also means we can all have access to the same templates and update them when needed.
I use the same technique for text messages. If you’re shooting all day at a wedding it’s not always convenient to work out when you can book someone in for a portrait session so sending a quick “I’m out of the office all day but I’ll ring you tomorrow” text is worth sending.
I always try and include some sort of call to action in my templates such as suggesting dates and times for meetings or a possible shoot date.
Instant messaging
You might want to consider using instant messaging on your website as a form of communication.
Skype offer a widget which enables people to either call you directly or send instant messages. It has the added advantage of letting your potential clients know when you are online.
The only downside is that it easy to forget you’re online and you could end up leaving the office with your Skype status as available when in fact you aren’t. People can leave messages of course but it does sort of defeat the object of having instant messaging.
The best way to respond
A phone call should always take preference over an email or indeed a text message but you can always do both. If you find yourself leaving lots of messages then follow that up with an email.
You also want to have the option to call someone so make sure you have a phone number field as a required field in your online contact forms.
Whatever system you use remember that whilst a rapid response to enquires is important so is the quality of content you reply with. It could be the difference between winning and losing a job.
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Michael has been working as a photographer for the last ten years. In that time he has shot over 100,000 peoples’ portraits and worked in four different continents. In 2001 Michael graduated with a degree in photography from Manchester Metropolitan University.
We use shootq, and this allows you to send an auto-responder message only to people that contact you about a certain type of shoot. So when someone contacts us regarding a wedding, they get back a response immediately that includes a special highlights slideshow and our packages. I think this is a huge benefit since we are able to give them exactly what they want (pricing) when they want it.