Customer Service for Equine Photographers: The Client Experience Starts Before the Session

A potential client lands on your website because she wants photographs with her horse.

She loves your work. She fills out your contact form.

Now what?

How long does it take before she hears from you? Does she know what happens next? Can she figure out how much this is likely to cost? Does she know what kind of session she needs?

And once she books, does she know what to wear? How to prepare her horse? Whether she needs to bathe him? What happens if it rains?

What happens if her normally well-behaved horse wakes up on session day and decides he has never seen a photographer, reflector, dress or flower crown in his entire life?

This is customer service.

And it starts long before you ever pick up your camera.

Customer Service Is the Entire Client Experience

When photographers hear "customer service," we tend to think about how we respond when someone has a question or problem.

That's part of it.

But customer service is also how easy it is to find information on your website. It's how you respond to an inquiry. It's your booking process, your prep information, the session itself, the ordering experience, the delivery of their artwork and what happens afterward.

In other words, it's pretty much everything.

A client may love her photographs and still walk away frustrated by the experience of getting them.

On the other hand, when a client knows what to expect, feels prepared throughout the process and trusts that you know what you're doing, you've created something much bigger than a collection of beautiful images.

You've created an experience she feels good about.

And in an equine photography business, there are a whole lot of opportunities to either make that experience easier or accidentally make it harder.

Great Customer Service Starts Before They Book

Take a look at your business through the eyes of someone who has never hired a professional equine photographer.

You know how your process works.

She doesn't.

She may not know the difference between a horse-and-rider portrait session and a black background session. She may not understand why one photographer charges $300 and another charges $3,000. She probably doesn't know what "IPS" means, and frankly, she shouldn't have to.

Your job is to make the next step easy to understand.

That starts with your website.

Can she quickly figure out what you photograph, where you're located and how to contact you?

Does she have some idea of what you offer and what she should expect to invest?

When she inquires, does your response answer her most likely questions while also telling her exactly what to do next?

Good customer service doesn't mean dumping every possible piece of information on someone the second she says hello.

It means giving her the right information at the right time.

The Time Between Booking and the Session Matters

Your client booked. Fantastic. Now there may be several weeks, or even months, between that moment and the actual photography session.

Don't disappear.

This is where a thoughtful client experience can make a huge difference, particularly with horse owners.

They have questions.

• What should I wear?

• Should I clip my horse?

• Do I need to bathe him?

• What tack should I bring?

• Should I braid?

• Can I bring my dog?

• What if my horse won't stand still?

• What happens if it rains?

• Can my husband be in a few photographs even though he insists he doesn't want to be in any photographs?

The more of those questions you can anticipate, the more confident your client will feel walking into the session.

That doesn't mean sending seventeen emails and a 46-page preparation manual that requires a study guide.

It means building a communication process that gives clients what they need when they need it.

And this is where systems become part of customer service.

A good workflow makes it less likely that important information gets forgotten simply because you're busy.

During the Session, Your Horse Knowledge Is Part of Your Customer Service

This is where equine photography is very different from many other types of portrait photography.

We aren't just managing people.

We're managing horses.

Your ability to read a horse, work safely around one and adjust when things aren't going according to plan affects your client's experience just as much as your ability to create a beautiful photograph.

Sometimes the ears aren't forward.

Sometimes the horse will not stand where you want him.

Sometimes the light is perfect, the background is perfect, the client looks amazing and the horse has decided that a leaf approximately 400 yards away represents an immediate threat to national security.

That's horses.

Your client is watching how you handle it.

If you're frustrated, she's probably going to become frustrated too. Worse, she may start feeling like her horse is ruining the session.

Part of your job is helping her understand that this is normal.

We wait. We give the horse a break if needed. We move to a different location if we need to. We change the plan.

Knowing when to push for the photograph and when to let the horse take a break is part of the skill involved in photographing horses.

It's also part of customer service.

The goal isn't simply to get the shot.

It's to create the shot while making the client feel like she and her horse are in capable hands.

Tell Them What Happens After the Session

The session is over.

Your client leaves excited.

And then...

Silence.

This is one of the easiest places for photographers to unintentionally create frustration.

Your client shouldn't have to wonder when she'll see her photographs, how she'll choose them, when she'll order artwork or when everything will arrive.

Tell her.

If the next step is an ordering appointment, make sure she knows when and how that happens.

If artwork takes several weeks to arrive, tell her before she orders it.

If you're going to contact her when everything is ready, say so.

If something changes and you're running behind, communicate.

People are usually much more understanding about a delay when they know there's a delay.

It's the wondering that gets frustrating.

Most Customer Service Problems Are Communication Problems

This is one of the biggest lessons I've learned in business.

A surprising number of problems that look like customer service issues actually started much earlier as communication issues.

The client didn't know.

She didn't know when her photographs would be ready.

She didn't know digital files weren't included.

She didn't know what wall art cost.

She didn't know the ordering appointment would take two hours.

She didn't know her order couldn't be changed once it went into production.

She didn't know what would happen if it rained.

And yes, sometimes we technically told her.

It was on page 14 of a PDF.

Or buried in the contract.

Or mentioned in an email containing twelve other things.

Or somewhere on the website if she clicked through four pages, turned left at the barn and asked the bay gelding for directions.

That's not necessarily effective communication.

Good client communication isn't about how much information you provide.

It's about whether the client receives, understands and remembers the information she actually needs.

That means thinking about when you're communicating something just as much as what you're saying.

Strong client communication is something you can build intentionally. From responding to inquiries and explaining pricing to setting expectations and handling the occasional awkward conversation, the words you use throughout your client experience matter. If this is an area you want to strengthen, you can find more resources on Communication for Photographers.

Great Customer Service Doesn't Mean Saying Yes to Everything

This is important.

Providing excellent customer service does not require being available 24 hours a day.

It doesn't mean answering a text at 10:47 p.m.

It doesn't mean delivering a gallery early because someone suddenly needs the photographs tomorrow.

It doesn't mean throwing in free products, ignoring your policies or agreeing to "just Photoshop" every request.

And it definitely doesn't mean sacrificing the profitability of your business to keep everyone happy.

Boundaries and good customer service can exist at the same time.

In fact, good boundaries often improve customer service.

Office hours tell clients when they can expect to hear from you.

Contracts tell them what you've both agreed to.

Rescheduling policies tell everyone what happens when the weather doesn't cooperate.

Production timelines tell clients when to expect their artwork.

A consistent workflow keeps you from forgetting things.

Those aren't barriers between you and your clients.

They're part of creating a professional experience.

The trick is making your policies clear, communicating them before they become an issue and applying them consistently.

You Don't Have to "Surprise and Delight" Everyone

There's a lot of business advice floating around about exceeding expectations.

Give them something extra. Deliver early. Include a surprise. Do more than you promised.

There's nothing wrong with occasionally doing something special for a client. Those moments can be wonderful.

But there is a danger in building your entire customer service philosophy around constantly giving more than you promised.

Because today's surprise can become tomorrow's expectation.

If you normally tell clients their images will be ready in three weeks but consistently deliver in four days, eventually four days feels normal.

If you always throw in extra images, clients begin expecting extra images.

If you're always available after hours, answering at 10 p.m. stops feeling exceptional and starts feeling like part of the service.

I'd rather set realistic expectations and consistently meet them.

Then, when there is an opportunity to do something extra because you genuinely want to, it's actually extra.

Audit Your Own Equine Photography Client Experience

One of the best things you can do for your business is walk through your entire process as if you were a client.

Start at your website.

Pretend you've never hired a professional photographer before and know absolutely nothing about how your business works.

What questions do you have?

Then submit an inquiry.

What happens?

Walk through booking, payment, contracts, preparation, the session, ordering and delivery.

Look for the places where your client has to stop and figure something out.

Where are you making assumptions?

Where are you asking her to remember something you told her six weeks ago?

Where does she have to wait without knowing what happens next?

Where are you answering the same question manually over and over again?

That last one is especially important.

If every client asks the same question, your clients aren't the problem.

Your process is telling you something.

Make It Easy to Work With You

Excellent customer service isn't about being endlessly available or giving clients everything they ask for.

It's about creating an experience where people feel prepared, informed and taken care of.

Your clients should know what's happening.

They should know what comes next.

And when something doesn't go according to plan, because horses, weather and life occasionally laugh at our carefully constructed plans, they should trust that you know how to handle it.

Beautiful photographs matter.

Of course they do.

But your clients will also remember how the entire experience felt.

Make that part worth remembering, too.

Want to Make Client Communication Easier?

If you've ever stared at an inquiry wondering how to respond, struggled to explain your pricing without writing a novel, or found yourself answering the same client questions over and over again, your communication may need a little attention.

I've put together resources specifically for photographers to help you communicate more effectively throughout the client experience, from that first inquiry to the conversations that happen after the session.