Do you ever have potential customers who call frequently with various questions and "How to" taking up quite a bit of your time without ever making a purchase? How do you handle it?
Your profile shows this is a 'free service', so you should expect to get a lot of questions. Especially from people who are not your ideal client profile. It's pretty tough to say you have a free service and not be willing to answer 1000 questions.
From a marketing perspective, I see two basic problems.
First, it doesn't appear that you know your ideal client profiles and are advertising to them. If you are advertising/marketing to the whole world, you will be trying to educate those who will never be able to afford your service. Tire kickers. Information seekers.
Second, you haven't differentiated your service to indicate it is a matching service, not a 'free' service. Unless I misunderstand, you offer to match clients with a residential solution. So you should have a specific 'intake' method to screen out problems. And people should be 'in our program', not just random callers with questions. So you can ask "Are you already enrolled in our service?"
Don't confuse selling your program with selling a residential solution. Your marketing and advertising should all be selling your program as a solution to the hassles, the unknowns, the driving around from place to place, etc.
And if it were me, I would have a simple $25 fee for 'research' that is refunded when they move in to one of your locations. This will screen out the people who aren't ever going to buy. And most people won't be bothered by a small fee like that.
Common courtesy is the best way. I understand some customers need their hands held through many changes and sometimes it takes a while. If it doesn't take up too much of your time the best scenario is to talk them through it. If it has to do with troubleshooting a problem then let them know that 15 minutes on the phone is a courtesy after that it starts to be a billable service or remote call.
Yes I have had these types of customers. Unless you believe there will be a big payoff, you need to find a way to exit from the relationship. This can be done with a basic call to reality for the prospect/customer and let them know you will need to bill them for the time spent. You can start saying I am not sure about the response and provide another entity for them to contact to answer the question. This could be an entity more suited to answer the questions or a competitor who you hope will pickup the business. Time is money, money is time.
Absolutely, I answer the question. If I do not know the answer I find it out. I get back as soon as posible. During the process you will be building a trust relationship with that client. Eventually he/she may make a purchase or list with you. It also may lead to other clients when they share how helpful you have been.
Connie, I ask them to gather their questions and then we meet in person to discuss...After that I put them in a drip campaign with topics similar to what they might ask and feed them that information and stress that I will be there for them when they are ready to purchase.
I tell clients that their request falls outside of the current scope of work, and any additional consultation would be $x per hour. It’s important to anticipate and expect that clients will have additional questions or needs, so include that in your scope of work, wirk for hire agreements and verbal exchanges.
If you notice a trend that your clients are asking the same type of questions, I would use these opportunities as a way to develop FAQ’s and/or to create custom training programs that you can sell to clients, or include with your service offerings.
When a client emails me or calls me out of the blue, I am always willing to help them, but I’ve seen it happen over and over that it becomes second nature to educate and inform them that I would be happy to write a scope of work for the HOW to training. Reason for this is you’ll have to develop the curriculum, presentation deck, probably install a screencast tool or use Zoom to record it.
People pay for your knowledge and experience which shortens their learning curve and that is the value you bring to them: saving them the time to have to learn it themselves, learn from mistakes etc.
Mark definitely nailed it. I too offer a complimentary consultation for 1 -hour and they have that time to get any questions they may have answered, if they are needing more assistance, they have to sign up for one of my many affordable packages. There are no if and or buts about it. My time is valuable and so is yours. Re-vamp your offer a bit and you should be ok going forward. Good Luck to you.
I work with a lot of clients who have never worked with a commercial
photographer before, so I don't mind spending a lot of time answering
their questions. Many clients don't know what's involved in the process
or what their options are and it's to be expected that they will have
questions.
A wise photographer once said something to effect of "All photographers are baby photographers" Even if we are not photographing actual babies or even people, it's still someones "baby". Even if a client brings you a mundane object to shoot, it's important to remember that it's not just a mundane object to them. It's their baby, they spent a lot of time and effort creating it and it's only natural that they will want to make sure that they choose the right photographer for the project.
I'd suggest that you put yourself in the position of "asking the questions" and in that way cut through to what you can do, and can't do for the potential customer who's inquiring. I think in this way, you can reduce time spent without pay off.
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Answers (1-10)
Hi Connie,
Your profile shows this is a 'free service', so you should expect to get a lot of questions. Especially from people who are not your ideal client profile. It's pretty tough to say you have a free service and not be willing to answer 1000 questions.
From a marketing perspective, I see two basic problems.
First, it doesn't appear that you know your ideal client profiles and are advertising to them. If you are advertising/marketing to the whole world, you will be trying to educate those who will never be able to afford your service. Tire kickers. Information seekers.
Second, you haven't differentiated your service to indicate it is a matching service, not a 'free' service. Unless I misunderstand, you offer to match clients with a residential solution. So you should have a specific 'intake' method to screen out problems. And people should be 'in our program', not just random callers with questions. So you can ask "Are you already enrolled in our service?"
Don't confuse selling your program with selling a residential solution. Your marketing and advertising should all be selling your program as a solution to the hassles, the unknowns, the driving around from place to place, etc.
And if it were me, I would have a simple $25 fee for 'research' that is refunded when they move in to one of your locations. This will screen out the people who aren't ever going to buy. And most people won't be bothered by a small fee like that.
Does that help?
Common courtesy is the best way. I understand some customers need their hands held through many changes and sometimes it takes a while. If it doesn't take up too much of your time the best scenario is to talk them through it. If it has to do with troubleshooting a problem then let them know that 15 minutes on the phone is a courtesy after that it starts to be a billable service or remote call.
Yes I have had these types of customers. Unless you believe there will be a big payoff, you need to find a way to exit from the relationship. This can be done with a basic call to reality for the prospect/customer and let them know you will need to bill them for the time spent. You can start saying I am not sure about the response and provide another entity for them to contact to answer the question. This could be an entity more suited to answer the questions or a competitor who you hope will pickup the business. Time is money, money is time.
Absolutely, I answer the question. If I do not know the answer I find it out. I get back as soon as posible. During the process you will be building a trust relationship with that client. Eventually he/she may make a purchase or list with you. It also may lead to other clients when they share how helpful you have been.
Connie, I ask them to gather their questions and then we meet in person to discuss...After that I put them in a drip campaign with topics similar to what they might ask and feed them that information and stress that I will be there for them when they are ready to purchase.
I tell clients that their request falls outside of the current scope of work, and any additional consultation would be $x per hour. It’s important to anticipate and expect that clients will have additional questions or needs, so include that in your scope of work, wirk for hire agreements and verbal exchanges.
If you notice a trend that your clients are asking the same type of questions, I would use these opportunities as a way to develop FAQ’s and/or to create custom training programs that you can sell to clients, or include with your service offerings.
When a client emails me or calls me out of the blue, I am always willing to help them, but I’ve seen it happen over and over that it becomes second nature to educate and inform them that I would be happy to write a scope of work for the HOW to training. Reason for this is you’ll have to develop the curriculum, presentation deck, probably install a screencast tool or use Zoom to record it.
People pay for your knowledge and experience which shortens their learning curve and that is the value you bring to them: saving them the time to have to learn it themselves, learn from mistakes etc.
I work with a lot of clients who have never worked with a commercial photographer before, so I don't mind spending a lot of time answering their questions. Many clients don't know what's involved in the process or what their options are and it's to be expected that they will have questions.
A wise photographer once said something to effect of "All photographers are baby photographers" Even if we are not photographing actual babies or even people, it's still someones "baby". Even if a client brings you a mundane object to shoot, it's important to remember that it's not just a mundane object to them. It's their baby, they spent a lot of time and effort creating it and it's only natural that they will want to make sure that they choose the right photographer for the project.
Hi Connie:
Perhaps you can create FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on your website. This may very well be of great benefit.
And, sift through those are ready to move forward vs those who need more time.
I'd suggest that you put yourself in the position of "asking the questions" and in that way cut through to what you can do, and can't do for the potential customer who's inquiring. I think in this way, you can reduce time spent without pay off.