How To Create the Best Client Experience

The key to converting leads and earning customer loyalty is by delivering a bang-on client experience from the get-go. This starts from your response to their initial enquiry right through to sending off their final gallery. If they’ve gotten in touch with you, you know that they’ve stalked your website and checked out your portfolio – your work has resonated with them. BUT that doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to their booking…

You now have to get your foot in the door by:

• Responding with personality and in an efficient timeframe
• Showing genuine enthusiasm and care about their wedding day
• Preparing for your first meeting

Don’t start the discussion by asking what their budget is – that’s the quickest way to kill a sale! How can you provide the right solution if you don’t even know what they want? Without a clear understanding of their pain points, you won’t be able to provide an effective solution or convince them to book you as their wedding photographer.

Your clients should feel like they’re your number one priority, not just another transaction. Rather than talking their ear off about your albums or talking about your photography style, focus on delivering value.

Here are the 3 main decision-making factors that your clients will consider

1. Perceived value – This is your client’s own perception of your service’s ability to satisfy their needs and wants, and its associated monetary costs, especially in comparison with a competitor’s offering. To influence this, you need to clearly identify your service’s unique selling points, benefits and create desirability.
2. Tangible differentiators – This revolves around visible, quantifiable factors that differentiate you from your competitors. For example, this might be the number of photos that come with your packages, the speed of your gallery turnaround times, the array of choices for album designs, etc.
3. Emotional connection (intangible differentiators) – Intangible differentiations centre around your personality and reputation. People buy with their emotions and subconscious motivations. From creating FOMO to making them feel excited, you want to show up and make them feel seen and heard by letting them talk about their goals and listening to their ‘problems’.

The fact is people like to spend and they value different things for different needs and situations. The keyword is VALUE. Remember: Your customer is the hero of the story so always spin your narrative from their point of view. The more value your prospective clients can sense about your offering, the lesser it is for money to be the primary concern.

And if you get it right, their question will change from “Can we afford this?” to “Can we afford to pass up on this opportunity?”

TIP: Your personality and energy is something that no one else can copy! Always show up as yourself and connect with your clients on a meaningful, ‘human’ level.

You don’t have to wait until your initial client meeting to start showing value. You can start building rapport and gaining their trust from your email response to their first enquiry! Not sure how? Our in-house copywriting coach, Melinda Harcourt, has written 17+ high-converting email templates to guide you! These cover everything from initial responses to enquiry follow-ups and post-wedding updates!

Shop the email templates now.

Preparing for your initial client meeting

Inside the Six-Figure Business Map, I have an entire module dedicated to creating the best client experience! In one of the videos, I step you through all the must-know tips for smashing your client meetings including:

• Making it super easy for clients to book their meeting with you
• How to research and prepare for your meeting
• Tips on how to dress on brand and body language
• Choosing the best location
• How to set expectations by leading and listening
• Solving client’s problems and over-delivering
• Post-meeting follow-up emails

All that and more! You’ll have to enrol into the Business Map if you want all my juicy secrets. 😉 But don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging…

Meet your all-new Client Meeting Journal

To make sure you have the blissful confidence you need to convert 9 out 10 of your client meetings into bookings, we’ve created a Client Meeting Journal just for wedding photographers! The first of its kind in our industry, it’s not just a pretty notebook. This journal will keep your client meetings on track and all your notes in one place.

Perfect for in-person and online meetings, it’s loaded with proven how-to tips including:

→Meeting prep – before, during & after
→Building instant trust & rapport
→Powerful conversion language
→Handling discount requests
→Upselling your packages, albums & add-ons
→Creating an efficient workflow
→Mindset & meditation

You’ll also have note-taking pages for pre-meeting client research and reminders, meeting prompts and must-ask questions. PLUS, space for post-meeting reflections.

Prepare, Plan & Structure → Meeting → Booking ($$)

“I used the Client Journal for the meeting today and it helped soooo much in navigating through that call. The client’s budget was $1700 below my package options, but she ended up booking my 2nd highest package without hesitation!” – Jasmin

“It’s not only beautifully designed, but also full of helpful tips to get you prepared. It has guided questions you can use during the meeting and lots of space to take notes and reflect after.” – Bo

To see the magic for yourself, shop the client journal here.