Detailed Information in a Client Profile

Posted on July 31, 2007
Filed Under Marketing Yourself, The Basics | Leave a Comment

Reaching in the mailbox Now that you are keeping basic profiles on your clients, it is time to move on to keeping more detailed records. There is no set list that anyone can give you on what to put as extra details for your particular clients. It really just depends on your particular client set.

If you are creating family portraits, then it would be a good idea to note the children’s names and ages in a client’s profile. If you are doing Senior Photography, then noting the school the Senior is attending might be helpful. For wedding photography, noting the date of the wedding would be a good idea, and will give on a head start for contacting the couple on their anniversary.

But really, anything could and should be added to a client’s profile. Don’t be afraid to add anything you can think of to a profile. Try to think of client profiles as an extension of your memory. If you were to see a client on the street and you happened to remember that the client had a daughter, would you ask that client how his daughter was? Of course you would. Client profiles just help you to remember small details like that.

As stated in the article about basic profiles, when a customer comes in for a repeat sitting, be sure to review the client’s profile so that you know as much as you can about the client. Repeat customers will become even more loyal if when they come in for their annual family portrait, you know the names of all their children.

But detailed client profiles have uses beyond just being a friendly photographer who appears to have a memory like an elephant. Detail client profiles are an excellent way to augment and extend the marketing of your studio.
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Say a family comes in for a sitting. Their oldest boy is 15. They leave happy with their purchases and you make note of the children’s ages. Two and a half years later (when their son is now 17 1/5), a short note or postcard will put you back in front of them just in time for Senior pictures.

Taking wedding photos? A postcard a year or two later may just get you taking the first photographs of the precious little baby girl they now have.

A yearly postcard and a friendly reminder that “Jane, Jake and Susan will only be this age once” may turn a portrait every five years family into an annual customer.

And, as always, detailed client profiles can help you with how you package and present your photography to the client. If you noted that for the last sitting, the client bought a brag book for Grandma, you can present this right at the start as an option. If you noted that a family’s eldest child attended a school with blue and gold as its colors, you can have a folio or photomounts wrapped in the appropriate colors ready for their younger sibling to choose from at their Senior session.
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Detailed client profiles are a way to turn one time customers into lifetime clients.�

The Basic Information in a Client Profile

Posted on July 24, 2007
Filed Under Marketing Yourself, The Basics | 20404 Comments

Meeting with clients In the previous article, we talked some about building a client profile. We touched a little on what can go in a client profile, but what is the bare basic information you should have about your client?
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The basic information you should have about every client you serve is Name, Address, Phone Number, Dates of Sessions and Products Bought. Email Address is helpful as well, if your client has one.

The very first time a client enters your studio or you do a sitting with them, have them fill out a short profile. Just ask them for the basic facts that were listed above. Let them fill in the information for which they feel comfortable. This information is the start of your client’s profile.

Come up with a system to file this information, either on the computer or on paper. The next time you need to work with this client, pull out the profile and familiarize yourself with them and their last session. Use this information to anticipate what they might want in this sitting and how you might be able to offer them more.

Having basic information about your client is essential to marketing yourself in the future. Building a database of names and addresses of former clients allows you to reconnect with these clients at a later date. Sending out a postcard every few months helps your customers keep your name fresh in their minds.

Keeping a list of what your client’s bought can help you anticipate inventory needs for prints and photo packaging. If many of your clients requested black photomounts for their photographs, than you know that this is a popular item. Yes, you may have a hunch that this is the case if you don’t keep these kinds of records, but keeping detailed client profiles lets you turn that hunch into hard facts. This in turn helps you to avoid ordering the wrong types of products.

In this internet age, many people are now communicating via email. Ask your customer for their email address and if it is okay for you to occasionally email them with offers. As long as you have permission, don’t be afraid email your clients every few months.

Once you get the hang of collecting basic information from your customers, you will want to start collecting more detailed information. In the next article, we will take a look at why detailed information is just as important as the basic information.

Building Client Profiles: What Do You Know about Your Clients?

Posted on July 18, 2007
Filed Under Marketing Yourself, The Basics | 252 Comments

Family with picture frame When a client comes in for a session, what do you know about them? Do you know their name? Their children’s names? The last time you did a sitting with them? Do you know their address? How they came to use you as their photographer? When their birthday is? What they last bought from you?

While this may seem like a lot of information, knowing these kinds of facts about your customers is a practice called “building a client profile”. A client profile is a database of facts and information about your clients that will help you strengthen your relationship and anticipate the needs of your clients. The more you know about your clients, the more you can figure out about how you can best address their current needs.

On their client profile, fill in the basic facts, like name and address. During the first sitting, mentally take note of any fact that you can. Children’s names and ages, graduation dates or any small details that you think may be of importance to your client. Add them to your client’s profile later on. Also make note of anything related to the sitting, such as the client’s preferred sitting style or anything that either pleased or displeased the client.

After you have completed work for your client, add to their profile any information about the order. What sizes did they order, how many of those sizes did they order? Did they order just for themselves or for family as well? What kind of packaging did they want? This sort of information belongs in the client’s profile.

Too much information? Not at all. The more you know about your client, the more you know about what they might need from you and, ultimately, about what kinds of clients are the ones with which you’ll wish to work.

Use the information in your client’s profile to help you build a better relationship with them. To you, these may be business motivated steps. To a client, these are personal touches that separate you from everyone else (especially the faceless discount, department store studios).

In the next article, we will talk about the very basic information that should be found in a client profile. This information will help you start building better client relationships.