Into every small business, unexpected things come up. In my case, it was a lovely attack of the stomach flu at the end of last week. Bent-over with stomach cramps, it was not the time to service my clients (or to write on this blog, for that matter). I had to cancel planned meetings and leave emails unanswered–both not great service things. But, actually, it was good service. Why? Because I knew I wasn’t thinking clearly and my abilities to focus on my clients and their needs was significantly impared. Anyone I worked with on Thursday or Friday would not have received my best and that wasn’t what I had promised.
My marketing promises my clients my best thinking. To give less than that is breaking that brand promise. Not ever good. But being honest with my clients kept the promise…and the clients.
You need to do this too. If you have the flu, stay home and reschedule a shoot or a meeting. Or get someone to cover the shoot for you, if time is of the essence. Yes, you may lose a client if someone else shoots a project (and you are definitely losing the money), but most good clients will remember that in a crisis situation, you went above the call of duty to see that they got what they needed, even when it didn’t (apparently) help you.
You can do this when a client comes to you to shoot something and you are not right for the project. If you don’t shoot people and the client needs real people shot, tell the client you are not the right person for the project and recommend someone you know and trust instead. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s really the best thing you can do. If you do poorly on the shoot or look like you aren’t sure of yourself, you’ll lose future business of all kinds with that client. But if you take a pass and help the client find the right photographer for the project, you’ll look great.
It’s like that scene in Miracle on 34th Street–Mr. Kringle tells a mother where to buy the right kind of skates her child wants and it’s not at the store where he is working. The floor manager gets upset, but the mother tells the powers-that-be how grateful she was for the help and how she will be back to shop in their store because of Mr. Kringle’s help. The management then makes it a policy for all their employees to tell customers where to get what they really want, if their store doesn’t carry it then tell them who does. And sales go up.
Almost 60 years later, it still works.