The Baby Photographer – Delivery Day

The Baby Photographer

Published on Thursday, 18 August 2011 10:00

Last Updated on 18 August 2011

Michael Shilling

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As I work 100% on location and most of our clients are new mums, one of the most important parts of our business is delivering our work.

 

A few weeks ago I wrote an article at Currentphotographer.com which was part of a series titled Marketing Campaigns for photographers. I describe why I think deliveries, done in person, are an important part of our business.

 

I love all of our clients and everyone receives the service whether they spend £20 or £2000.

 

Practicing what I preach, last week we had a rather full delivery day.

 

Marcin had his share of the deliveries and I had mine which in total added up to 6 clients all waiting for their pictures.

 

Marcin was dealing with our Surrey clients so that was all done by car but I was embracing the delights of public transport in London.

 

Being the school holidays thankfully I didn’t have worry about getting on a train packed full of kids but I did need to remind myself that rush hour was close approaching and Clapham junction is far too hectic at 6pm!

 

Both of us managed to get everything delivered in a couple of hours and everyone seemed genuinely happy to receive their orders.

 

To be honest this is one of the best parts of my job. Everything is paid for, it all looks good and this is the most important time for receiving feedback.

 

Back in the days when I used to work for a studio we always had our clients come in to pick up their orders.

It was a painful and yet somewhat admirable sight watching mums load up prams and pushchairs with often life-size wall art.
It might have been easier for us to do it this way but it wasn’t going to win us any customer service awards.

 

As someone who creates ‘beautiful things’ and something which is pretty much a luxury item I’ve always considered the ‘unveiling’ of the finished product to be pretty important.

 

Handing it over a counter in a beat up brown box and helping someone strap it down to a pushchair does take away a bit of the magic.

 

Whilst at the studio we did once have a large wall art sent to a client via courier….. big mistake!

The phone call we received from the client was a tough one to receive as the tears were coming in floods!

Basically the courier service had been heavy handed and managed to smash the 24×24 inch glass plate.

In the end I went to the clients home, picked up the frame, took it back to the studio to replace the glass and then delivered the frame back to the client the same day.

 

All that took me the best part of an afternoon and put me behind with paperwork and editing.

 

So I learnt my lesson and from day 1 of starting my own business I have and will continue to deliver my work in person.

 
 

Picture of the Week

 

Each week we’ll be publishing one of our favorite images from the week. The lucky parents will receive a Memory Gate voucher to spend on lovely photos!

This week’s image was taken on our new background setup which emulates a bit of a country house living room (it’s a fake floor and fake wall)

 
 

You can see all of our latest baby portraits at The Portrait Photographers