Recently, I presented at a conference about The Perfect Client Experience. This is something I’m so passionate about, that it only makes sense to share some of that here.
Who is your ideal client? Do you know who your ideal client is? It’s pretty hard to know how to attract your ideal client if you don’t know who they are. One of the hardest tasks, for any business owner, is identifying your ideal client and really learning who they are, what they like, what they don’t like, and how to really speak to them and earn their business.
Ask yourself these questions: who is my client? What do they expect from their photography session? And why are they my ideal client? What makes them ideal for your business? If you don’t know who your client is, you won’t be able to market yourself to them – which means, you won’t find them. You won’t book your ideal client. You may get clients – you may get lots of clients, but you may end up with a lot of clients who are unhappy. Or even worse, you will be unhappy. Your work will not be reflective of your talent because you won’t be connected to your clients. This is so important!
So how do you get to that final picture?
- Define your business from the client’s perspective. What does your service provide, what need is it fulfilling? How does your photography improve your client’s life?
- Get into the MINDSET of your client
- Define characteristics about your ideal customer. Age, marital status, educations, where do they work, financial status, etc.
- Determine the location of your clients. Where do they live, what activities do they participate in? What groups are they a part of?
- Finally, determine your client’s buying strategy. What steps do they take in the decision making process for selecting a photographer?
This is not an easy task, it will – and should – take you some time. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t take the time to go through this process. Which means, they waste a lot of time – and more importantly money – on marketing and selling to the wrong people.
When you know who your client is, what they like to do, what they don’t like, where they go, what they do for fun – all of these things can help you understand how to market and advertise to your ideal client. And knowing all of this will help you tailor YOUR INTERACTIONS and your business to match the wants and needs of that ideal client.
When you KNOW your ideal client, you can then tailor yourself and your interactions to that client. This is the first step in achieving the perfect customer experience.
Click here to read step two of the perfect customer experience – setting your process!
Meredith Gradle is the founder and CEO of Iris Works – a photography studio management program. As a photographer of nearly 6 years, Meredith used her knowledge of the industry to create a simple and intuitive studio management system.
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