Last weekend we conducted an anonymous survey to better understand our clients needs. Although we encourage our clients to review our service on Facebook after they receive their photos we felt a survey might give us some useful feedback.
We kept the survey short to encourage participation. Below we have shared the results with you.
Question 1
How much do you think is a fair amount for a one hour family photo session?
$200 - 66.67%
$300 - 33.33%
$400 - 0%
We are in the process of reviewing our pricelist. We wanted to offer cheap prices initially to generate interest as we are a new business. We don't have intentions of dramatic increases, however, we are looking at our costing for one hour shoots because of the editing time as well as the travel from our home in Sussex Inlet.
Question 2
How much do you think is a fair amount for a photographer to ask for a deposit?
30% - 37.5%
50% - 50%
No deposit - 0%
Payment upfront in full - 12.5%
We have only recently started taking deposits for regular bookings due to multiple cancellations. It disappoints us when we get cancelled at the last minute because we both have jobs outside this business and provide our availability based on our photography bookings. We have started taking small deposits so we can also give the booking to the client that secures the date with a payment.
Question 3
Which of these is most important to you?
Cheap price - 0%
Quality of photographs - 87.5%
Responsive service - 0%
Fast turnaround - 12.5%
This one did not surprise us, however we were curious if the clients wanting a fast turnaround are Real Estate Agents due to their need to list their properties. Fast turnaround was also key in the paparazzi industry, if you photographed a celebrity or event that was not exclusive you were competing with other agencies to sell your photos.
Question 4
Would you be likely to recommend our business to a friend or family?
Yes - 81.25%
No - 0%
Not sure - 18.75%
We hope the people that said "not sure" are because they haven't personally used our service.
Question 5
How do you like to receive your photos?
USB - 75%
Dropbox or Email - 6.25%
Printed - 18.75%
This question was probably the most useful. We currently provide most clients with their photos by email/ dropbox. We plan to use this information to make USBs available to all clients. Before now we haven't offered prints because we thought it would easier for clients to purchase them themselves. We have been doing a lot of test prints this month and are finally happy with a printer. We are in the process of finding out the rates we will pay based on volume. Once we achieve a cost effective way to purchase them we will offer this too. We want to make sure the client gets a great quality at an affordable price.
Question 6
What does this company do really well?
- Advertising on social media
- Photography and Marketing
- Photographs are lovely. Great use of social media. Havnt used your business yet but plan to in the very near future
- Continues advertisement of your work, promote response, and great quality photography
- Social Media
- Social media
- We were really happy with all aspects of our experience and can’t wait to see our images. The only thing we did comment on after is that you have possibly priced yourself too low for what you offer. We will be using against n for our family and business images.
- Amazing photo quality. Great social media advertising.
- Friendly personal service (& amazing work of course ??).
- Advertise on social. Havent had work done myself - but love your work you put up
- Take photos
- I like the friendly feel I get from social media
Thanks everyone!
Question 7
What does the company need to improve on?
- Building a client base & stronger reputation which comes with time
- Nothing i can think of
- Nothing
- Variety of photos/backgrounds and edits
- Nothing
- Not sure
- N/a
- Turnaround
- Nil
We are hopeful that our client base will continue to grow with time, agree!
The more shoots we do in different locations the more backgrounds we will have. This one is a bit tricky though when most clients email requesting to shoot somewhere they have seen our work. With the edits we have taken this on board and plan to start asking clients if they have any editing preferences.
The turnaround one has us stumped, this is what we are most proud of!
Question 8
How much do you think is a fair amount to charge for an 8 hour wedding?
$1500 - $2000 - 26.67%
$2000 - $2500 - 53.33%
More than $2500 - 20%
Less than $1500 - 0%
We are in the process of working out our new wedding pricing. We have been calculating how much editing is involved. Once we do a few more weddings we will work out an average and adjust accordingly.
Question 9
General comments or suggestions
- Love your work
- Your photography is amazing and I think you could do a price rise as I believe your photos and time is worth more they are beautiful and the distance travelled also needs to be accounted for in cost (you drove to the valley for us that’s a fair distance). Your a nice guy I think you might be selling yourself short (being to cheap)
- Keep up the good work
- N/A
Question 10
When you can't see a photographers pricing you think it's because:
- They will try hard to make you book once you enquire - 0%
- They are too expensive - 66.67%
- They need to tailor a price to your specific needs - 33.33%
We are so torn with this one! We do need to tailor our pricing to the specific job with some categories however a lot of our bookings are based on time. We are planning to work out our 2018 pricing and put it back up soon once our promotions end.
Thank you to everyone that completed our survey, we appreciate it. If you ever have any feedback send us an email info@samuelwhitephoto.com we would love to hear from you!
