Why are amazing workflows necessary for your photography business?
Well, you like offering your clients an amazing experience, right? As well as cut down on no-shows and last-minute cancellations. How about properly managing client expectations (e.g. your job isn’t to clean before a shoot)? And never forget to provide all the details to every client.
If you want all this and get back some of the time you spend on busy work — you need to create workflows for your photography business.
Curious how this all works? Read on to learn how to create workflows that amaze your new clients here!
Creating an Exceptional Experience for New Clients
Of course, we all want our new clients to have an AMAZING experience when they start working with us. This is part of what reassures the client that they’ve made the right decision by hiring us.
But that’s easier said than done a lot of times. When you have only a few clients, in the beginning, it can be fairly simple to keep track of them and make sure that each one is receiving the communication they should receive at the right time.
However, as your photography business grows, it will get harder to keep track of who you’ve told what. Plus, you’ll be spending more and more time on boring stuff like sending emails and contracts and less time on creating.
As a commercial and brand photographer, it’s very important to me that each of my new clients is wowed when they first start working with me.
The very foundation of my business is working with them on a recurring basis. I want my new clients so blown away by a great client experience, that it reinforces their decision to work with me in the first place.
I want to become their confidant and friend asap and a great onboarding process is an integral part of making this happen.
I teach all of this in my Brand Photographer’s Blueprint course, but this isn’t about me. This is about you and how you can create an exceptional and consistent experience for all your new clients.
Let’s talk about how we can automate your onboarding workflow in HoneyBook. Soon, your new clients will be cheering for you from their rooftop and telling all of their business owner friends about how blown away they are by working with you.
That’s exactly what you want!
5 Templates to Automate Your Onboarding Workflow in HoneyBook
The onboarding process starts even before they become a new client. In fact, the most important interactions are those that happen before your client has hired you. These are the interactions that will convince them to work with you…or turn them away.
HoneyBook makes this onboarding process simple through the use of templates. Create and tweak templates to reflect your brand voice and provide the information you need to convey to your clients.
When it comes time to send client information, all you have to do is choose the correct template and send it off. In many cases, you can also kick off a string of interactions based on when such-and-such happens, the program will this specific email. That means you don’t have to actively do a thing!
But we’ll get more into that later.
First, let’s look at some of my favorite templates to create that will automate the process in HoneyBook. These make it simple for you to create an exceptional client experience. Plus, it streamlines the process to make sure you don’t miss a thing!
PACKAGES
The package templates in HoneyBook make it super easy for you to show off your packages. Having clear, simple offerings you can show your clients speeds up the sales process. Plus, it makes sure you’re not leaving money on the table.
It takes the emotion out of sales too, which is super helpful for us creative types.
PROPOSALS / CONTRACTS
Using a template for your proposals and contracts will make sure you don’t miss a thing – even before they become a client. This will streamline your efforts and help you get back to your prospective client as quickly as possible.
Best of all this will set expectations for both you and the client. Plus, you look like a rockstar because you can get their proposal over to them right after hopping off the discovery call.
This means they get the information in hand while they’re still warm and thinking about how they need to hire a photographer.
Regardless, the faster you handle your side of things, the faster the client can move through the sales process. And if you know anything about selling, speed is important.
An onboarding email template is gold. In it, you can include a planning meeting scheduling link, a questionnaire to get to know them / their audience / and their brand better, a Pinterest board to collaborate with, and anything else you need.
Imagine how much time you’ll save when you don’t have to create new emails for every new client!
When drafting your template, remember to keep it simple. Use as few words as possible, but inject energy into the copy.
This is exciting after all! You want to bring the client in on that excitement to further reinforce their decision to work with you.
QUESTIONNAIRES
In commercial and brand photography, you need a certain amount of information about your client. Your images will be representing them and their brand, so you need to know a little something about them!
Questionnaire templates make this process easy. Create a questionnaire for each of your services so you can easily get to know your client better and get on the same page with them pronto.
SCHEDULING
The scheduling tool in HoneyBook isn’t exactly a template, but it is an invaluable asset. You can set up your scheduling link for the days/times you want to have certain meetings so your calendar doesn’t get overrun.
This way you’ll know which days you have onboarding meetings. You will show up in the groove and ready to blow every new client away!
Automating Your Onboarding Workflow
It takes a bit of time to set up all your templates. But once you have them established, this is when you can put the amazing power of automation to work for you.
Save yourself a ton of time and brain power by doing it once. Slowing down to speed up will absolutely be worth it.
For example, HoneyBook’s new Smart Files feature allows you to automate virtually the entire onboarding process. You can send one file that includes several steps of the process, instead of having to send individual files for each step.
Furthermore, the template can be customized to dynamically respond to each client. Thus, the client will receive the appropriate information based on the answers they give.
It’s an incredible way for you to offer each client a customized experience, without having to handle it all yourself!
Fun story: when I automated my business with HoneyBook, my closing percentage went from 50% to over 80%. I was able to get back to clients faster and I went from spending HOURS creating proposals down to a few minutes.
It streamlined my business so much, that I was able to get almost a week of my time back. I teach this and much more in the Processes phase of my Brand Photographer’s Blueprint course.
STEPS:
1) Create templates
2) Set up scheduling and availability
3) Understand your client flow
4) Build out your Smart Files for each client avatar/service
Customize for YOUR Business
Some people may not like the idea of automating these processes because they don’t want to lose the personalized touch for each client. But that’s the beauty of the streamlining features that HoneyBook offers. You can create workflows that automatically customize themselves for each client.
When set up properly, every client will receive the customized service they deserve and you get back the valuable time it takes to do it manually.
It is incredibly the best of both worlds!
So, how do you set up this process? First, you need to understand your client flow.
The first step is mutual qualification. This includes the research phase as well as initial contact.
From there, you move into the booking phase. This includes service selection, signing the contract, and making the first payment.
The next step is project management. This is where you execute the service and deliver the product.
Finally, you move into completion. In this stage, you will ask your client for a review or referral or hopefully renew the contract and jump back to the booking phase!
Once you understand your client flows, you need to think about the different directions each flow can take and set up your flows accordingly. Here are some questions each company should ask themselves to determine if the client flow is set up best for their creative business:
1) What touch points do I want to have with potential clients?
2) What do they need to know when they become a new client?
3) What expectations need to be set?
4) What scheduling links do I need to include?
5) What processes/steps need to happen for every new client?
6) What processes/steps are customized for each new client?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start building out your ideal client experience. You can also tweak these experiences at any time if necessary. It will take a little bit to get it all set up, but the hours you’ll get back from not doing this manually for each client will be totally worth it!
About Kassady
All right, now that you understand how HoneyBook can help you get back the precious hours of your week, I’d like to tell you a little more about me!
I was a derivative accountant back in the day, but I had never given up on my childhood dream of becoming a photographer. Once I did, I discovered an incredible creative business model that allows me to work the hours I want to work, while making the salary I want to make.
Of course, automating some of my tasks with HoneyBook is a big part of what frees up my time and I love it!
About Focus Creative & the Brand Photographer’s Blueprint Course
Now, I dedicate part of my time to helping other photographers learn how to run their businesses in a similar fashion. I’m tired of seeing discouraged photographers throw in the towel because they couldn’t get enough out of their photography business.
And that’s what my company Focus Creative is all about. You can come on board as a licensed photographer with Focus Creative to get all the resources, support, branding, and more that you need to build a successful photography business in your area.
Or you can take the Brand Photographer’s Blueprint Course to learn how to set up your creative business for success yourself. It will amaze you what you can do with the right information!
So, close those 17 YouTube video tabs on your browser and open the door to the exact information you need to make your business a success!
comments +