With Laura Esmond

Hello and welcome back to the podcast you are with Laura Esmond. I know I mentioned a little bit ago that I'm planning on changing the name to the podcast, but as you can see, it's been a couple of weeks, still not there yet. We're gonna get there eventually. So today we are going to walk through my full session experience,

Have you ever found yourself wondering if you are truly doing enough? To make your clients feel genuinely seen and cared for, maybe you've had that little worry. Did I forget something? Was that moment as polished and thoughtful as it could be? Maybe the night before a session you realized a few things you forgot to communicate?

I know I felt that way, and that's why I depend on a system. That I have honed for the last couple of decades to make sure that my clients feel really cared for. Some are automations that take my hands off. I just know that those things are, you know, have kind of a safety net underneath them. But some steps are hands-on or very intentionally, hands-on because I wanna ensure that my client is building trust in me as their family photographer.

If you've ever felt that way, this could be the month that you could make a big difference in your business, where every step of your client experience begins to feel intentional and seamless and elevated without necessarily adding more to your plate. In fact, in my years of business, I've realized that everything is easier with a system, a next step, and even easier when some of those steps are automated.

So today I am walking you through exactly how I craft a full hands-on portrait experience from the first inquiry to that final goodbye. The goal is to show my clients that they're an expert hand. Every step of the way and to do it with ease to just make it look effortless.

The session experience starts long before the camera ever comes out. It's in the first email. Those little cues, those little tiny confirmations that are basically saying like, you're safe. I've got you. You're gonna look beautiful. You're kids are in good hands. My client experience is built with care and also automation so that no detail is dropped.

My ideal client, I know values, professionalism, and something that warmth, right? Friendship and ease. They need all of those things, and of course, beautiful images, but this is more about you know, what they're feeling and what they're seeing as they go through the experience of creating those images. She wants to feel like everything is handled, that she can trust me with styling, suggestions, caring for her children.

And creating beautiful images. So establishing that trust along the way is key. Here are those steps that I take to make sure my clients know that I care about their family, that I care about how the images turn out, and I care about their legacy while building her trust. So number one is the inquiry stage.

When someone inquires your tone, sets the tone. So my first response, I want to be warm and informative and engaging, uh, but also as quick as possible. One thing that I used to say to the, the girls that that worked for me who answered the phone was, please smile. Always smile when you answer the phone.

Because honestly, when you're smiling, it changes your tone. You actually start to speak differently, and that is part of the tone that we are setting. my preference is to start with a phone call. I feel as though this shows my clear interest in working with this new client. Some weeks though are busier than others.

I will say I have a few businesses that I'm running at, you know, a tangent to also being a mom, and so if it's going to take a data call, I will go ahead and send an email. Working with me is an investment though, and I understand that, so I'm willing to spend a little time on the phone getting to know them, and then walking them through the best investment option based on what they actually want.

At this point, I want to have on hand an inquiry response email. No matter when I'm gonna send that out, it's going to go out at some point. A link to pricing. So something that looks really professional and polished, that's very, very easy to consume. It doesn't have too many words, isn't overly explained.

And then a follow up email in case we do get on that phone call together. So that would be two different emails. You've got the inquiry response email that would go out if I didn't talk on the phone. And a follow up email if we do get on the phone, because that might have a booking link in in there. And these e emails, they do start as templates because so much of the information is repeated.

So that just saves me time. But then I do go in and edit the response based on either what we talked about or what they referenced in their inquiry form when they filled out that form. These pieces are so important for being a quick responder. If I didn't have those details worked out already and those templates created, I would freeze literally every time and not be able to respond as quickly like.

If something is repeatable, if you're doing something over and over again, then it should be templatized and then you can customize it beforehand. To keep booking easy, I try to keep my availability up to date so they can book through a booking link. So once someone is ready to book, I don't want to go back and forth.

I want them to see my calendar, be able to just pull it up and compare it to theirs and easily book me online. So at the bare minimum, you do need to have a scheduler, in my opinion. I don't personally use a CRM. Some people think that that's crazy of me, that I've been a business this long and I don't have one.

But I created my system, but it's a little system that I use before, there were affordable CRMs in the market for photographers and have just never seen a good enough reason to switch. I only because it is lot of work to switch over 20 years of a business into a CRM. That said though, if I were starting out today or even just a few years into business, I would absolutely use a formal CRM.

After a lot of research on this, I would probably go with Sprout because it's integrated so many different pieces of the business, it's going to save you a lot of money. That said. It seems as though there isn't really one CRM that's absolutely perfect. So you just kind of have to take it for, for what it does give you.

For my scheduler, I use acuity scheduling. That's really, really similar to, I think it's called session or use session that some people use. I think they're pretty similar and it has just enough features to keep me happy, for creating all those automations. Having my schedule just ready and available for people.

All of those emails are in there. I had a monthly membership in there where I was charging clients every single month for a membership that they were on. So it had just enough features in there to keep me happy, and in fact, I know it's got all kinds of other things I could integrate.

But again, haven't felt a need to do that quite yet. Okay. Back to the inquiry stage. If I have a client on the phone, I will ask to book their session right there, but if they aren't ready, that's okay. I go back to a follow up email, and I send the booking link with recommended dates.

So we've probably already worked through at least a couple of dates that are going to work best based on whether they're pregnant or they're. Photographing newborn or family, and you know, I'm gonna recommend times based on their ages. So I do put those recommended things in there. I actually do prefer my clients to go ahead and book their own session through that link because my questionnaire is tied to the booking.

It's all one step. Again, that's just another way I am able to keep my process as clean as possible. One thing that's always been really important to me, as a business owner, but also as a consumer, I don't love back and forth. I don't wanna go back and forth with people, so whenever I possibly can, I want to put that information into an email and be like, here it is.

Just, you can go ahead and book it right away. Once they are booked, they receive an automated confirmation email that's tailored to the session that they booked. So newborn clients get a newborn email, maternity gets maternity details. I include an overview of next steps, a link to scheduling a planning call, as well as a link to maybe a blog post and a planning guide once the official booking comes in.

I read through that questionnaire to see if anything stands out that I need to address right away, but this gives me a good idea of what they want from the session. Maybe a few more details beyond what we talked about on the phone, plus kids' names, ages, and other little details. If this is a brand new client, we always do a planning call.

My return clients tend to get pretty comfortable and they already feel great about the process. They kind of have an idea of styling, and so they'll just text me with styling questions or photos of, you know, something they're planning on wearing. but new clients I want to get to know better. I want to get to know them on a more intimate level, understand their family, and so I make sure that we get this scheduled.

So on this call we will talk about styling, we'll talk about kids' temperament and anything I need to know that will help me work well with them. I talk about preparing the family, you know, things like making sure kids eat a meal before the session. I. All the logistics, where to go, all of those things.

Helping even getting a spouse on board. You know, sometimes I've got a mom that's like, my husband is so not into this, and so I tell her a couple of things to help put him at ease. I have actually found that a lot of spouses really love working with me. Just something about the way I flow through a session, they're like, yeah, that did actually seem really easy.

So I always let them know that a lot of this is in the guide that they get at booking, in that booking confirmation. But the call is. Here so that I can personally communicate with them. There's something about hearing somebody's voice, and again, I'm looking to build trust, and so when I'm speaking these things to them versus them just reading it, it becomes so much more real.

okay, this is a real person that does actually have my, my back. It also gives them a chance to ask questions, obviously. And then we, we'll also talk about printing and hanging, what plans they have for the photos and I'm able to give suggestions. I really spend some time in this space.

Helping them understand that digitals are not a complete product and that print is a big part of my service. I want to take a client from the beginning all the way to the end,

then I also share that after the session we will get together to view and select images and, and purchase artwork. I don't schedule that ordering meeting until we're at the session. I'll get to that in a second. For automations during the planning timeline, they're getting the style guide, they're getting directions to the session and they're getting session reminders.

All of that goes out automatically, so nothing gets missed along the way. I always send directions typically that I think it goes out the. The day before or maybe two days before, I want that to be at the top of their email, and then also in Acuity, I can send out a text message that goes out the night before a session.

That way, it's right at the top of their text thread and they can just click the link to get directions to my studio. And then we get to the session. So from the moment they arrive, my goal is just to create calm, you know, their anxiety is probably up, even if they don't realize it, their nervous system is like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be photographed and I don't know if my smile's gonna look good and I don't feel amazing.

my kids are feeling crazy, or, whatever it may be that they had a whole story before they showed up and walked in my door. And so my goal. Is to make sure they just feel calm. I've got waters out. I don't bring out any snacks or anything until the session is over. Because I don't want crumbs all over.

I do have little wipes there for kids to wipe their mouths. I have nail polish remover in case somebody has a little tattoo that they did the day before and they hadn't had a chance to take it off. If I have kids in the session, I like to get down to eye level and talk to them and give them a lot of love.

And I try to read the room, you know, is this child feeling really nervous? I will go slowly. If they're full of energy, I will match their energy and that really. Helps to reassure the parents that, okay, we're in good hands. this woman knows what she's doing. So I gently guide them. I don't ever want them to feel lost.

I leave room for, you know who they are. I, I let the parents know beforehand. If your kids get a little wild, that's okay. You know, oftentimes I'm photographing a toddler with a newborn. And maybe I'm setting up mom and dad for a few photos and I'm like, we are just gonna let that toddler run in and out of these pictures and, you know, I will guide some of it.

But if, if your child throws themselves outta your arms and wants to get down for a minute, that's okay. I'll tell them to run in circles around the couch for a minute and then jump back in. It's far better to let a child lead in that way versus forcing it. So that is something that we talk about. Pretty consistently throughout the entire process.

My clients often note that they loved the guidance. They really like how calm I am and how good I am with their kids and babies. And honestly, that is the ultimate compliment. It really is. I almost like that even better than when they say they like the images. And I love, love, love to hear when kids say sometimes they're walking out the door.

And of course I always give a little lollipop. I've thought about getting like a little basket of, like little toys. But my, the kids that have been coming to me consistently, they know about the lollipop, so I'm just sticking with that. But I love when they're walking out the door and they look up to mom and they're like, I wanna come back here.

That was fun. Or like, they don't wanna leave the session. That is the absolute best. and then sometimes I'll hear mom say to me like, oh, that was such a great experience, but I'm often thinking to myself at that point, great, but we are only halfway there. We still have some work to do. So before they walk out the door, I tell them exactly what to expect next.

So, you know, they're packing up. I give them a minute to start packing up and, I start to talk about booking that ordering meeting. I share how excited I am for them to see these images that I am going to come to their home. I'll make it as easy as possible. And I will also give them a chance to view products that are displayed in the studio, point out what they've expressed an interest in.

If I am not in the studio. I will often bring just a couple of things to a session that I'll just have in a box in the back of my car. So when we're maybe walking from, you know, where we were photographing. If we're on location outside, I'll bring them to my car. and I'm like, Hey, we had talked about.

Doing an album, or we talked about wanting some framing. here are a couple of the frame options that I have and I'll just have some framed corners. Sometimes I even have a framed print in the car so they can see what that looks like, particularly if they were looking for like that floating torn edge look.

I want them to, to really get to feel that and see it. If we're photographing in the home, I'll just bring it into the home. It's just a small box with a couple of things. And I will even bring, if it's in the home, I'll even bring a handful of frame corners. I want them visualizing this as quickly as possible.

So we talk about it in the planning call. We have a moment to think about this even deeper, right after the session. And we book that ordering meeting. Now, right when they book the ordering meeting, they are going to get an automated email that goes out preparing them as well as a reminder email that goes out two days before.

So I don't send sneak peeks of images. I really like to save the excitement for a meeting, so I don't do the sneak peek thing on Instagram. I might, if I'm really excited and my client has been, texting with me a bit, my clients by the way, always have. My cell phone, I don't use my studio phone at all.

In fact, I'm waiting for my contract with my phone system to expire so I can just remove that. So they always have my cell phone. They can reach out to me at any point. I am perfectly fine ignoring it if they text me at nine o'clock at night and I just respond in the morning. But anyway, if I've got a client who's been texting with me a fair amount, I will absolutely.

Take a couple, literally just photograph my screen sharing like, oh my gosh, can you believe this image? Or look at this smile. Or do you remember this moment? and it's really more tied to what we shared in this session and maybe a moment that, that we all laughed really hard or a moment that looked really difficult, but it turned out beautiful.

And so I share a couple things like that. What I tend to not do. Is share a reel or a collage, mainly because I really wanna conserve that excitement for the ordering meeting. Okay, so moving on to the actual ordering meeting By this point, it, it's very simple. We have touched on products often enough that they really, they usually know exactly what they want.

they view the images, they take a look at what I predesigned, I. Then we are just selecting images for the pre-design and it's very straightforward. I might measure a wall or photograph it to drop into fundee to make sure measurements are right, especially if we're designing something that's a bit more in, you know, it has a lot more images in it.

If something has more than, say, two or three images, I'll photograph the wall and we'll do the measurement and they can see it on there. But it's funny because photographers are always so interested in seeing an ordering meeting. I think they believe that something magical is being said here, but selling products actually happens way before this meeting.

It is something that is slowly planted over time. It's one of the reasons, one of the reasons that I named my signature group coaching program get rooted. Was because I'm like, okay, all along the way, we're rooting this whole idea. We're rooting our business, we're rooting our sales system.

All of these things they have to take root by the time you get to an ordering meeting. That's the magical part. And so once you start talking about products with your clients and create a system around them and a conversation around them, then they show up to the ordering meeting. Very ready.

At this point, they just view the images, review options, pick favorites, and place the order. So other than the excitement of the slideshow, the ordering appointment, it should be pretty straightforward. It's kind of dry. It's just sort of let's, let's get the order placed. So before leaving, then. I do let them know approximately when they can expect artwork and digitals to arrive.

Then I make sure, and this is the important part, I make sure to take those dates that I quoted and I put them into the system. So I use Asana to track my orders. I just use the free version of Asana. I put in my client's order, I also have my printout. I put a due date and that due date is the time that I told my client that I think that they'll be ready.

That way if something gets delayed, let's say something shows up, broken or not perfect or my vendor's backed up and I look at my timeline and go, Ooh, they're okay. I'm gonna be on the later end of this timeline, or I'm gonna be two weeks late. I can then reach back out to my client and let them know.

I think that is just part of good service. Things do happen with orders, and so that communication is really key just to make sure that you're resetting the expectation with the client. And then once their order is ready, I offer to deliver an install, which is a bit of work, but so worth that.

It's actually one of my. Favorite parts? probably the favorite part because they're excited about what they did. They see this beautiful investment in their home. it's usually when they talk about, how grateful they are because it's done. They're so glad they didn't go with just the digitals because they would still be just sitting on a computer.

They wouldn't be enjoying them yet. They definitely recognized, yeah, I probably would've printed a couple of five by sevens and maybe a holiday card. And when you think about how expensive those five by sevens and holiday card was based on the fact that they had to buy the digitals to get there. Oh my word.

I mean, it's just that not a smart investment. Whereas now they're looking at this beautiful thing in their home and they think, okay, that makes sense. That is a good investment. Okay, that's it. That is my entire system that I use to walk my clients through.

What I have found is that when I treat every part of the session, each little part is an opportunity just to care. Right, just to care about their goal, what they're looking for, that excitement and the love and that bursting feeling that you have in your heart and you just wanna capture it, that doesn't just lead to beautiful photos.

It does, but it's also when I show how much I care, I'm building trust and that leads to loyal clients. It leads to referrals. People often ask me, do you have a referral system? And I say, no. I mean, my only referral system is just treating each of my clients with so much care that they want to refer their friends to me.

If this episode helped you see new ways to elevate your own client experience, I'd love to hear which step you're going to tweak first. You can screenshot this episode and tag me with your favorite takeaway. I would love to see that. And if you are feeling overwhelmed by your business, it might be time to lean into hiring a mentor.

I have just a spot or two left for mentoring during this winter spring season. So if you're interested in elevating your selling strategy, your pricing, your marketing, but really need accountability and you need to be able to ask questions and get answers quickly, let's start a conversation.

You can reach out by going to laura esmond.com/mentor. I hope you all have a great week, and I will see you next time.