16 Steps In Answering A Customer Inquiry - Hello, David Ziser Photography. This is Jen.

One of my readers a few weeks ago wrote asking if I could cover some "client side" topics in [B]Business Day Thursday. Your wish is my command - here is the first in a series. Enjoy!

16 Steps In Answering A Customer Inquiry:

1. Never answer the phone only giving the company name.
2. Always follow the company name with your.
3. Wait for the client to respond and if it's an inquiry for services read on.
4. Thank the caller for the call.
5. When the caller inquires as to price, inquire as to how they heard about the studio.
6. If the referral is from someone the studio is acquainted with, then reminisce with the caller about the referral - i.e. I remember Maria's wedding. It was beautiful. I remember one of my favorite images was..., etc.
7. If not, ask what the caller's budget is. (Notice how we haven't volunteered the prices yet - we are just doing our homework at this point.)
8. If the caller's figure is within our price structure, we quote from our least expensive to our best coverage and invite the caller to come in for a visit.
9. If the caller has not volunteered a budget number yet we still quote from our least expensive to our best coverage and ask if that's within the caller's budget. (That's called a "trial close.") If they say yes, we invite them in for a visit. If no, we ask, "How close are we." If we are pretty close, the caller gets the invitation to come in and visit.
10. In any event, we ask for the caller's name and address so that we can send out our information packet. (See DPT story Building Your Business - Part 3 right here on Press Kits.)
11. Ask if we can follow up in a few days to see if they have any questions and do so if we haven't heard back from them.
12. Ask the caller for their e-mail address so we can send them some e-samples of our work. Invite them to share our e-mail collage of images with their fiance, family, and friends.
13. Thank them for the call and the phone visit and wrap the call reminding the caller to feel free to call back at any time with any other questions.
14. Follow up at least three times, until the potential client makes a studio appointment, or tells us they have booked someone else.
15. If they have booked someone else, ask about the possibility of doing an "Engagement Portrait" session and remind them of the other photographic services we offer.
16. End all phone conversations with a pleasant, positive, warm wishing "Good-Bye"

There you have it folks. That's how we do it at David A. Ziser Photography. I'll cover some more "Client side" topics down the road, but for now, I've got a phone call to take.

See you tomorrow. -David