One of our favorite burger joints is Five Guys.
Partly because they have free peanuts while you wait.
When Jordan was a little boy, his dad used to get a bag of peanuts every time they went to a game together, so it gives him the warm and fuzzies.
Like father like son, Jordan hustles to that pile of peanuts every time we walk into F
Here’s another reason we think Five Guys are business geniuses:
The first time we ate there…
They did something we’d never seen ANY restaurant do.
They called our number.
So we stepped up to the counter.
(And waited like puppies)
Then…
We witnessed something amazing.
We haven’t been the same since.
“The fry guy” filled a white paper cup with french fries.
He set the full cup of fries in a brown paper bag.
And then… like Manna from Heaven…
He filled the metal scooper with a second HEAPING serving of steaming hot french fries.
AND POURED IT IN *OUR* BAG.
You should’ve seen us!
We got BONUS FRIES, Y’ALL!
Is because we got MORE than we expected.
That’s really rare in business.
If we would’ve gotten *exactly* what we expected, would it have still been a good experience?
YES.
Would we tell everyone we know about it?
Probably not.
It took our second or third visit to catch on that EVERYONE gets “bonus fries” at Five Guys! It’s part of their business model!
So the question is…
How can we take our client experience from good to GREAT so that our clients can’t help but RAVE about us to their family and friends?
By doing exactly what Five Guys
UNDER PROMISE AND OVER DELIVER.
One of the most common questions we get from new photographers is this:
The truth is…
For every photographer, the answer is different.
It *has* to be different.
Because every photographer is different.
When we were new photographers, we didn’t have the skill and experience to rep out as many high quality images during a session as we can now.
The important thing is this…
Tell your clients to expect a number of images you are POSITIVE you can deliver on.
Then, when you deliver the final gallery, beat that expectation and give them WAY MORE than you promised.
For example, if you’re a portrait photographer and you know you typically deliver 100 images per session, tell your client to expect 50 final images and then deliver 100.
(You don’t have to double the number by the way. Promising 50 and then giving them 60 is also very exciting and still accomplishes the goal!)
But Amy and Jordan, isn’t that LYING?
No, it’s good business.
It’s protecting yourself.
And it’s serving your clients well.
– Bad weather
– An uncooperative child
– Wardrobe malfunction
We’ve seen it all.
By setting an expectation you’re positive you can beat no matter what happens at the session or wedding, you’re creating an environment where your clients will feel so EXCITED and GRATEFUL because they’ll ALWAYS feel like they got more than they paid for.
Just like how WE feel at Five Guys.
Except don’t deliver your images in a brown paper bag.
would get your clients talking, but not in a good way…
The most important thing to remember? Give them those BONUS FRIES, y’all!
STYLE GUIDE
One of the best ways we set expectations for our clients and make sure they LOVE their photos is with our style guide that we send before their session! You can learn more about that here if you want to do that too!
