YOUR CLIENTS DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU CARE ABOUT.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 11:58AM They care about: their wedding, their future, their first home, their first child, paying for dinner for 200 people, whether their dress will fit, whether the cake will look like they imagined it would. They care about whether people will like the centerpieces, if they're going to cry when they see each other. They care about how they will look in a bathing suit on the honeymoon.
They care about getting tan for the wedding. They care about whether the escort cards look right, and who should sit with who at the wedding. They care about how they can afford everything they want. They care about what people will think of their wedding. They care about themselves.
They don't care about: your website, your blog, your twitter status, the award you won that really everyone won but you pretend like it's a big deal anyway. They don't care about the type of camera you shoot with. They don't care if you shoot RAW or JPG. They don't care about your new brand, or your letterpress cards. They don't care about the new logo and the colors you spent hours trying to get just right.
They DO care about whether or not they trust you. They care about whether they believe you can help them remember the way they feel at their wedding. They care about whether you'll do what you say you'll do. They are about whether or not you'll add fun to their wedding day, or whether you'll be a drag.
All those other things - the things we care about so much - are meaningless to clients. Sure, they matter. Sure, a professional website helps build credibility. Sure, L series lenses with big apertures help us produce amazing images. Sure, letterpress business cards are impressive. But all of it is meaningless because everyone is focused on these things - except the client. All of your competition has the same "stuff."
The question we forget to ask ourselves is: what do our clients really care about? Why don't we spend more time caring about those things? Can you imagine what your business might look like if your clients felt like you REALLY cared about them - and the things they care about? Can you imagine what might happen if you spent more time thinking about your clients, and less time thinking about "strategies" to get them to give you more money?
You should care about what your clients care about. You should care about them.
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Reader Comments (3)
Lots of good points here but to play 'devils advocate', everyone's different and everyone places different importance on different things. When I client calls or emails and says "I loved your website", guess what, they DO care about your website. Granted not as much as you do, but still it adds value to your first impression. Also, clients might not care about that arbitrary award, but they DO care about the client reviews that got you that meaningless award.
On the other side, I am 100% behind you that the client experience really is based upon inter-personal relationships and you can have the greatest blog, website, marketing pieces in the world, but if you are an uppity jerk or an artist on a pedestal you are going to lose... big time. To go a bit further, I definitely see a veil of pretension and phoniness in a large section of the industry (which might've been the genesis of your post?).
In the end, this is a business, but with such an intimate, sensitive event like a wedding, there needs to be a comfort level and trust. And the only way to do that is to treat wedding clients like people and not just an account. Get to know them and show them that you care, which can be done with a simple "How's it going" email that has nothing to do with their contract or balance or wedding. That's how we're doing it and only time will tell if we've done it effectively
Great post, this blog is a tremendous resource, thanks!
Great points. My thoughts were mostly around the idea that most of your competition has a great website, with great images. They have the gear and the awards. Those things don't set you a part. On the other hand, most of those same businesses are very much focused on themselves (building things that don't really matter), instead of focused on the things their client cares about.
Further, I would also suggest that even that client you mentioned, might care about something deeper than your website. Maybe they care about the sense of confidence they get, or the sense of trust that those little things build. They care because they're making a huge decision and they want to know that you can relate to them - and that you're professional.
Thanks for chiming in!