SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

Sarcastic Saturday - Ten of the Best Ways to Lose Customers

2/27/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
© alswart
It's time to bring back one of my most favorite topics - great ways to lose customers!

Here's what I see -  Every day I read comments from people on Facebook as they share ideas about the challenges of running a business. Then I look at dozens of websites each week that are half-baked. I keep running into people who are "two tacos short of a combo!"  So, I might as well stay with a food theme this morning. Many of you have contributed to an entire recipe book, not on cooking but ways to confuse your audience and lose business.

In my efforts to establish Sarcastic Saturday as a national holiday, here are some guidelines to totally screw up your business, brand and target audience. If you're shooting for brand recognition from all your competitors, just follow these guidelines. 

  • Don’t give people a way to talk to you! I keep seeing websites where photographers refuse to share a contact phone number!  ​
  • Show your clients everything you’ve ever photographed.  Good or bad, everybody knows the best way to attract clients is to show them you know how to focus.
  • Use your about section to talk all about your awards and how you got started! That’s sure to have people beating down your door.  Besides, if you have a few awards, even if they go back to sixth grade, that should impress people a lot more than opening your heart.
  • How about listing every testimonial you can think of?  Don't forget to include something from your mother too. A dozen well-written testimonials should be at least as effective as Sinéad O'Conner doing a commercial for Loreal hair products.
  • Don’t take the time to proofread anything you’ve written!  Your target audience already knows you're smart why be a show-off?
  • Confuse your audience a little more by calling yourself a professional and show mediocre images anybody’s Uncle Harry could create!  It's about quantity anyway, and you've got more images than anybody's relatives.
  • When people do contact you, don't bother to call them back right away. After all, it's the weekend, and you worked hard all week.  Hey, I get it, if you call back too soon they'll think you're not busy and, in turn, question why.  It's best to let them wait a week before you return their call or answer their email.
  • Argue with any client who's unhappy. I understand this one. If you let them get away with it, then they'll just come back and do it again. Besides, they're wrong, and you're right, and they need to learn that.
  • Use your blog to talk about anything you want regardless of its relevance to your readers. That drunken bachelor party you went to last week was a kick, and it's fun to write about. Besides, those Moms who you want to trust you with their kids for some portrait work live boring conservative lives and need to spice things up a little.
  • Talk first and listen later! Hey, we all know consumers don't know what they want, and they've come to you to hear about what they need. So, don't waste any time and just let them know what you can do for them. No questions, let's just cut to the chase and impress them with your ability to communicate. 

Just to wrap it up, this has been a kick to write, but there isn't a single one of the ten points that I haven't seen examples of on some of the Facebook forums, many websites or live conversations. You're in a word-of-mouth business with deep roots in communication, great customer service and exceeding client expectations. It's about your heart, passion and love for the craft. If you're close to any of the points above, then step back and figure out what you need to do differently. 

Stop making it easy for your competitors to grow their business!
2 Comments
Joe B
2/27/2016 11:54:58 am

The absolute quickest way for a business to tick me off and want to never EVER use them is to have an e-mail link and never get back to me! Why bother to have it?

Reply
anthony link
3/3/2016 03:27:42 pm

Could not agree with this more. Glad to see you say something like this. Been down this road more than once with customers and employees.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Your walk is just a click away
    Picture
    Picture

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 130 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Alzheimer's
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Business Breakthroughs
    Clean Up Series
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    F64 Lunch Bunch
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    Hump Day
    In The News
    Lessons Learned
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mark's Corner
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
Photofocus

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us