Txt messaging with clients, and why I don’t.
Our profession as family photographers is so relational that we become friends — or at least friendly — with so many of our clients. Becoming chummy with clients and developing new enriching relationships are real perks of the job… but can make it difficult to set some of the boundaries we need to nurture the health of our business.
One of the tougher areas for boundaries (the toughest being pricing and discounts) is how we communicate electronically with our clients about official photography stuff.
We all have a lot of platforms for electronic communication in our lives. Every social media platform has direct-messaging — Facebook, Instagram, Marco Polo, etc. — then there’s apps designed just for communication like WhatsApp and Slack and GroupMe… then there’s regular texting… and then last but not least: my preferred communication platform for all business correspondence, email. [Additionally, some of you may use a CMS (Content Management System) that hosts your client communications and sales funnel.]
That’s a lot of apps for just talking to people.
Trying to manage the inquiry/response cycle and other client correspondence on multiple communication platforms is, at best, extra for us to juggle and a little unprofessional — and at worst, it’s a recipe for letting things fall through the crack regularly.
So as crazy as this might sound in 2020, I do not answer inquiries or discuss actual session information or do other ‘official business’ via text, Facebook message or Instagram DM.
Why not?
I have enough chaos in my life. I have four kids and I run two businesses. My correspondence with clients is important to me. I don’t have it in me to keep tabs on important conversations via three extra communication platforms — and neither do you, especially if you hope to increase the volume of your inquiries. Keeping all of my business-related conversations on email is clutch for staying organized.
I think it is impossible to maintain a level of professionalism and an efficient communication workflow if the written communication is happening via casual messenger platforms. Call me old fashioned but I don’t think I should text with clients when a lot of my texting looks like this… (me on the right, my sister on the left)
But how?
I have to have a boundary somewhere so I can keep my business correspondence organized. For me, that boundary is that email is the only communication platform that I use for official photography correspondence. This can get a little tricky with existing clients and friends who text me about sessions. If I have a casual text conversation or social media convo going with them already, it’s natural for them to bring up photo sessions there too. I don’t email my friends about literally anything else, so emailing someone I know really well feels weird, like, why would I expect them to email me?? But when I am chatting as a friend with someone, I’m off the clock // and when I’m talking as a photographer about official business and photo sessions, I want to be at my desk, working, and able to respond as the professional that I am.
Of course, I still do get inquiries and session questions via text and DM — like, all the time — so I have friendly responses saved in my phone as a note that I can easily copy and paste to point people back to my preferred method of communication: my contact form and ultimately my email.
If you attended one of my workshops, you already have these… but I’ve got some sample text responses for when you start to get overwhelmed by texting or DM’ing about work. I hope this helps you get your client communication organized on one platform!
use mine as a template and create a new note on your phone that will help you point texting friends and clients to your email (or your CMS) in a friendly way.
In case you were wondering… If I text this response and they do not ever send me an email, I might follow up once (if I am not too scatterbrained and I remember to dig through my DM’s), but most likely I will assume they found someone else or aren’t much into the whole email thing, in which case, coordinating a session with me would not be the best experience for them and I am okay letting that potential session go.
Only you can determine where your boundaries are and how much time you are willing to spend tracking correspondence on multiple platforms, and at what point in your communication cycle you need to make it official and take it over to email or a CMS. I hope you’ll have an honest conversation with yourself about your bandwidth and your boundaries with regards to answering clients, to make sure you are using your time well, and nurturing a healthy business and a healthy you!
I hope this was helpful, and happy corresponding!!!
-Julie