Event Photo Mechanics: Service with a Smile

More often than not, I will tell them that I am a programmer or that I "make software". Most don't understand what Event Photography is let alone the need for Event Photography software for the industry. They usually explain to me what it is that they do and then the conversation shifts to another topic. If you've read this far, then you should know that I haven't been honest with these people, at least, not completely honest.

Allen Christopher obviously develops Event Photography Software, but I would bet that our customers would agree that we deliver stellar customer service. We look at ourselves as a service company that makes software, meaning that we give equal attention to the relationship we have with our customers as we do to developing the software itself.
We begin our definition of "customer service" from the care and effort we put into each page on our site, the handling of questions from potential customers and long-time customers alike, to the refactoring of our code in our applications. In essence, the idea of great customer service defines every aspect of what we do.

Some Guidelines to Great Customer Service

Create Multiple Avenues of Contact
There are so many ways to stay in touch with your base. We leverage as many services as we can: Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Skype, and Email accounts. While we do take phone calls, we tend to reserve them for:

• Paid Service Accounts.
• Urgent issues.

In most cases, it is far easier and efficient to communicate through other channels. More often than not, we find that phone support slows down the process for us as well as for the customer. There are some that insist on a phone call and we do not object, but rather schedule a call and limit the time frame for each call.

Listen Carefully
We get a lot of email and sometimes it is difficult to "read between the lines". Some will attempt to convey an idea but their true want or need may be something entirely different. Some make feature requests that are great, others that would serve but a single customer. In every case, we do our best to stand in the shoes of the customer. If you learn to do this well, opportunities will seem to come in every direction.

Have Patience
Even though we tend to come off as easy-going and approachable, we are pretty hard-core techies here at Allen Christopher. When your understanding of a subject surpasses the average level of comprehension, you need to be aware of this when communicating with others. Our customers do not need to be expert Mac or Windows users nor do they need to understand our chroma key algorithm, but are the very same people who will come across a bug in our apps or contact us for technical assistance. Having patience with people and listening can sometimes be difficult when you have to start from square-one. Just remember: you're the expert, that's why they're calling you.

Be Sincere
I recall a phone conversation with a customer who had asked me a question about our software that I couldn't answer, because I hadn't contemplated the scenario he had on-hand. My response was: "I don't know off-hand, but will find out." After our conversation was finished, I researched the question a little further and emailed him the answer. Simple, right?

Our belief in what we do at Allen Christopher drives us. When we say, "Our software is great" or "it's a pleasure to assist", we sincerely mean what we say. We want to help our customers achieve great results with our event photography software and we certainly want them to prosper.

Take a genuine interest in your customer's needs. In a world of products and less-than-adequate customer service, there is an opportunity to tower above your competition.

So ask yourself: how can you provide stellar service to your client base?