My BFF, Tori Kelner, and I recently hosted Do The Most Workshop; a workshop for photographers and creatives all about client experience! Check out our promo video above by our besties, ToneMedia! Our workshop took place at Hitched at Turkey Trac Farms in Millville, NJ from December 9-11, 2019! Client experience is something that Tori and I are both super passionate about, and we were so excited to put together an in-person experience to teach other photographers and creatives how to level up their own client experience!
We approached teaching on client experience from a three pillar perspective: Communication, Client Gifting, and In-Person Interactions/Conducting a Shoot. I’m so excited to share this little recap of our workshop with you guys!
Meet & Greet
We kicked off the workshop with an ice cream sundae meet & greet evening event on December 9th. We had an ice cream sundae bar & “miMOSTa” bar, and our attendees joined us for a couple hours to get to know each other, and get PUMPED for our upcoming content days! 🙂
Day 1: Communication & Client Gifting
We started Day 1 off bright and early the next morning with a light breakfast and head shots for all of our attendees! Then we kicked it into high gear diving into a ton of content!
Communication is a HUGE part of any client experience, and is weaved in throughout so many other areas. We started off talking about all things communication. From social media presence, to website navigation, email templates, and consultations…communication is a massive through-line in client experience, and super important maintain consistency with.
After breaking for lunch we kicked off our client gifting section (one of my faves)! To give an idea of our gifting process, Tori and I both like to give several gifts throughout our time working with our wedding clients, but what makes our gifting different is that every single gift has a purpose and intention to give our clients an amazing experience from start to finish.
We shared examples, and talked through our gift-giving strategy and the heart behind it all.
Then, with our gifting strategy worksheet, we worked through developing and refining a specific client gift for each attendee, from brainstorming and vague ideas all the way to execution and packaging! We loved helping everyone come away with a tangible, repeatable strategy to create thoughtful client gifts that they could implement right away!
After breaking for dinner, we reconvened for a special late night activity! In the spirit of gifting and packaging, we thought it would be awesome to learn a skill set that our attendees could apply to their client gifts! The incredible Alli Cat Calligraphy came and taught a class on faux calligraphy, to help with addressing envelopes, writing on gift tags, etc.! Those little details are key in elevating the look of your gift packaging! 😉
Day 2: Shooting/In-Person Interactions
The third pillar of our client experience workshop was all about conducting a photo shoot/in-person interactions! We covered everything from how we make people feel comfortable in front of our camera, how to direct poses (we even gave a little posing demo hehe), addressed specific posing pain points and questions, and so much more.
To let our attendees put it all into practice, we organized a styled shoot! This allowed our attendees to watch us interact with a real couple, see how we talk to them, listen to our posing direction, the language we use, etc. Then we made sure to give time for each attendee take a turn at leading and directing the couple themselves!
We worked with an all star team of vendors to put together a gorgeous winter wedding shoot, and it’s safe to say, I’m obsessed with how it all came out! Below are some of the images I took during the styled shoot! At the bottom of the post you’ll find all of our amazing vendors for the shoot, and our workshop sponsors!!
From Our Attendees
With DTM workshop, we wanted to emphasize the ‘why’ behind going above and beyond for your clients, which, in turn, creates raving reviews and word-of-mouth referrals that continue for years to come! We’ve seen firsthand how this process has impacted our attendees! A few of our favorite responses were:
“It was great hearing about gifting because I had little to no experience with it. I am so happy with the brainstorming because I got a specific gift in mind that I want to send and I know I never would’ve found that if I hadn’t gone to DTM!” – Jessah
“I loved hearing your workflow from the beginning to end. It gave me more direction in a place I’ve been feeling lost and overwhelmed. I also loved hearing all the thought you put into your clients. I’ve heard a lot about “standing out in a saturated market” and yet surprisingly haven’t heard as much about showering your clients with so much love. I feel like I learned to constantly push myself to be better for my clients. Whether it’s taking the time to learn about my website glitches or taking the time to wrap up a gift for them. In some way or another everything I put into my business is a reflection of my dedication and love for my client. You not only did this by telling us how you treat clients, but you showed it to us in the way you showered us with love and gifts. You girls are amazing and I hope I can be that type of friend to my clients, fellow business owners, and friends as well. I left feeling so blessed, loved, and inspired. This was my final workshop of the year and undoubtedly the best one yet!” – Morgan
“This was so fun! Loved being able to see what you guys personally use for gifts for inspiration. It was also great to hear everyone else’s ideas and hearing your feedback was super helpful. I feel like I have a lot of solid ideas for gifts now 🙂 It’ll be a great way to “wow” clients. It also makes me happy to make them happy so I’m very excited to use all the info I learned and start gifting!” – Melissa
Styled Shoot
We are so grateful for all our workshop attendees! Thank you all for being a part of this workshop – you are all wonderful and we can’t wait to see all the big things ahead for you and your businesses!! And another HUGE thank you to all of our workshop partners, sponsors, and vendors who helped bring this dream to life!! THANK YOU!!!! We love you all!
VENDORS
Venue: Turkey Trac Farms
BTS Photographer: Tori Petrillo
Promo Video: ToneMedia
Dress: Vesa Dresses
Flowers: Cassandra Shah
Hair & Makep: Michelle Elise Artistry
Invitations/Paper Goods: Summit & Sage
Models: Ali & Keith
Rentals: Rustic Drift
Cake: Sweet T’s Bakeshop
BTS Video: Schoenfilms
Workshop Calligraphy Class: Alli Cat Calligraphy
WORKSHOP SPONSORS
Align Album Design
Greetabl
Showit
WHCC
Honeybook
