EPISODE 52 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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What would it take to turn your one-off clients into loyal superfans?
In this episode, I respond to a question from my guest expert in episode 26, family photographer & systems expert Dolly DeLong, who asked:
“How can I amplify my client journey and truly elevate the experience I give my photography clients?”
Whether you’re a photographer, designer, copywriter, or coach, this episode shows you how to rethink the client journey from first contact to post-delivery and infuse it with emotion, meaning, and retention magic.
Packed with practical examples (and totally systemisable ideas), it’s your go-to guide to building relationships that last.
What we cover:
What “amplifying the customer journey” really means (hint: not more noise)
How to map and elevate the “moments that matter” in your client journey
Dolly’s example: turning a typical photography experience into something unforgettable
How to use onboarding forms for more than admin — and actually spark loyalty
Bonus retention strategies for other service providers (including Bonjoro)
Soundbites:
“Map out your customer journey. That’s where it starts. Dissect what touch points your customer has with you from the first point of contact to delivery and beyond. And then identify the gaps. So where are there more opportunities? Where are you not answering key questions? Where are you not showing up in the right moments?”
“It’s not about adding more noise. It’s about being intentional and making space for more genuine connections. You want to have them feel supported and you want them to feel celebrated, not just like a number, not just like another client.”
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine Nethery (00:00)
How can I amplify my client journey and truly elevate the experience I give my photography clients? That’s a question my guest expert from episode 26, Dolly DeLong left me with. If you don’t know Dolly, Dolly is a successful family photographer. She also hosts an amazing summit.
which is exactly what we explored in episode 26. So if that’s something you’re interested in, make sure you tune in. And while Dolly knows how to look after her clients, she is a systems expert, a systems pro. She also knows that there’s always room for more. So in today’s episode, we are going to look at a few clever ways and a few practical ideas, how she can add those special touches and stand out from all the other family photographers.
If you’re now going Nadine, how does this apply to me as a service provider who doesn’t necessarily work with clients face to face in person? Hear me out because If you offer a service, you’re in a relationship business. Emotions are your currency
And this episode a hundred percent applies to you. So let’s start by defining what amplifying and improving your customer journey really means. It’s not about adding more noise. It’s about being intentional and making space for more genuine connections along the way. It’s also about looking at the key moments.
So the key moments that really matter on the customer journey and making those more meaningful. And what you want to do is make people feel seen. and you want them to feel celebrated, not just like a number, not just like another client. So in Dolly’s situation here, let’s start with her.
specific example and let’s take a closer look at a photographer’s client journey for example. So the usual process here goes something like this. Someone inquires, they like what they see, they book you, the shoot happens, they get a gallery and then there’s the goodbye because the shoot has happened, right? What if we turned it into something a little more personable, a little bit more engaging and a journey that doesn’t…
end after the shoot but invites for more. So something like this is what came to mind for me. So everything starts with the inquiry. We know that most of the time people reach out on your website they fill an inquiry form. What if you added one sneaky question here to find out your clients’ preferences for example you know their favorite lolly, their favorite type of baked goods and I’ll get to
why that is important down the track. You then follow that up with a personal welcome video. So something like Bonjoro. I know I’ve talked about Bonjoro previously, but it totally works. So send them a personal Bonjoro video telling them how excited you are to jump on a call with them and explore their options. Then once they’ve signed up, once they’ve caught up with you, pick that package,
they’ve paid their deposit, they get access to a client portal with outfit tips, mindset tips, personally as a mum of three, I know how stressful family shoots are. And any help you can give me to feel somewhat more relaxed about the process and somewhat more organized, I totally appreciate. So there could also be other ways to help prepare. So it could be deals for aligned brands in your area that
cater to your audience. like a cake maker. If they have a family celebration where you are the photographer, they might be looking for a caterer. It might be, a makeup artist if they want to take it up a notch. So have a look at your connections in the area, in your industry, and add this as added value. It’s totally unexpected. You don’t have to promote it, but it might just be that nice.
connection booster, you present them with a special deal and those brands you go into partnership with, they might then on the flip side also mention your name to their audience. So it’s that win-win situation for everyone, for you, for the collaborator and for your client. Then it comes to the shoot, right? People are prepared because you gave them all this extra information in the client portal.
And you will show up to the shoot with the kids favorite treat or their favorite baked goodie to make everything even more relaxed. The kids are happy because they’ve got their favorite. ⁓ and it made it so easy, right? Like you drop the question, they probably don’t remember you even asked them, but it’s just this magical moment. And the shoot is a moment that matters where if you can go above and beyond with little things, it doesn’t have to break the bank. it definitely is memorable and makes you stand out as someone who goes
above and beyond. Then after the shoot you could for example send them a little reel while you’re working and editing you know their shots of behind the scenes snippets that you took without them noticing just as a preview to remind them of how awesome the whole shoot experience was.
Then once you’ve delivered the gallery, as I said previously, it’s that big goodbye, right? The shoot’s done, off you go. You definitely should come up with thoughtful tips. It could be totally an evergreen email sequence that you send people after their shoot with aligned tips throughout the year. It could be, know, Mother’s Day is coming up. Have you got your shoot sorted? School’s back.
do you want to do a quick back to school shoot. So have a look at how you can package tips for a certain time of the year and then also present a little nudge that this could be a perfect opportunity to capture milestones on their kids’ journey. Also definitely an anniversary email one year after their shoot with a little extra bonus if they book their next shoot within the next I don’t know.
two weeks, three weeks, the next month, because we’re not always ready, right? But just staying front of mind and not ghosting your clients means when they have a need, a milestone, a birthday party, something coming up where they feel, I absolutely want professional photography, you know, this is going to mean they’re going to go straight back to you because they had an awesome experience during the shoot and you didn’t ghost them after they received their shots. Another…
fun way you can encourage them to book their next shoot for example is a coffee card style reward system right like their Starbucks cart that they probably have in the back pocket or in their wallet whenever they go and grab their morning coffee. You can totally apply that to your business as well so every shoot they book with you they get a stamp on their reward card
and that unlocks extra bonuses, extra little perks for the shoot, potentially extra shots that you edit. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a discount. Some bonuses totally work a treat as well. And if you’re now going, how do I pull this off? I’m sharing this exact strategy and how you pull it off inside retention lab.
As you can see here, all these little tweaks, all these little extra opportunities mean that your client feels taken care of all the way before booking you during the shoot and also after your time together has wrapped up and they feel valued and they feel wowed because they’ve not seen anything like this previously. So.
Chances are you are actually not a family photographer. So what we’re going to do now is just touch on a few ideas that you can hopefully take for your business. while you’re in a different niche, in a different industry, the same strategies and the same approach definitely applies to you. Even if your services don’t include a face-to-face delivery.
If you’re a copywriter for example, rather than just handing over the copy deliverables, you can totally follow up with an unexpected, how to make the most of your new copy guide just to make sure they know what to do with all the bits and pieces, how to implement them. If it’s website copy for example, you know, what to note when it comes to SEO, how to plug it into the back end of your website.
You could also offer a free check in three months after delivery of the copy components. Again, you don’t even have to advertise it. It can be a surprise and delight moment where three months after you drop in saying, here’s a scheduler. if you are not maximizing the copy that I worked on, book a quick chat and we can see how I can support you from there. If you’re a business coach, for example, we can again
touch on bonjour is here or voice notes, definitely maximizing that personal relationship during the sales process, but also while you’re working together, drop them a voicemail to celebrate a milestone. Again, totally unexpected. Make sure you take note of what’s important to them, what’s coming up and pop up totally out of the blue to check in, see how they’re going.
celebrate milestones. It goes a long way if you show up outside of your call schedule that’s locked in for the three months ahead. If you’re a brand designer for example you can offer a surprise mini brand refresh six months post project. Again this can be something totally unexpected and
I would totally bake this surprise and delight opportunity in your offer price. So it is totally calculated, paid for in advance, but it feels like a bonus to the client. What that means is that, you know, every opportunity you create outside of the deliverables and the expected becomes a retention booster.
And retention boosters really open doors for referrals, for repeat bookings, and it just means you always are front of mind for your clients when they have a need for your services in the future. So
there’s three underlying principles to all those tweaks, all those delight moments along a customer journey. everything starts with your customer step number one. So you need to start by understanding your audience, your customer inside out. What do they worry about before working with you?
What excites them during the delivery? What do they need to feel confident in the results they’re getting and in the fact that what you give them is going to work hard for them? To find that out, you can use surveys, you can totally use onboarding forms, in the example of the family photographer here. Really think strategically about the questions you are going to have in those forms and how you can then leverage them down the track.
in those moments of delight and surprise.
And every conversation you have with your customer is an opportunity to get to know them more, to find out what’s coming up, what’s happening in their life, what’s important to them, and then make note of it. You can totally systemize delight, right? So these things, while they might seem out of the blue for your customer, can totally be mapped out and planned in advance. So really map out your customer journey. That’s where it starts. Dissect
what touch points, what moments that matter your customer has with you from the first point of contact to delivery and beyond, And then identify the gaps. So where are there more opportunities? Where are you not answering key questions? Where are you not showing up in the right moments? And where are those missed opportunities where you can go above and beyond and up level your customer journey?
Most of that you can totally automate. email reminders in your CRM system, your email platform might take care of that for you. But it’s about humanizing what matters. So those surprises, the surprise videos, even a handwritten card goes a long way. So having a look where you can have the biggest impact here and then systemizing that.
And then very important, making everything truly unique to you. don’t have a look at the internet, the online space, see what other people are doing and copy it. So even the ideas I’ve dropped here, have a look what applies to you. Have a look at the ideas you like, and then work out a way to infuse your unique way of doing business, your personality, your preferences, your quirks into that.
strategy because your clients decide to book you because of your quirks, because of the way you show up. So it’s super, super important that those moments of delight, the moments that matter, have you written all over them.
It is your strategic advantage. We’re in a trust recession,
everyone sounds the same, people aren’t even sure whether there’s a real person behind content at times. So infusing yourself and creating a remarkable customer experience is your differentiator from all your competitors, from everyone else out there in your space. Your clients totally want to feel something.
They want to feel appreciated. They want to feel emotions, right? Today’s world is tough enough as it is. So if you can make them smile along the way, if you can make them feel special in your interactions, that goes a long way. And if you manage to pull it off, your customers are going to pay for it. They’re going to stay for it. And they’re going to rave about the experience and you as a business.
So to leave you on one action step for today, I would love you to reflect on what is one overlooked moment in your client journey that you can amplify this month? So is it in the onboarding journey? Is it in the actual delivery phase or is it after they have worked with you? How can you infuse
moments of delight into a specific stage of the customer journey and make it work harder for you. So if you also have a question for me, just like Dolly did, and want it answered on a future episode, I would love you to submit your question via the podcast page, which is linked up in the show notes.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, I would love you to subscribe, follow, leave a review and share the podcast with your audience so we can reach even more people. Thanks so much for tuning in this week. I’ll be back in your Airpods next week.
