Session/Appointment Cancellations???!!!

picturegirl

I am very curious to how you handle clients that constantly cancel and reschedule? Do you charge a deposit to book sessions? I always ask for a booking fee/deposit for weddings but have never done that for my standard sessions. Recently though I have had many cancel and reschedule, extremely inconvienent for me since I work full time and I have to prepar my home for the shoots. Just curious if there is a way to minimize this or is it just part of the job??? :scratch

Art Scott

Never Ever Charge A Deposit......

picturegirl wrote:

I am very curious to how you handle clients that constantly cancel and reschedule? Do you charge a deposit to book sessions? I always ask for a booking fee/deposit for weddings but have never done that for my standard sessions. Recently though I have had many cancel and reschedule, extremely inconvienent for me since I work full time and I have to prepar my home for the shoots. Just curious if there is a way to minimize this or is it just part of the job???

Never ever charge a deposit....a deposit is money charged that a consumer expects to get back at teh end of a contract usually.....the deposit for a phone line or electricity or water service..etc....etc.... and it usually is paid back with a small amount of interest.....

What you want to charge is a RETAINER fee for holding a set date and time.....if the client decides to randomly change this time it is up to you whether or not to allow this retainer to retain another date.....My onw philosophy is like this.....if the changes are just because I just don't feel like having my phot done today.....you could easily lose taht retainer......if it something like.....I have an emergency and will be out of town and would appreciate it if we could reschedule then I will usually allow the retainer to retain one more date/time........

If it gets cronic then no ....... after second time I will ask for another retainer that does not go toward the full price of the portraits or wedding or whatever.......You cannot afford to allow people to cause you to lose money........

I subtract retainer fees from the final contract price....also put into your contract a line about re-scheduling and how many you will allow before a 2nd retainer must be paid and that will help put recheduling to a quick halt.

hth at least a bit...............

dogwood

Of course you should charge a deposit.

Then when the deposit is paid, add a legal explantion about how the deposit won't be refunded or will only be partially refunded depending on when they cancel. Something like this:

"At 14-days prior to the shoot/event, the deposit becomes a non-refundable retainer, additionally subject to a 20-percent processing fee against the full cost of the shoot.

If you do not show up or cancel the shoot less than 48-hours in advance, the non-refundable retainer will be considered compensation to me, xxxx, for liquidated damages."

Cygnus Studios

dogwood wrote:

Of course you should charge a deposit.

This is an area where you should have your lawyer draw up your contract. The word deposit can often mean a refund demand depending on your area.

Retainers and pre payments are the terms more often used in contracts.
It is also necessary to have your contract detail when and if any refunds are given.
It should also state what happens when you or your client change the date/time of the shoot.

dogwood

Cygnus Studios wrote:

This is an area where you should have your lawyer draw up your contract.

Well, I guess technically that's true. And you should also have a lawyer represent you in traffic court, but who does that? And you should see a doctor when you have a fever, but again, who does that?

A deposit for a portrait might be $100. I know we live in a sue-happy society but I've yet to have anyone challenge me legally over a $100 deposit that I keep if they don't show. In fact, I've only had one no-show since requiring deposits, which is exactly the point.

Blaker

dogwood wrote:

Well, I guess technically that's true. And you should also have a lawyer represent you in traffic court, but who does that? And you should see a doctor when you have a fever, but again, who does that?

A deposit for a portrait might be $100. I know we live in a sue-happy society but I've yet to have anyone challenge me legally over a $100 deposit that I keep if they don't show. In fact, I've only had one no-show since requiring deposits, which is exactly the point.

Hi Pete,
Nice website, just curious though, why you allow anyone to print out your photos?

dogwood

Blaker wrote:

Hi Pete,
Nice website, just curious though, why you allow anyone to print out your photos?

Well, anyone can print anything they see on the web anyway, and at least the way I have it set-up on my site, the photos print with contact info. The work on my website is portfolio work so why not let an art director or editor print 'em out and use them in a mock up or whatever?

My work is aimed at a commercial market these days. To be honest, I used to shoot a lot of events and watermark everything and sell prints to individuals through SM and it was quite a bit of work and for not all that much profit.

So I've found that by simply posting a great portfolio online and letting people print whatever they want (and don't forget, they can do that anyway) that I've been attracting better clients with bigger budgets. Sites with all kinds of watermarking look cheap and unprofessional in my opinion, and guess what kind of clients those type of websites attract?

Not the kind of clients I'm interested in, that's for sure.

Blaker

dogwood wrote:

Well, anyone can print anything they see on the web anyway, and at least the way I have it set-up on my site, the photos print with contact info. The work on my website is portfolio work so why not let an art director or editor print 'em out and use them in a mock up or whatever?

My work is aimed at a commercial market these days. To be honest, I used to shoot a lot of events and watermark everything and sell prints to individuals through SM and it was quite a bit of work and for not all that much profit.

So I've found that by simply posting a great portfolio online and letting people print whatever they want (and don't forget, they can do that anyway) that I've been attracting better clients with bigger budgets. Sites with all kinds of watermarking look cheap and unprofessional in my opinion, and guess what kind of clients those type of websites attract?

Not the kind of clients I'm interested in, that's for sure.

Interesting!
Thanks for your reply!

picturegirl

Thank you to everyone who responded, gives me some things to think about!