One of the toughest parts about running a photography business is managing through tough times with clients.

We all want to give our clients an amazing experience, right?!?

So what do we do when things seem to go wrong – whether it’s something we did, or more likely, something we didn’t even expect happened and led to a bad outcome in the minds of our clients.

In this post, we’re going to talk about how to manage these tough client situations – complaints, bad experiences, and so on, and look to share some insights on how we can go about handling them.

We tackle this topic in a lot more detail in our Client Experience Course for Photographers, a part of our larger Business Course Suite for Photographers, worth checking out if you haven’t yet!

What is a bad client experience, exactly?

We all probably know a bad experience when we see it…but the hard part is…we don’t always recognize something as being bad in the experience we’re providing our clients until they actually say something.

If we knew something was going to bother our clients, we’d do more to be proactive before it even came to light, right?

As photographers and business owners, there is going to be a range of what makes up a bad client experience.

It’s a continuum, really…

They can range from things like a a fairly insignificant or minor complaint, like “I wish you would have taken more pictures of the details at the reception,” all the way up to more serious situations, like a request for a refund or a reshoot because of factors out of your control.

If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ve probably experienced these a few times.

It can often be frustrating and feel like a personal attack, especially if your someone like us – people who are really passionate and committed to giving our clients a positive experience as much as possible.

Even with the best plans and intentions, things can sometimes happen.

Most of the time, these complaints end up being related to under-delivering or an inability to effectively set expectations. In rare cases, clients can also have complaints that are unfounded.

Take a bad experience and turn it into a good one!

That’s the goal at least!

When we are faced with client complaints and a bad experience, it’s important to be able to figure out how to work through these issues to generate a more positive outcome and experience for our clients. 

Client experience is, after all, not just about the good times we can offer to our clients – but sometimes also about how we can take bad times, and turn them into good ones.

Depending on the circumstances, this may be easier said than done – but it’s important to realize that most of the time, our clients don’t have it out for us when something is bothering them.

So, how do I go about making a good experience out of a bad one?

First of all, just because you receive a message that could be interpreted as a concerned or complaining client – take a hard look and really review what is being said. 

We’ve all heard horror stories of clients that are seemingly unhinged and because of this, it can sometimes feel natural for us to go to thinking the worst – like someone is a little unhappy and it’s going to immediately mean they’re going to leave us a bad review and try to steamroll our business. Most of the time, that isn’t the case and usually people are pretty reasonable.

How we tackle rational and sensible client complaints vs. irrational, unhinged ones will look different!

With that said, most of the time, any complaints that we receive are going to be due to a failure to set the appropriate expectations or deliver exactly what was promised.

To resolve these challenges, you should keep in mind that most people just want to feel heard and understood. 

Key things you should be doing to address client complaints:

• Always remember to listen actively. Make sure you’re clear on what the clients problem actually is. This is a spot where sometimes it isn’t well communicated, and you can’t provide solutions without clarity!
• Offer solutions. Ideally, you can do things to completely resolve your clients problem – if so, great! But, we can’t always do everything they ask. Finding solutions that will “work” even if it isn’t perfectly matching the clients request is often enough, since as we said earlier, most people just want to feel heard and understood – and by taking steps to alleviate some of their painpoints, even if we can’t do everything, will typically be viewed positively!
• Look for ways to improve. Take these experiences and use them to help you shape the future of your client experience. Is there anything you could do better to make improvements for future clients?

Depending on the circumstances, sometimes it can also be beneficial to switch from communicating via email or text, to setting up a phone call and addressing things like this head on.

As some general advice, the best way to resolve client complaints is to learn to walk the line between standing your ground and giving in to maintain good rapport

As an example in my business – my retainer is non refundable, but sometimes I refund it if I anticipate it will cause a problem down the line. At the end of the day, sometimes even if I’m totally in the right, it’s better to avoid conflict.

Handling client concerns and complaints is challenging, but with the right approach, you can turn a negative experience into a positive one. 

8 Specific Client Problems and How to Resolve Them

For this section, we’re going to highlight some of the most common client concerns we see and give some thoughts on how you could go about handling them.

Keep in mind, there is rarely going to be a perfect “one size fits all” solution since every situation will be so unique. But, these thoughts could give you a good jumping off point to help you resolve any challenges you are currently facing.

1. Requests for things beyond the scope of your services

As photographers, one of the more common things we might receive from a client, that feels like a complaint (but isn’t always) would be asking for things outside of what we typically offer.

For example, things like more editing such as air brushing, touchups, etc.

The best resolution starts with setting better expectations before working together – having solid contracts and clearly stating what you do as far as edits go, can go a long way.

Speaking from experience, early on in my photography business, I didn’t have very clear policies in place and would often get requests for additional edits. At the time, I’d normally just do these – happy clients, right?

Over time, it became more of a burden and some requests are just impossible to fulfill reasonably. I updated my policies around editing, and had my contracts updated to state what I do more clearly, and since then…handling these types of things has become so much easier.

Of course, managing expectations is one thing, but what do you do if you’re too far in and don’t have that chance? Or if clients are asking anyways?

If the requests are pretty minor and within reason of your capabilities, sometimes just “doing the thing” is the easiest solution. Usually, I’d respond to someone and say “I don’t normally do this, but I’ll do it this one time for you.” This helps put up a boundary (“I’m only going to do it once”) but allows you to still serve your client.

If the request is more significant, then it can be natural to state where your limits are and what the solution might look like. For example, if they’re asking for a lot of edits outside of your ability (or that will take a ton of time), you can tell the client that AND offer them a solution. It might be to pay you more to do the request. It might also be to offer images that they can take to someone else to do more extensive edits.

2. No shows, reschedules and cancellations

Every business should have their own policy when these things happen.

In my business, I have fees in place that clients have to pay if they “no show” or want to reschedule/cancel their session or event with me. In all circumstances, at a minimum I am keeping a retainer fee for situations like this.

3. Budget concerns and payment issues

If budget and payment issues come up after someone has signed on to work with you, working through this can be challenging, but should start by getting more clarity of what is doable for your client so you can see what the best course of action will be.

It’s easier to work with clients who are forthcoming about their situation.

For example, I had a client recently who made a pretty significant investment into services with me, but had challenges with paying what they owed because of an unexpected medical crisis leading to medical bills. Since I had this information, I was able to put together some options for her, including things like setting up a payment plan, offering Afterpay, and even offering a temporary deferment of payments for a few months to make it a little easier.

If a client is just not making payments, and not communicating about this, it could be grounds for terminating services – depending on your circumstances.

Some things you can put in place to help alleviate payment issues include:

• Late fees
• Shoot but withhold deliverables until payment
• Request payment in advance of session/event
• Use an auto-pay system
• Get their feedback before jumping to conclusions:
  • Some people can easily just miss their payment reminders
  • Ask them for a realistic, updated timeline

4. Unrealistic expectations

Even with all the expectation setting in the world…sometimes people just are a little unrealistic about what they are wanting photographers to do for them!

These can be tough because often unrealistic expectations come from different views of the world and ourselves than we can see at the surface.

For example, sometimes clients might have low self esteem, so looking at photos of themselves, even objectively “good” ones by a professional photographer, can cause them anxiety. This might lead to a client expecting more from a photographer, like making them look like someone else entirely – either in how they pose and conduct a shoot, or in their post production efforts.

The best resolutions I’ve seen to circumstances like this started with a phone call to get more clarity on what was bothering the client, and meeting them with some empathy while also being clear on what can reasonably be accomplished.

5. Delivering photos in black and white and receiving requests for color images

Unless your taking images very intentionally meant to be in black-and-white, we can alleviate these issues by simply providing our photos in both color and B&W versions.

If your style specifically involves delivering some images just in B&W, make sure to set this as an expectation with your client before they book with you.

6. Requests for more photos / RAW images

One of the more trivial requests we see from time to time in our photography businesses, and hear A LOT of other photographers in online groups sharing stories about – these types of requests need to be handled by starting with understanding why the request is being made in the first place.

Oftentimes, it’s easy to jump to conclusions.

“Oh – they hate my work”

“They don’t respect my time or process”

In reality, the reason for these requests will vary and we like to take the approach that people typically mean well. Often, we have found, people who ask for RAW images or more photos tend to be a little under-educated on our process…and simply explaining what has been done or is/isn’t possible will be enough.

To give you an example – early on in my career, I had clients ask for RAW images. I read all the opinions on this online…”Never give clients RAWS!” being the main one you see. This particularly worked for Apple in Silicon Valley and was interested in RAWs for longevity of the files. At the time, I can’t say I fully understood, but I put on my empathy-hat (so to speak) and met him where he was at – I gave him RAWs, along with rules for how they could be used and charged a fee for them…happy client, and it worked for me.

Now, if this was a harder boundary – I can just say “no” and that is sufficient. Good customer service is not just about doing everything that is asked of us, but rather should be focused on finding mutually beneficial solutions when possible and “doing good” by our clients as best as possible (without also damaging ourselves in the process).

7. Challenges caused by things outside of your control (Acts of God)

Let’s picture a situation together…

You have a client’s wedding coming up this weekend and the weather forecast is going to be dark and stormy the entire time. For the past year leading up to this wedding, you’re clients expressed so much excitement about their outdoor wedding and particularly wanting those golden hour sunset photos. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen if the weather stays the same.

Most people are going to understand that due to the weather, it’s not possible to get the photos they exactly had in mind. We can find alternative solutions for sure, but they won’t be entirely the same.

Naturally, most of the time these situations never “escalate” into a bigger problem – but on occasion people might be a little unreasonable and turn situations outside of your control into blaming you for some outcome.

Good solutions for managing situations like this include:

• Start with CYA (document the things that have happened that made things out of your control – including times, places, people involved, etc.)
• Be short and concise when responding, do not apologize for things you have no control over.
• Shift the communication to phone call, email/text allows too much time to pass between each message

8. Client escalations to threats of lawsuits

If someone threatens you with legal action, it’s time to contact a lawyer.

Do not communicate further until you have been given guidance.

This is one reason it’s important to have some sort of relationship with a lawyer. One of the easiest introductions is to work with a business lawyer to help you create contracts for your business, which can establish a working relationship, and help you build trust in this professional as someone you could turn to if needed for situations like this.

Conclusion

The best problems are those that are prevented by setting expectations and good documentation before the session/event. While we can do a lot to significantly limit problems with our clients, the reality is that the longer we remain in business, the more likely something will come up that we’ll need to figure out a solution for.

We hope this post was able to give a little insight into some common client challenges and how we can look to address them.