Every once in a while, there is a book that can have an actual impact on your business. It's very rare that you can actually take what they mention in a book and apply it. It's rare, extremely rare. The book is Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein (Author), Steve J. Martin (Author), Robert B. Cialdini (Author). It's available at Amazon or any other bookstore.
They did an experiment:
Waiters gave candy with the restaurant bill to diners in three different ways:
- 1 candy for each guest
- 2 candies to each guest
- 1 candy for each guest followed by walking away from the table, then turning around to give a second candy to each guest.
The results were:
- 3.3% increase in tips for one candy.
- 14.1% increase in tips for two candies given at once.
- 23% increase in tips for the walk away and return with a second piece scenario.
The very important conclusion of that experiment is that: Unexpected and personalized gifts are great motivators.
What's a tip got to do with running a photography business? Everything. The photography business is the people business. People buy your photos. If you give them more than they expected, they will buy more and will come back for your photo services.
- As an empiric1 experiment, not getting what you expected will have just the reverse effect. Did you lower your tip when you went a Chinese restaurant and you didn't get your fortune cookie?
1 as opposed to scientific ↑