Marc Gold – Page 21 – 24kt Sound & Video for business, websites, weddings & special events

The Perils (and Rewards) of Good Customer Service

Good Customer Service and the Perils of Being a Wedding Videographer

Sometimes providing good customer service is a hard road to walk and you have to stop and ask yourself the question, “When is enough, enough?” You want to please. You try hard to please, but what do you do when that’s just not in the cards? You’ve got clients that can’t be pleased. Finding a good solution that makes everyone happy can be an arduous, challenging problem.

This all began shortly after completing a very successful wedding video for a couple in my area with venues at Wayfarers Chapel and Trump Golf Club. I sensed from our initial pre-wedding conversations that this couple was very detail-minded so I set up a courtesy visit in the studio to go over the edited video on the computer with them just in case they had any changes they wanted to make before burning their Blu-Ray Disc. After about five hours of working together and thoroughly enjoying their non-stop stream of laughter and commentary as we watched their video for the first time, I said to myself, “This is good! They’re amazed!” My joy turned out to be short-lived, however.

I came to learn after they had their video for a couple of days that they felt there wasn’t enough footage of the bride’s mother in the final edit, so I searched the raw footage for any clips I might have bypassed and agreed to include them. There were a few scenes that were excluded because the mom wasn’t presenting well on camera for one reason or another, and I wanted to include only the clips of her looking her best.

Because the bride was particularly close to her mother she wanted all the clips of her included, regardless, and I was happy to accommodate her request, so a new edit was created, and a new Blu-Ray Disc burned. No charge. Done? Happy clients? Not yet.

To my surprise, a short while later another request came from the couple to eliminate parts of the best man’s toast. Why hadn’t this come up in the initial review of the video? Because someone at the bride’s place of work made it an issue. I sat with the couple for another couple of hours creating an edit that they liked and encoded and burned another blue ray disc for them, not charging them for any additional time or materials. I had hoped that the video was done at this point, but no such luck.

Another request came in a little while later to revise some of the previous revisions (yes, you read that correctly) at which point I expressed to the couple, not with any displeasure, mind you, my disappointment at not being able to find a way to please them, explaining that every time I made an adjustment something else seemed to come up. Well, I worked with the groom on yet a forth round of revisions to try to put a happy ending on this story, all the while feeling discouraged that my previous efforts didn’t meet with greater success, and through it all I was still bound and determined to make this work and turn my couple into happy customers. It had now become something of an obsession to please them.

Some considerable time passed and I wasn’t expecting to hear from the couple ever again when I was surprised by an email from them indicating that the review they had originally promised me was sent to http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=24kt+sound+%26+video&find_loc=Inglewood%2C+CA&ns=1 and a couple of other review sites. Oh boy! Now I was really in trouble! This sounded like it was going to be a very bad day. I knew that it would take about ten good reviews to undo the damage caused by just one bad one. It wasn’t fair.

Well, the review is on yelp, one of the longest reviews I’ve seen and all very positive. It took a lot of time and effort to get to that point, but all’s well that ends well. Just another day in the life of a wedding videographer.

Please comment and share similar stories of your own. Do you ever write a client off and when do you decide enough is enough, if ever?

Ziv’s Extraordinary Bar Mitzvah Video

Ziv’s bar mitzvah video is an extraordinary example of how a video can so beautifully illustrate the loving relationships and the feelings that bind loved ones together. The images below come from Ziv’s video. When you look at them you’ll understand their power.

The signs are always there, and it’s the videographer’s job to see and record them. It’s the parents’ look of pride as their son reads from the torah, or the grandparents lovingly holding hands at the dinner table, a grandfatherly kiss on the bar mitzvah’s cheek, or the hug from a sister or brother, a mom’s tears as she dances with her son. It’s not hard to imagine what these images will mean over Ziv’s lifetime, a lasting record of an irreplaceable moment. Your goal in finding a videographer should be to find one that sees events from this perspective. The video will be worth its weight in gold.

Thank you, Carmi family, for allowing me to record what for me was the experience of a lifetime!

Website Videos that Connect with the “Purchasing Comfort Zone”

Are You Connecting With Your Website Visitors’ “Purchasing Comfort Zone?”

Your level of success in converting visitors to customers correlates with your website’s ability to connect with a consumer’s purchasing “comfort zone” and building the emotional connection that allows them to feel safe in doing business with you. Your site has to break down the barriers that inhibit your customers’ purchasing decisions. This can be done by developing a level of trust that suppresses the skepticism which many consumers often have. It’s the old formula: Website videos that build rapport inspire credibility which leads to trust and likeability. People respond to others they like and trust.

As a Los Angeles corporate videographer, I’ve learned that there are lots of “trust signals” in face to face conversation among which are eye contact, tone of voice and body language. When we’re speaking with someone, in addition to the meaning of the words spoken, we are constantly processing these signals that help us judge the validity of what we’re hearing, ultimately building the trust that can facilitate decision-making. With this in mind, an important goal of your website content should be to provide the trust signals that we’re accustomed to in conversation, and in doing so encourage visitors to take the next step in doing business with you. There are few things more powerful than a video of a spokesperson on your website to accomplish that. That video represents you 24/7 and can speak enthusiastically about any aspect of your business that you wish… in detail.

It’s against human nature for people to want to do anything in the slowest, most difficult way possible. On the contrary. People want to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. If text is primarily what you offer your website visitors, then you’re requiring them to invest the time it takes to read in order to get the information they need from you. Whether they will or not is the question. Considering that you only have about eight seconds to engage a visitor, the odds of someone becoming a customer are reduced if the only option is to read your content. It can be much more efficient to watch a video that packs a lot of information into a very small package to get at the same information.

Think about your own browsing habits. Given the choice of getting the same information by pouring through pages of text or just sitting back, watching a video and let it all sink in? Which one would you choose?

What it comes down to is this: You want to do everything you can to keep visitors on your site long enough to find what they’re looking for and to convert them into paying customers. By speaking to their “purchasing comfort zone” with a video you can boost your conversion rate significantly.

To watch a video that explores this subject in more depth please see, “Why you Definitely Need Video on Your Website” at http://24ktsound.com/video-production-services/businesswebsitesocial-media/businesses-need-video-transscript/

Breaking The Ice – An Event Videographer’s Perspective

Funny nerd sticking out tongue Breaking The Ice

As a Los Angeles wedding and special events videographer I’ve chuckled many times over the entertaining spectacle of a photographer trying to entice a baby to smile for a photo with whistles, bird calls, teddy bears and funny faces with parents and relatives on the sidelines doing the same. But what do you do with a group of nervous adults whose language you don’t speak and who don’t understand what you’d like them to do?

As a professional wedding and special event videographer that works often with particular nationalities, having a couple of tricks up your sleeve that can help adults feel more comfortable in front of the camera can make a big difference in how your shoot goes. Here’s a simple strategy that I’ve seen in action while on a video shoot where a couple of photographer friends of mine were trying to pose a very conservative group of foreign visitors that seemed to be more than a little bit insecure.

I watched the photographers instantly warm up the shoot by trying to say a few words to the guests in their native language. I don’t really know exactly what was said, but the reaction was instantaneous. The looks of amazement and the laughter that ensued said it all…the whole ambiance changed. Almost magically and because of their little gesture the language barrier-related awkwardness that prevented people from being themselves vanished. Reaching out to the guests in a way they could relate to put them at ease.

Even though the conversation wasn’t destined to go beyond those few words, the whole feel of the photo shoot went in a new, more enjoyable direction after everyone had a good laugh at the photographer’s apparently less than perfect pronunciation.The rapport had changed for the better and the shedding of inhibitions produced some honest-to-goodness smiles. I thought, what a great icebreaker, and what an extraordinary transformation those few words created. We all now had uninhibited, smiling people to record. Everyone was happy. Why was that?

Camera shy? Cultural differences? Being in a Foreign country? Self-consciousness? I can only speculate what the issue was. What ever it was, it wasn’t much of an issue any longer. A little unanticipated gesture broke the ice.

As a videographer, I work often with Spanish speaking clients, particularly at Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, Ca., where I record weddings and baptisms. Greeting guests in Spanish is an instant rapport builder. “Hola, bien venidos,” (Hello, welcome!) is a great icebreaker that invariably elicits a warm if not surprised response that this very American looking videographer is actually speaking Spanish. It’s like suddenly being welcomed into the family where a whole different level of interaction opens up.

So, practice a few relevant phrases to use the next time you’re in a similar situation with this one caveat: Don’t butcher the language or intentionally anglicized a foreign word. It’s obnoxious hearing things like, “no problemo.” Showing a sincere effort in bridging a communication gap can make your day, and your shoot much happier.

Visit my blog at www.24ktsound.com and please feel free to share your own similar experiences and advice.

Author: Marc Gold

The Perils (and Rewards) of Good Customer Service

Ziv’s Extraordinary Bar Mitzvah Video

Website Videos that Connect with the “Purchasing Comfort Zone”

Breaking The Ice – An Event Videographer’s Perspective

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