Customer Service & Workshop Review

Workshop Review

I recently attended a photography workshop, David Ziser's "Digital WakeUp Call Tour 2009: A New Dawn". It was easy to sign-up and find with their great web page. I almost missed it because there was not a sign-up for an email reminder, but fortunately had put a reminder on my Google Calendar with a reminder email a few days before.

They were in Phoenix on Monday and Tucson on Tuesday. Since I had another engagement on Monday evening, I signed-up for Tucson. It was a bit longer of a drive, but I don't mind driving through the desert. I took of a bit early from work on Tuesday and headed down to Tucson.

The workshop doors opened at 5pm and there was a mini-expo with information and samples from sponsors. David had a bunch of photo books of his work and it was really impressive to browse though his work.

The workshop was scheduled to run from 6-10pm and David was on stage at 6 sharp. He was full of information from the very start. He was like the energizer bunny and didn't let up for over two and half hours when he gave us a short 15 minute break. During the break he was available for questions and discussion. After of the break, David picked right back up and kept going till about 10:45.

This workshop was incredible and completely exceeded the promises made on the web page. Not only photography lessons, but business and marketing tips to help photographers maximize there revenue and profit. That is a great way to have satisfied customers.

Customer service for this workshot was outstanding. About the only suggestion I have is that it would be nice if there were a small snack or beverage service other than water. The snack shop on site was even closed by the time we got to a break. Fortunately for me, I had a snack and drink in my car, so I didn't need to drive over to a convenience store and was able to spend part of the break talking with other photographers from the area.

I had a 2 hour drive to get home, so I had plenty of time to start digesting everything I had heard. It will take another month or two to digest much of what I learned, for me it was like trying to take a drink from a firehose. There was just so much for me to learn, so I am grateful for the included DVD for me to continue to to add to my knowledge at my own pace.

Aftershocks

I know that anytime I use my email address to register for an event or enter a drawing, I will likely get email marketing. If the event or drawing is something that interests me, there is a chance that the email they will send also interests me. If not, then I can hope that the business is ethical and will honor my request to stop sending me email.

Given that, I was not surprised to get an email after the workshop form one of the sponsors. What did surprise me was that my email address was on the TO: line with about 8 other email addresses. Most people may not care, but I would usually prefer to not spread my email address to people I do not know. Many (if not most) businesses use programs to send bulk email to individual addresses or at least put the addresses in the BCC: field so that no one sees everyone elses name and email address. This also makes the email cleaner for some programs when reading so you do not need to scroll down to find where the address list ends and the email message begins.

I handled this like I do anytime I see this particular breach of email etiquette. A polite explanation of the common practice and why it is important will usually resolve the problem as this is most often done by someone who is new to email marketing and maybe has not received any training or guidance on this matter. In cases where the source of my email address is clear (like the recent workshop in this case), I will try to include a copy to the organizer so they can help to educate their partners and sponsors.

I received a couple polite replies via email from the vendor apologizing and then letting me know they had figured out their email program a bit better and would be using the BCC: field in the future and thanking me for pointing out the process. That made me glad I had taken the time to educate instead of simply asking to be removed from the mailing list.

I considered the matter closed when Friday afternoon, my phone rang with a phone number I did not recognize. Heck, I wasn't even sure where the area code was from. I answered and was surprised to hear David Ziser on the line. He wanted to apologize for the email issue with his workshop sponsor and thank me for pointing the issue out. That just goes to show that David not only over-delivers on his workshop, but on all aspects of his business including that of his partner. Quite a refreshing change from all too many businesses these days.

If you are in business, you would be well-served to read his daily blog. Even if your business has nothing to do with photography or weddings, the business pointers he gives out can be applied to any business that is interested in their customers. To state a point that should be obvious (but is not), EVERY business should be interested if their customers. David's blog is one of the first I read every chance I get which is almost every day. Google Reader is a great way to keep track of blogs that interest you and save you time by not visiting all the blogs that only update once a week or a couple times a week (like mine) but not missing them when they do update.