Ep.48: How to Deal with Problematic and Difficult Clients in the Videography Industry

What’s your vision for Reality Box?

When they started, Reality Box was named Boxed reality. They wanted to cover people’s events and everything that happened. Afterward, they will send it to their client in a box. The box contained a USB, a DVD, and Photos of the event.

They focused on shooting what’s real and direct as little as possible. As the years went by, the market dictated something that Harry and his partner didn’t expect. Flexibility became a very important thing. As much as they wanted to leave a mark with their own style of creativity, they had to adjust their ways to fit their clients.

Because of that, they switched their focus to telling the story of their clients.

Harry learned this the hard way with one of his previous clients. They took care of almost everything needed, but when the client checked their output, the branding was not the same. Harry then had a discussion with that client explaining why it ended up that way. Ultimately, that experience led to the creation of their current processes.

Where did you learn how to price that way?

Before Reality Box was founded, Harry’s dad tapped him for an SDE service. Their client was at a wedding in China. Once they showed the video, the client complained that it was too short, that it was not worth the PHP15,000 that they paid extra. They did not appreciate the value of the SDE video.

Harry did this to educate his father’s clients. That what they’re paying for is not solely about the length of the video or the number of pictures. Rather it’s in the quality of their work.

After that, Harry decided to part ways with his father’s business because those clients did not want to pay the real price for Harry’s services.

Now they work with different kinds of clientele. If they want same-day edits, growing up photos, and the like, his father will pass the client to Harry. Meanwhile, if harry gets inquiries that only need labor, he passes it to his father.

Has photography always been the business of your dad?

Harry’s dad has always been providing photography services. The problem was that his father never increased his prices for a very long time. The problem was that some of his father’s clients were outright abusing him. Even now his father’s clients still don’t pay the real price of the effort involved in his services.

The lesson here is that by branding yourself as cheap or affordable, you will get clients at first, but without any growth, it will affect your business negatively. You don’t want to be described as a cheap business. Sometimes people would correspond to a cheap business with a cheap product. And that’s not a good thing.

In SEO Hacker, we positioned ourselves as a premium because we provide the best SEO and digital marketing services. We strive to give the best, which in turn requires a budget. Because of this, the word of mouth of SEO Hacker is not that they’re cheap, but that they work.

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