Accommodating last-minute bookings is a great way to acquire new clients, boost revenue and demonstrate you're ready for business. For some entrepreneurs, a last-minute client can be undesirable. However, by following the tips in this article, you'll be able to shorten your required lead time, capture more opportunities, outperform the competition, and charge more. 

I'm using the term "last-minute" to encompass the concept of accepting a booking with a tight lead time. Depending on the service, this could be as short as same-day bookings (real estate photography) and might even be a couple of weeks (wedding photography) to be considered last-minute.

1. Offer more than one package.

Your website should be the most helpful resource for people looking to hire you. For each service, it's best to have multiple packages. It allows you to cater to various price points, and with proper descriptions, it quickly gives someone a clear picture of your offering. By giving people options with packages, you're more likely to keep them on your website and provide something that fits their needs and budget.

2. Show your pricing and packages online.

Last-minute bookers don't have a lot of time to make their selection. If they don't see pricing on your website, there is a good chance they will leave to look elsewhere because they don't have the time to go through a lengthy sales process. Think of this as an efficient information gathering stage during the buying process and very logical behavior. Showing pricing and packages lets people know you are confident and ready to be hired.

3. Require payment in full before accepting the booking.

Often, last-minute bookings will be willing to pay in full for your services because they understand it's short notice. After all, when there is not much lead time, you need to make sure the client is serious and ready for you to start prepping for their booking. People hate extra fees, so you should avoid surcharges for the short notice and count on them being impresses and referring friends after delivering a great experience.



4. Offer Online Booking

Now that you're showing pricing and packages on your website, you should also allow someone to book online. Online booking makes taking the next step in doing business with your company just a click away. Clients love the feeling of locking in a service they need and doing it all online. Be sure to use a high-quality online booking system like Check Cherry because online schedulers are not designed to sell services online.

5. Offer Online Chat

Add a chat feature/widget to your website. There are even free options like Drift, which also offers iPhone/Android apps so you can see the chat come similar to a text message on your phone. Just like online booking, chat lowers the barrier and makes it easier for prospects to continue the process of doing business with your company. It's also a great way to uncover adjustments you can make to your website to ensure it helps answer the questions people often have before hiring you.

Not just about last-minute bookings

Keep in mind the tips above don't just work for last-minute bookers. They'll help you lower the bar and make it easy for website visitors to take that next step in doing business with your company regardless of lead time. 

Get everything you need to do online booking right.

Check Cherry provides everything you need to do online booking right. From limiting your availability to prevent double bookings to organizing and showcasing your packages online. Also, if someone starts but does not complete the booking process, Check Cherry will create a lead and alert you to follow up, close the sale, and you can send a proposal for signature and deposit.

It's time for another annual recap. There's no way around it: 2020 was a rough year for most of Check Cherry's customers. A prolonged pandemic, restrictions on gatherings, and general uncertainty resulted in fewer bookings for our customers.

Adversity aside, at Check Cherry, we were still able to make substantial progress in improving the platform during 2020. We're grateful for all the feedback and ideas you shared with us to make Check Cherry better. The pandemic shifted our development priorities, and I want everyone to know we worked hard to adjust and help you navigate the market's challenges.

Here is a quick recap on how we Check Cherry platform improved over the last year:

The Postpone Status

Our first feature in response to the pandemic came mid-March as cancelations and postponements started rolling in. We added a Postponed status for bookings. By marking a booking as Postponed, it made it slightly easier to navigate the pandemic, stay organized, and salvage one's current book of business.

Brands

Check Cherry now allows for your account to operate with multiple brands. While this feature had long been on our list of things to offer, the pandemic made it a higher priority because many of our savviest customers branched into other services to diversify their business and keep earning.

Contracts [Enhancements]

Getting clients to sign the right agreement is essential, and over the years, we've had many feature requests/ideas in this area. In 2020, now you can set up multiple contracts, insert data based on package or add-ons purchased, and dynamically add merge tags—essential features for those operating various brands and offering unrelated services.

Checklists

Check Cherry is excellent at helping service entrepreneurs stay organized. With Checklists, you can build multiple lists for each booking automatically. This feature is perfect for creating pre-bookings todos, equipment checklists, and deliverable reminders. You can also add a list for your clients to help guide them through the process of working together.

Google Calendar Integration

A lot of Check Cherry customers operate their business while holding a full-time job or earning elsewhere. Check Cherry's Google Calendar allows solopreneurs to automatically block off company availability based on events they add to their Google Calendar.

Mini Sessions [Enhancements]

This fall, we received a lot of great feedback on the mini session scheduling features of Check Cherry. We reworked the feature in many ways to make it easier to use, more powerful, and more integrated into Check Cherry.

Message Queue

We believe business automation helps people free up time to connect on a more personal level with clients. You can now automatically generate an email or SMS/text messages for a booking but hold it in a queue for later review. At that point, the message can be manually reviewed, edited, and send out with a click by personalizing messages to a client meaningful impact on their effectiveness. 

New Online Scheduling Modes

The pandemic resulted in more of our customers offering services that are not anchored by an inflexible event/wedding date. People needed a way to let prospects easily browse their availability online before picking a date. We're happy to say Check Cherry now offers customers the ability to choose slots and tools for you to specify slot availability.

Booking Engine [Enhancements]

Online booking and scheduling are core to Check Cherry. In 2020, we were able to focus a bit more on the booking engine. You now have more control over the look and feel of the booking engine colors so they can better match their brands. One can direct someone away from online booking and into a traditional Contact From to collect leads for high-touch sales such as corporate bookings.

Places

It's common for our customers to provide services at the same places throughout the year, from popular wedding venues to their favorite photo shoot locations. Customers can now store those places in Check Cherry and add pubic and private notes. One can even include Places as a step in the online scheduling process, allowing clients to select a location while booking online which is great for booking photography clients online.

Calendar Refresh

The calendar is one of the most used features of Check Cherry. We distilled years of feedback to rethink how to make it better, from seeing Leads on your calendar to spot a hot date to better search capability and even some helpful filters to find specific bookings.

SMS Messages

We consistently received feedback from customers who wanted to send SMS/text messages just like they send an automated email. I'm happy to say in 2020, we got it done by integrating with Twilio to send the messages. Now one can send important staff reminders, proposal invitations to clients, and any of the other hundreds of combinations that else Check Cherry's powerful messaging automation provides.

Proposals [Enhancements]

Check Cherry's proposal system is simple, elegant, and highly effective. It's a feature that is heavily used to generate sales, and we made it even better in 2020 by adding the option for a client to choose add-ons and/or backdrops before accepting the proposal. Also, Proposals can now show staff members assigned to work the booking to help make a human connection and drive more sales.

Hourly Add-ons

Our customers frequently vary the price of services based on the length of a booking/event. We added a new option allowing add-on pricing to be calculated on an hourly basis. 

A bunch of smaller tweaks and changes

There were over 1600 commits/changes to the CheckCherry platform in 2020. Many of those changes were small tweaks or improvements to the underlying platform, which most people will never explicitly notice. However, all those little changes add up to help make Check Cherry easier to use, more powerful, more reliable, more enjoyable use as a customer, and more fun to build as a developer.

Looking at 2021

Internally, we're optimistic about 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine is rolling out, and we expect to see pent-up demand for our customer's services emerge in the coming months. The pandemic has really highlighted the value of getting together and the incredible role it plays in everyone's well-being. 

Thank you for the continued support and for allowing us to play a role in helping you grow, manage, and delivering fantastic client experiences. 

Good Riddance 2020. Happy New Year! 

At Check Cherry, we see a lot of fantastic photographer websites. We also see our fair share of websites that are in desperate need of a redesign. Below is a list of the most common mistakes people make when building a photography business website. There's good news if you are making one or more of these mistakes. The fix is easy, and it will increase your website's effectiveness and sales.

 1. They make the home page about themselves.

Your home page is the most important page of your website. Avoid making your home page feel like an "About Me" page. The best home pages introduce the services you provide because it helps people quickly understand if they should keep scrolling or hit the back button. Your website should serve people looking to hire you.

2. They let a website template control the direction.

Starting with a template is helpful—however, don't let it limit your website's flow. There are so many great website builders out there; be sure to find something that works for you, even if it costs a little extra.

3. They’re not transparent enough.

A website's purpose is to help you sell more. The best way to facilitate this process is to make your website the most helpful resource for people who want to book you. When you give people everything they need to make a good decision, you attract more of your ideal clients and spend less time fielding questions from people who aren't a good fit. 

💡Remember, the goal is not to be a fit for everyone. Instead, you want to attract people who understand your value, appreciate your service, and will spread the word by telling friends.

4. They don't list pricing and packages.

If all goes well, people looking at your website will think: "I like what I see. How much and what's included?" That's a great thing because it's the next step in the buying process. It can also happen without you having to lift a finger. Publicly showing people your packages and pricing keeps the buying process moving for 100% of the people who visit your website, not just the small percentage who reach out and ask for more information. 

 5. They use too much text.

Very few people will read your website from top to bottom. Avoid large blocks of condensed text. If you have a lot to say, break it up with headlines so people can scan and quickly find out what a section of your website is about before reading it.

💡Remember, most who visit your website are looking for a few simple things. People want to see your work, your package, and your pricing. If all goes well, they will want to book you online.

 6. They use too many images.

Avoid making your website just a digital portfolio. While you certainly want to show your amazing work, there is a lot more to the story and often people will be confused about what to do next. You'll also miss out on some basic SEO and get a lot of the same questions.

7. They focus too much on making a beautiful website.

Your website needs to look great. But it also needs to be effective and easy to use. Do not sacrifice a fancy website for one that leaves people with more questions than answers. Confusion is the enemy of sales, and the more straightforward you can present your services, the better. Common signs your website is too fancy include lots of movement, hidden content with slider sliders, slow loading pages, confusing navigation, and a general lack of direction for the visitor.

8. They use weak calls-to-action.

You need to help people know where to go next if they want to continue the process of hiring you. All too often, we see people only use the "Contact Me" call-to-action, which leads to a page with a web form. Don't be shy about sprinkling in more direct calls-to-action throughout your website to remind people you are ready for their business. Effective calls-to-action for photographers are "View Packages", "Pricing" and "Book Now”.

💡 Remember, your calls-to-action should stick out like a soar thumb. Make them big colorful buttons with easy to understand intent. 

9. They show lengthy testimonials.

One of the best ways to communicate with a new customer will have a good experience sharing testimonials of past clients. It's important not to overdo it. Feel free to take a few sentences out of a long one to shorten it up. Bump up the font size so it's easy to read. You only need a few and you can sprinkle them around your website so people are sure to see them.

10. They don't offer online booking.

If your website does its job well, people are going to want to know how they can book you. Clients love the convenience of online booking. It also makes you look like a true professional. A proper online booking system for your photography services will make picking a package, scheduling a date, signing a contract, and paying a deposit effortlessly. After all, when you are easy to book you get more business.