One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that when I make something easier for my clients it usually pays off.
I make it as convenient as possible to do business with me. My website has demos up front and center on the home page of my website. I have contact information on each page. There are links to more demos and hopefully enough information about who I am and what I do to help them take a chance on my voiceover work. After that, it is up to me to provide value.
We love convenience. Savvy business people have always known that people will pay a little extra for convenience. That last minute trip to the closest “convenience” store to get some milk cost us just a little more than if we had planned for the milk shortage and picked up a quart at the regular grocery store.
The idea of convenience is evolving along with technology. For example, Video-on-Demand is growing steadily as people want to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it (on whatever screen happens to be near them when they get the urge to binge watch something). The VOD market brought in nearly $49 BILLION in revenue last year. Bet you have a Netflix account.
We pay for this convenience, but if you like to watch, then its worth it.
Technology is also making it more convenient to order, purchase and pickup food from a fast-food chain without waiting in line. I suppose you have to wait in some sort of line to pick up the food, but it will cut down the time to get your burger or taco. Apparently these mobile order ahead apps are showing that people are actually spending more than they would if they walked into the store to order. The convenience is making it easier to part with the cash? This is great news for the business owner.
However, to keep the orders coming in, convenience still needs to be combined with quality and value.
Despite technology making it more convenient, you still need to be sure you are not over-promising. This means truly understanding your particular business, your abilities to deliver the “goods” and what your customer wants and needs (these are actually two different things – a post for another time!). My years of experience as a free lancer and as an in-house producer/writer helps me see things from both sides of the glass, so getting up-to-speed on a project may be slightly easier than someone just starting out.
How do I make it Convenient?
- I ask enough questions at the beginning in order to understand the scope of the project.
- During the pre-production phase, I use my production and writing background to troubleshoot trouble spots in the script. This gets questions answered before the recording is done, which means fewer errors, which means less rework, which saves them time.
- I usually deliver pretty quickly, which gets the client ahead of the game.
- I also deliver high quality, nearly error-free audio files. This means less rework, which saves them time, etc. And time means money.
- I use professional business tools for invoicing and invoicing.
As you can see, most of this list is not technology driven. It uses good old-fashioned experience and common-sense to make my clients lives easier – to add to their “ease or comfort.”
The studies I referenced do show that advances in technology are making convenience pay off for a lot of industries. And as an early adopter and champion of technological advances, I will find ways to incorporate the ideas that make sense into my way of doing business.
So, would you like your project with a side of convenience?
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