Choosing the ‘RIGHT’ vendor
There are hundreds and thousands of vendors providing photo booth services locally. This is due to the low capital involved in starting your own photography business - just buy a simple Ipad and a Canon SELPHY printer and you are good to go!
But really good ones actually utilize DSLR and high-speed photo printer. This is what generally sets the good and the bad ones apart.
Additionally, many freelancers are also using good quality printers nowadays. However, it is important to note that there are some business owners out there who use dubious equipment in their shoots therefore, it has become more and more challenging in selecting the right vendor for an ‘effortless’ entertainment such as Photo Booth (especially for the general public that has not much knowledge on what to lookout for).
Over the years, we have served more than a thousand clients and there are many horror stories or experiences that we have heard from our clients.
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The Invisible Vendor – Vendor that went MIA after deposit.
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Sleeping Beauty Vendor – Staff onsite were sleeping.
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The Colour Blind Vendor - Colour composition off the chart, making your guests look yellowish or greyish.
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The ‘Tilum Por’ (Mattress Cover) Vendor – Bad positioning of camera frame & crumpled backdrop.
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ICU Vendor – The kind of vendor that doesn’t respond to you. You see them in action when soliciting business but once you’ve signed the deal with them they does not reply to you when you require their assistance anymore.
So how do you choose the right vendor that best suits your needs?
Here are the 3 steps you should take when accessing, choosing and shortlisting a vendor.
Step 1: Followers on Social Media
Followers on social media matters! You wouldn’t want to engage a company with just a handful of followers (which happens to be their friends) right?
Having more followers could mean that they are more well-established in the market. However, it is important to take the numbers as face value as these ‘followers’ could potentially be bots. One way of checking is by clicking on the following list and taking random samples to examine.
When we first started on our social media advertising effort in 2015, we gained approximately 3,000 followers within the first month. However, when we scrutinize through the following list, we realized most of the users are from India, Thailand, China or Pakistan with no legitimate profile photos.
We then proceeded to do a clean-up to our following list. From 3058 ‘followers’, we were left with just 10 followers. As of Aug 2018, we have roughly 5,000 legitimate followers and we are also one of 1 of the highest rated Facebook profiles for Photo Booth Services in Singapore.
We work extremely hard to ensure brand authenticity therefore, we do clean up our list of followers every now and then to remove questionable accounts.
Step 2: Reviews
Another way of doing a simple background check is by gathering as much reviews as you can on the companies you have shortlisted.
By learning from past clients’ experiences, you will be able to learn more about the services provided by the particular vendor and thus, manage your expectations when/before engaging them.
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If Client A, B, C and D say that a particular company is bad and there are some posts regarding said company on the internet, wouldn’t it makes you think twice before clicking the ‘Contact Us’ button?
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If Client A, B, C and D say that said company far exceeds their expectations and they love it, it is probably safe to go ahead and contact the company.
We were featured in HerWorld Brides for 3 consecutive years (2016,2017 & 2018) <hyperlink> and we also have the highest number of reviews vs rating about our services in Singapore!
Step 3: Past Projects (Sampling)
The best way to determine if a vendor is suitable for you and best matches your needs is by looking at their past project collection. Some key points to look out for includes (but not limited to) color composition, lighting, backdrop and how the camera is being positioned.
