We are always looking for better ways to make viewing and ordering enjoyable. From a consumer's perspective when we have spent hours looking through products, sorting out what we want, it gives us a feeling of accomplishment when viewing a shopping cart with a notice of savings just above the balance. In the past Tom Sapp Photography has offered discounts. The summer of 2011 we offered buy one get one 4x6 prints the last 7 days of ordering and 25% off the first 7 days. Before that For 11 years Tom kept a simple pricing structure. You pay for the expenses of the session at the time of booking then order the prints you want online after. Fewer pricing options leaves fewer questions making the ordering process less stressful with more time to focus on the images you want. It is true discounts attract more clients upfront. However, working with as many subjects as possible is not our priority. You will not find a drive through window at our studio. After providing photography services for over a decade Tom has said there is one question he is asked at almost every session “What is your favorite type of photography”. The answer for Tom in his words is “the type that matters”. Tom Sapp photography schedules one family each day to guaranty our availability incase weather is not ideal. Tom uses horns, clown wigs, stuffed animals and performs magic to keep the kids attention. Whatever it takes he says because Tom believes family portraits are special. Tom was raised by his Uncle for most of his childhood. When his uncle passed away Tom realized he only has one 4x6 print of him with his uncle. The photographer who took the photo went out of business leaving this one print as the only memory Tom will ever have. At that point Tom understood how a single image could have “priceless” on the tag. What we do as photographers, going to your homes or working with a family gathering on the beach, these photographs are your memories. When family members are lost or time has changed appearances it often surprises us how the value of a piece of paper can change so drastically. When discounts have been offered the service Tom Sapp Photography provides gets compared that of school photography and photo boutiques. These are places people go when reliability and quality is not a concern. With todays digital cameras the quality may be similar in some respects but the time put into working with the subjects for Tom is around 12 hours per portrait session between prep, travel, session times, image processing, production and customer service calls. The 3 to 5 minutes spent with the photographer at a photo boutique is equal to the $50 spent on a 2 unit package or buy one get one special. Keep in mind offering a lower priced “package” is not the same as offering discounts. With a package customer's know what they will be spending and what will be received. The process is still kept simple like that of a straight forward print pricing structure with a single price for each print size. Discounts start your photography experience with questions and assumptions which lower the perceived value of the experience as well as the product. How? When discounts are missed like offers for ordering in the first few days or at the end just before the images are removed from online, the hard work your photographer puts into creating the images is quickly and easily disregarded. We have found when we talk in terms of putting together a custom package like the digital file packages we are now offering for the first time in 2012, our families smile for their photo experience as well as their ordering experience.
We want you to be happy! Making people smile is what we do. If you can not finding what you are looking for in terms of a session package or product price please email Tom directly at mail@tomsapp.com
