“Like No Other Place on Earth:” How We’re Stepping up the Game in Service

• brynn


• 15 Jan 2015

Over the holiday break, I flew out to Colorado for some skiing. I’ve never been to Vail or Beaver Creek before, but everyone assured me that it would be amazing.

…and it was.

The skiing was unbelievable. Hands down “outstanding.” Between the beauty of the mountains and the vastness of the trails, it was hard not to be impressed. As blown away as I was by the mountains, it was the service that impressed me the most. Beaver Creek’s slogan is “Not Exactly Roughing It.” Vail’s slogan is “Like No Other Place On Earth.” At first I laughed, but then I got it.

Here’s a short list of what I encountered:

• Cookie Time – fresh baked cookies at the end of the ski day

• EpicMix photographers stationed around the mountains capturing your day

• Friendly chair lift/gondola staff members (seriously friendly/chatty…and not one of them said “Brynn” wrong)

• Hershey Kisses with lunch purchases

• Shoe rentals – at the end of the ski day, you can switch out your (painful) ski boots for shoes to wander in and out of the shops.

Here we are a few weeks later, and I still feel excited about this trip. The cookie is gone and the photos are shared, but they made me feel elite. They have an amazing product (the mountains/skiing), but the service and amenities made it memorable. I was paying for the experience – not just the product.

This philosophy is something that we try to apply to every job and every client. Most people are ambivalent about photography because they’ve had a poor experience. We hear about it all of the time. We hear about photographers that don’t listen to client’s needs and people that have felt uncomfortable about their photography session for a host of reasons.

These comments upset us.

There are two things that we set out to do when we take a photograph – make the subject comfortable and give them control. Yes, we have the degrees and the experience to be called “professionals,” but our clients are the ones that need to use those photos. We may know what makes an image technically sound, but our clients need to give input on what makes an image work for them. They need to know they are heard and understood.

It’s hard to quantify in a list what we can do for our clients because each client is unique with different needs. But know this:

We will listen to you.

We won’t try to sell you something you don’t need.

We will help you choose your attire for portraiture.

We will scout and meet with you to help craft a photography message that makes sense for you.

We will put you at ease in front of the camera.

We will work with you to get the look you love.

Anyone can ski anywhere, but people fly in to Vail from all over the world because it is a first class experience. You can get your photos taken by anyone, but why settle for anything less than first class?