Customers are judgmental. The fact is, we’re all judgmental, it’s scientifically proven. Contrary to popular belief, being judgmental is necessary. When customers look at your business they make a judgment call, automatically. Now I know how bad this sounds, and although I would like to say that I myself am NOT a judgmental person, I would be lying to say that I DON”T EVER judge anything, but that would be a lie especially when it comes to shopping. If what I am looking to buy does not look appealing either on me, in my stomach, or in my home, then I am not buying it. I do judge based on appearance, as most people do. Hey you know you are guilty of this same thing Mr.&Mrs. Biz owner.
Now let me ask you a question. If I came into your business to be interviewed for a job, and was dressed like a clown, and smelled like I haven’t seen the likes of water, let alone soap for weeks, would you see me as being the employee that you would want to sell OR talk to your customers that are coming in to buy products or services? Let me just assume that would be answered as a BIG NO!! If I was to look like that I would be “judged” as incompetent. And rightfully so. If we see someone driving a fancy car, we judge that person has wealth. You have heard the saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Well the nerdy guys that gather all these statistics say that is NOT how consumers shop. WE shop with our eyes.
Alex Todorov and Janine Willis, Princeton University psychologists, discovered in their research that people respond to faces instantly.
Customers form first impressions in as little as 50 to 100 milliseconds.
Customers are making judgments about you and your business before they’ve had a chance to think about it. This first impression is visual and based almost entirely on emotion.
That’s a big problem.
We have been programmed to believe that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, It doesn’t matter what is on the inside, it’s what’s on the outside that matters. However when it comes to marketing for your business this is a dangerous lie. Customers should make judgments about the establishments that they are looking to do business with. Speaking as a consumer myself I have made this mistake. I bought an item based on the appearance and later was humiliated that I lost money on a worthless product. This made me become more diligent in making certain that the product that is before my EYES is really what I am getting. This mishap was mostly due to poor imagery skills on behalf of the business. And that can really kill a sale and a future customer. Local businesses tend to neglect photos, or they’ll simply post unflattering photos that position their business negatively.
A recent study from the National Retail Federation found that 94 percent of customers felt image quality was “very to “somewhat important” in their buying decision.
Isolate women’s responses and that number climbs to 96 percent.
Look at Yelp’s top restaurants of 2017 and something interesting stands out. Each of these restaurants have hundreds and thousands of positive reviews and images.
Customers want to see…
- High quality photos
- Demand (e.g. lots of customers if you’re a service business)
- Alternate views (e.g. different views of product/business)
- Topic specific images (e.g. cakes, tables, interiors, etc.)
- Color changes, where appropriate
- True to life imagery (e.g. view on model, customer photo of food, etc.)
- View(s) in a room
The keywords here are quality and variety.
Customers want to see your business from more than one perspective. More photos give them the ability to evaluate consistency.
You’ll never be able to take the perfect photo…
This was a photo that I took of my crow friend that visits my deck everyday for a tasty treat. I did not wait to take this perfect shot, like it may seem. Rather I just took the shot with no expectation of how it was going to turn out. I was just practicing with my new camera. I was happily surprised to see how well it came out. HOW you ask? How did it turn out so perfect? Simple, I removed from myself the expectation of a perfect outcome. This is what I call per organic with no expectation of an outcome.
If you focus your time and attention on all these specific variables. It’s overwhelming and simply too much for the average business. You find yourself talking yourself out of taking ANY photos at all, and chance losing potential customers. Doing any photos is better than not doing any at all.
You still need amazing photos though.
So, what do you do?
You focus on your ideal customers, the customers you’d fight tooth and nail to keep. Then use photography to present your business in a way that wows them. And how you do that is you focus on their wants and needs. If your a bar & grill you probably have customers that come in for a beer and wings. Maybe some live entertainment. Do your self the justice of researching what people want out of a bar & grill. Ask some locals what items THEY want to see on the menu. Study your customers, and MOST importantly build relationships with them. After all your business depends on them. So take the time to invest in them, so they in turn invest in your business.
Do the upfront work to attract the right audience and the details mostly take care of themselves. That’s the problem though. Most local businesses don’t do the upfront work.
So they struggle.
They attract the wrong people who, in turn, repel the right people.
Step #3: Take amazing photos
Remember, you’re not looking to win a photojournalism award. You’re looking to send a message.
You would do yourself a HUGE service to hire a local photographer to come and take photos of your business, both inside and outside. Perhaps you might consider letting your customers take some snapshots of your products, again all about building relationships with them.
This is your baby, show it off with pride! Invest!!
Customers are judgmental, they should be
We’re all judgmental, it’s a necessary, scientifically proven part of life. I mean think about how photos effect dating sites. I’m just saying, looks are everything to both genders. We ask ourselves questions about this picture we are seeing. Is this person going to be safe for me? Is this business have my best interest in mind? Does this picture of Shrimp and Grits make my mouth water? Then after asking the questions, we tend to listen for the answers in our guts. Intuition! It’s a real shoppers’ guide.
Give customers what they’re looking for, meet their wants and needs, and you’ll find their judgment swings in your favor.
