Professional Photo Lab and Photo Printing Blog

This is the second of a new series of posts, designed to save you time and headaches when it comes to doing business with H&H Color Lab.  Today, we tackle the problems that can arise from possible duplicate orders.

Did you know that we spend a great deal of time verifying whether or not orders that error as Possible Duplicate Orders are truly duplicate orders or valid new orders. Our operating system checks two things in your order to determine if it is a possible duplicate: the order number and order description. If the order number and description are identical on two orders an error is generated and the order is routed to our errors queue.

A member of the Process Improvement Team (P.I.T.) must determine the validity of the order by comparing images and items ordered to those of the initial order received. The amount of time spent on this verification is enormous. It can also delay the processing of your order by several hours.

Please help reduce the instances of these errors by keeping H&H customer service  informed of any email address changes so you always receive your emailed order confirmations. Checking these confirmations can help you save time by not duplicating the order upload process. Our website is also a good tool for checking your order status. As always, feel free to call one of our friendly customer service representatives  if you have any questions.

This is the beginning of a new series of posts, designed to save you time and headaches when it comes to doing business with H&H Color Lab.  We’ll start with some wallet tips:

Did You Know…

…that you can receive your wallets sheet cut (die cut) free of charge (a small fee applies for eZevent and eZsport orders)?  Simply choose “sheet cut” in the finishing services area of any portrait  ordering software, and we’ll do the rest!

…that you can set up preferences in eZsuite for any print size?  If your wallets are always sheet cut, set a preference to include that.  If your 11×14 and larger prints are always mounted, you can set up a preference for that.  This tool is greatly underutilized.

…that you should keep studio-placed overlays 1/4″ from the bottom and side of a wallet image if you’re going to have the wallets sheet cut?  This helps avoid having text cut into.

Summer is the time to move your school business forward by reinforcing existing contacts and by making new contacts.  Because this is the time of year when employees step into new positions, your point of contact may change.   So be sure to determine who your contact is and reinforce that relationship via mail, email or a personal visit.  Bringing small gifts of cookies or a small personalized product like a mug, etc. can go a long way!

Offer a variety of products that are new and compelling.  People are looking for things that are different than the ordinary school package.  Key chains, mouse pads, dry erase boards, mugs, etc. create add-on sales opportunities.  Be sure to include images of the products in your promotional materials, as well as providing samples to your key contacts to show off before picture day.

Offering a variety of techniques and poses allows you to differentiate yourself and build your average check:

• Sepia, black and white, color and tinting can be set up as actions, which only take seconds to process, and can add dollars to your bottom line.
• Photograph two frames per child and then crop to create a total of 4 images to select from.
• Photograph with different poses than the classic direct front head and shoulders image.

Yes, this is a little more work, but you cannot get complacent in this competitive industry or your business will die a slow death.

Be sure to offer retouching for an additional price.   Different levels are a good way to approach this: Basic (light blemishes,) moderate (light blemishes, scars, tone,) and extensive (braces removal, teeth whitening and more.)

Make money while you are out on another job – offer “after sale” opportunities via hhimagehost.com!  Here you can offer additional products as well as a-la-carte prints.  Use email or skinny minis to direct people to your branded storefront.

If you aren’t shooting schools, think about it.  Schools offer a serious income stream and it isn’t as complicated as one might imagine.  Contact the experts at H&H to learn how you can go about getting into the school segment of the photographic industry!

Jeff Edwards, of Jeff Edwards Studio in Milwaukee, WI, was here at H&H last week, helping teach our School Boot Camp classes.  He is a 33 year veteran in the school picture business. Jeff started his career working for a large senior contract studio. In 1987, he opened his own studio with two locations and a color lab which he later sold in 1997.  After moving to the Kansas City area, he began working for Interstate Studio & Publishing, becoming their National Sales Manager.  He has also consulted for Jostens and Herff Jones.  He currently lives in the Milwaukee area and owns Jeff Edwards Studio, a full service photography studio.

Since we had him in the University, we asked him to do a video blog post for us.  We asked him to break down some of the important skills needed by school photographers.  Thanks Jeff!

We had several entries in our Dog Days of Summer photography contest, and the expert panel of judges (H&H employees) have finished judging.  Believe it or not, we had a TIE!  First, the runners up:

photo by Kim Sparks

photo by Liz Chivvis

photo by Fritz Geil

photo by Kim Sparks

And the two winning images, both submitted by the same photographer:

photo by Fritz Geil

photo by Fritz Geil

Thank you for playing along.  Fritz, enjoy your two free dog tags!