As a photographer and mentor I both feel the pain of a lost client (so I think) as well as hear about it daily from my mentees.

You know when you have given your all to a client. You have communicated, you have engaged, you have styled them and picked the perfect location. You then proceed to deliver a gorgeous gallery and you either hear crickets or see 6 months later that another local photographer photographed them.

It has happened to me more times than I can count but something about me is I will ask people hard questions. I have asked many past clients why they moved on and what happened. I do this not to be confrontational but so that I can do better.

So here are the top 4 things they have said to me and/or reasons your client does not hate you and I am sure that this can and will ring true for you as well:

1. Price – Obviously this is a big one for most of us. As we grow and learn our prices raise accordingly. Some of us (like me) do offer a loyal client discount but some people tend to feel bad about that and would rather just book a cheaper person than to ask me for that discount.
2. Style – Some people really love having different editing styles on their wall. I however am not one of those people so it’s thrown me off in the past until I was educated by past clients.
3. Perspective – We can not all photograph people the exact same way. Thank God right? So past clients have told me that they love to have others photograph them so that they can get different perspectives and that is respectable!
4. Life – The truth is people have zero attention span and when they receive their gallery they do not think about letting us know first that they loved their images. They have jobs, obligations and probably 729 kids to deal with and let’s face it – the world does not revolve around us and our emotions. Your client probably loves their photos but looked at them in a split second in the grocery store line, picking up their kids or on the toilet hahahah so that means – don’t take it personal.

Bonus reason: They were picked to model for another photographer. Sometimes this is very tricky and hard to swallow. I myself post model calls in local mom groups monthly. I however to tend to choose people to model for me who do not have professional photos as their profile photo because I truly do want to respect other photographers but I promise you that not every photographer cares at all if they unintentionally (or shall I say intentionally) steal a client from someone else. It’s happened to me so many times I have lost count.

Every single client that I have reached out to to ask them this very seemingly awkward question has met me with immense grace and compassion. They all told me it was not personal and that they enjoyed working with me and would again in the future.

So next time you are scrolling and you see that your past client who you loved dearly booked another photographer give them grace because I promise it is almost never personal.

Focus on the why behind your business and giving others grace and compassion and you won’t feel like you’ve done anything wrong when you see that your client went with someone else.

Need a photographer? Don’t know how to choose? This post may help you!