Do you offer a "price protection" for your couples. For example, you shoot a wedding today for a couple that booked you 6 months ago. Raise your prices tomorrow, and they want to add another album, print, etc. Do they pay the prices they booked with or the new ones?

On my contract, it states that the prices are good up until 6 months after their wedding date. I type in what that date is, as well.
(If you want the actual wording on this, let me know...)

So that should cover:
1) If they change the couple postpones their wedding date until 7 months later, then if they want to book you and you've changed your prices, they have to sign a contract with the new prices.
2) If your print prices change after 6 months.

For weddings, I guarantee album prices for 1 year and print prices for 6 months from the date of the wedding. For portraits, I guarantee print and album prices for 3 months from the session date. For year long portrait packages, I guarantee print prices for 3 months and album prices for 6 months following the final session date.

I think people like to know what they are getting when they enter the contract. If the contract says they get a $1200 album credit, they need to know that until they order their wedding album (as long as they do it in 1 year), they are going to get the same album they would have as the date of the contract.

They pay the new prices.

Life gets more expensive and my new prices are what they are for a reason.

The dealer does not offer me price protection on oil changes for that car I bought 2-years ago

We guarantee print prices for 90 days after the wedding date. Album credits are good for one year. I think it's good to give clients something concrete as far as pricing goes. It is difficult sometimes though since like Brady says, our prices increase with no guarantee.

good point! I don't have any kind of price protections now, but I alot of people say "well after the wedding we can decide if we want....".

Yes, but if you special ordered that new car and paid for it in advance, and then when it came in, they said, oh those custom whatevers are now 25% more, wouldn't you be upset?

I include a product credits and to that extent, I don't think it is fair to raise prices for a certain period of time. Product credits should purchase the same thing after the wedding as they did when the contract was signed.

I actually use that as a selling point of product credits - that they are locking in on the price now. And without the product credit, the price will be what it will be. You need to give people a reason to prepay for things. Why should they give you $ for a product they haven't received and won't receive for a long time?

Either way, you need to be upfront with clients and set their expectations as to what things will cost later on.

+1 otherwise it just gets way too confusing and time consuming.but they didnt pay for the prints in advance.

That's exactly why I think you should have a time limit.
What if they want to make an album 2 years down the road, and you are already swamped
when they finally decide they want to make an album, because you didn't plan that they
were just going to email you out of the blue to say, "Hey! We want to work on an album now!"--
and they expect you to do it for the price you charged 2 years ago... that's not fair to you.

No ma'am, as what you are saying is not inline with buying a new car or a wedding package, it is more inline with using a gift card.

In this example, you would be receiving precisely what you paid for, the car plus the pre-arranged upgrades (heated seats, power windows, GPS, etc). No additional money would be changing hands for the specific items. However, if that car came with a $500 gas card, you would not be permitted to buy the gas at the national average price 8-weeks earlier, when you special ordered your car, the $500 gas card would buy you as many gallons as possible at the prices in effect on the date of use.

Another real life example, if you give someone a $500 gift card to their favorite store and that gift card expiries in 12-months and they use it in month-11, after the store increases their prices by 100%, your friend is getting less value for their gift and for your money, the store is not guaranteeing that the jeans that were worth $39.99 in June 2007 will cost $39.99 in May 2008, all they are guaranteeing is that your friend has $500 to spend at the store.

If a client orders a package with 2-8x8" 24-page albums and 70-8x10" prints then that is what they get at no extra cost as per the terms of the agreement, however, if that client receives a $500 print credit she gets whatever that buys her when she places her order.

But I wouldn't buy myself a gift certificate for $500 just so the store could hold on to the money for me.

I definitely wouldn't do business myself with someone who was just going to hold my money and not give me anything in return. Why should I prepay then?

How in the heck should I know?

Generally, print or album credits are 'given' away, and not sold in addition to a package, as a way to increase value at a limited cost to the photographer, so the client is not specifically prepaying, but rather, receiving a booking bonus.

As a personal aside, I think that product credits are one of the dumbest items to include in a package. The whole concept has been marketed to death with up selling, Pictage and album pre-design.

Only out of curiosity, I'd like to know why you think product credits are dumb items to include in a package? I still struggle with packages and am always on the lookout for opinions about them.

I've always found that they either confuse clients, cause me to have to answer too many questions about possible order configurations or give the client a basis from which they want to negotiate (wanting to get $500 off by taking out the $500 credit).

Also, there is the potential conflict between the credit and any possible promotions that I am running when they wish to place their order.

I just don't like credits, how often do you see Chevy offering cash back versus Bentley?

Build value elsewhere

Thanks for the reply...PM sent as not to threadjack.

+1

Totally agree. If they pre-purchase an album in their contract they get exactly what they decided on, if it's a print credit, it's applied against current prices.

I may be misunderstanding the scenario, but I will say this - if I were to hire a photographer and had $500 print credit, I would be really really upset if the print prices were 200% higher than what they were when I booked.

The big difference between a gift certificate and a print credit - you can use a gift certificate anytime. If you decide to wait to use it, that's a risk that you decide to take. Your print credit can't be used until after the proofs are ready, which could be 12+ months down the line. That's not the bride's fault that she committed to you in advance.

My opinion, if you offer a print credit, give them ample time to use it after the wedding and make that policy clear that once the time limit is up, the current rates apply. If you do otherwise, I guarantee you that there will be brides that will start getting upset, and rightfully so (IMO).

Our prices are good for up to 2 months following the wedding. Simply put = better goodwill + more sales = who cares about our "raised rates." lol

Interesting point and a good argument for not including print credits

Offer whatever you want, it is one of the great benefits of capitalism.

If you are so inclined, here are my thoughts on why not to include price protection, print credits or large albums.

I think it is dangerous to obligate yourself to certain prices, huge print credits or large albums with many pages so far in advance.

Remember the potential issue from when Graphi stopped the 50% off deal? That had forums in a bit of an uproar and could have hurt a lot of people. Fortunately, their new pricing structure helped everyone without needing 50% off.

What if paper becomes a highly valued commodity all of a sudden and costs 500% more today than what it did when you gave away that print credit or 60-page album?

While not necessarily likely, it is certainly possible, especially given the value of several globally relevant currencies, the increasing demand, decreasing supply and increasing cost of several raw materials, the element of global warming, a staggering debt and whomever might get elected as the next president.

Please remember that what you offer today needs to be provided in 12, 18 or 24 months from today regardless of what the ultimate cost is. If you have extensive financial obligations or low margins then you very well may be taking on more risk than you realize by committing to a certain price or specific package contents.

Album companies, photo labs and shipping businesses don't guarantee their prices to us, nor do just about any other companies that are involved in the production of our goods or the offering of our services.

I have actually started decreasing the default size of the albums and the number of pages in my albums for each package, as I would hate to obligate myself to something that is impractical to fulfill in mid-2009 or early-2010.

Back to print credits and price protection, I do give really great clients an unexpected $200 print credit right after their wedding that needs to be used within 30-days, but the prices are what the prices are

do you keep track of who you give this unexpected print credit to? it would upset me if i was a client who had been referred from someone who got that print credit, and then i didnt.

Yes, it shows right in their account.

I generally get good referrals from good clients and I'll absolutely decline shooting a wedding that was referred to me by a bad client, so no real issue about referrals not getting it and being upset.

Some clients are idiots and I don't want to deal with them and I don't want to reward them either...