Great First Impression at Portrait Innovations!

I just wanted to add a little reply to your message. I work at PI. We
all try very hard to make it the best experience ever and sometimes
since we have to book all of our appointments 15 minutes apart and
double book most of the slots it is VERY easy to get behind. It helps
us out A LOT when the customers understand this and don't get
impatient with us. Which I know is easy to do. Also, we work on
average. If we don't maintain a certain dollar amount average we can
lose our job. So it is very important to us to sell the biggest
package possible to every customer. We don't work on commission or
anything so that isn't what we work so hard for. It is really hard for
us when each customer comes in with their minds set to buy only the
$9.95 package because that means we have to work twice as hard on the
next few appointments to secure our position with the company. So I
guess what I am saying is when you come in, expect the best experience
that we can possibly give you. And keep expecting beautiful portraits
because our job depends on it!

I love this letter. First Impressions mean very little if the staff
and follow up aren't there. Hearing they did all this while at a busy
time shows their final product is worth it. Photos are a big deal, and
getting professional results, good service, and reasonable prices are
important. It's nice to hear companies like this exist.

Our family once had a problem with a company called "KinderPhoto", so
I know from experience how horrible it is when first impressions don't
mean a thing. The store was clean, attractively lit, and had beautiful
portraits to showcase their work.

I'm not even sure they're still in business, but it took four months
to get what they paid for, two months past Christmas, which was the
idea of the photos in the first place. They ended up settling for
about three quarters of what they paid, and the check bounced twice.

The end results were a disaster and an expensive lesson learned. They
were able to salvage some of the proof photos, only with the help of
someone with a full version of Photo Shop, but the quality and
service. Honestly, anyone with a point and shoot camera could have
taken better quality photos.

This seems to be a company that's very well run, with good employee's
and a good business model. (i.e. letting people have the CD ROM with
all of the digital pictures when you get certain packages) We have
been this this studio before and I would echo everything you said,
except that mine happened to have mostly enough seats and did have
toys for the younger kids.

Overall, great experience. Also, it's really nice that the CD ROM is
not copyrighted, as best I remember, so you are legally allowed to go
print more prints elsewhere if you want. I believe that to be the
case at least, it's been a few months.

Overall, great letter about a great company! :)

My apologies for the double letter here - The site timed out half way
through composing the letter and made me enter everything in again,
but I didn't realize it had appended the original message twice!

This is when that magic "Edit" button would really come in handy!

MA C,
Great job relating this positive experience.
You could be thier Director of Public Relations and Feel Good
Initiatives.
In the meantime I suggest that you shoot a copy of your letter
directly ot the store if you have not already done so.
Again, great letter.
BillR.