140: My Car Was A Lemon: A Lesson On Client Experience

Welcome to the Shoot It Straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gehart. Here I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing business, motherhood, and life. Myself, along with my guests, will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there if you are trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too.

The Shoot It Straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.

Welcome back to the Shoot It Straight podcast, my friends. Today’s episode is a little bit of a story time for you. Way back in episode 92, I told you a story about a lesson I learned about business from a car salesman. That experience was back in February of 2024 when I purchased a brand new car. My baby.

Well, here we are over a year later, and I’m here to tell you that that car was a lemon. Yep. You heard it right? That car was a lemon and I loved her dearly until the end, but we had a lot of drama. So just to give you the long story short. It was in the shop six times in the span of seven months for the same issue that just could not be solved.

They attempted one thing after another after another. It got to a point where I was like a VIP in their service department. I got to skip the line every time, and I was on a first name personal basis with my service technician. I mean, the whole thing was wild. I. And the six times that it was in the shop in seven months, are you ready for this?

Resulted in me being out of my vehicle and in a rental car for a total of 66 days, 66 days within my vehicle’s. First year of life. She was bought brand new and yeah, like. That shouldn’t happen. Okay? But I still loved her until the very end. And this is a story about how client experience matters more than anything else in your business.

And so I’m gonna share this lesson through the lens of my experience with a lemon and working with my car dealership. So. Here’s the thing, I’m gonna go ahead and like fast forward to the end of the story and let you know that I have a new car and I actually bought the exact same car because when I say that I love her, I mean it.

I did my due diligence and I looked around and test drove other vehicles and other brands and nothing fit all the boxes that my vehicle did. I did a ton of research online because, you know, I didn’t want to rebuy the same vehicle if it was a problem That was very common and happening to lots of people.

And you know, there was all kinds of drama and forums and that’s not the case. I. As one of the car salesman at another dealership, uh, explained to me, he said, you just won the wrong lottery. And that’s true. Mistakes are made in manufacturing, and I truly believe that my old vehicle, the vehicle we’re talking about in today’s episode just had a mistake because in the end, engineering at Ford Corporate got involved and they couldn’t figure out the problem.

So when I tell you this story is wild, it really, really is. But this again, is about client experience, and it’s the story of how I was adamant about not only buying the same vehicle, but buying it from the same dealership. I said that they took care of me and I became like a VIP through this process, and I did.

I don’t know how many dealerships you have worked with in the past, how many cars you’ve purchased, but. I am almost 45 years old and in my life I’ve had a lot of cars from a lot of brands at a lot of dealerships, and I can tell you that they are absolutely not all created equal. In fact, most dealerships, especially in the service department, are not great.

They don’t prioritize you. They don’t care how long you have to wait. They don’t care if you get in a rental or not. They literally don’t care. I. And this dealership is polar opposite of that. I was taking care of so lovingly from the get go. It just was such a beautiful experience and you’re probably hearing this and thinking, but you had to take your car in six times and you had to deal with a rental 66 days.

Yes, all of that is true, but that’s where I can tell you that their client experience was so top notch that yes, I was inconvenienced. But I was also a super loyal customer at that point. I was so loyal because they were taking so like such good care of me. So in this process, like I said, you know, I would have this issue.

I was on a text basis with my service technician. I would text him from home, Hey, this is happening again, before I would even get over to the dealership, which might I say was 35 minutes away from my house. Before I would even get to the dealership, he would make sure that the vehicle of my choice was ready and waiting for me for a rental so that I could drop it off and very quickly leave in the car because he knew it was an inconvenience that I had to kept.

Keep going up there. I have a large vehicle that seats seven. And you guys know, uh, that I have three kids and I’m in a season of carpools. And especially when we think about my middle school carpool that I drive, there’s six boys that ride with me. So I need every single one of those seats. It’s not like I just like a big car, but the seats are empty.

Like logistically. I need all of those seats to function in my day to day, every single week. Multiple times in this process. I think it was four of the six times, they did not have any of their larger vehicles in the rental fleet available when I needed them. Are you ready for this? Instead of them telling me, sorry, tough luck.

You’re just gonna have to do with something smaller. Do you know what they did for me? They pulled vehicles off the lot. Brand new zero miles vehicles off the lot so that I would have the appropriate sized car for my problem. That is so above and beyond anything that any other dealership would do. They were allowing me to put major miles on vehicles that were inconveniencing them, that we’re then gonna have to be resold just to take care of me.

That spoke volumes and my friends, let me tell you one other additional piece of this story. One of these times I was in a brand new vehicle and I was scheduled to take a road trip and you know, if you’ve ever rented a car, you’re not supposed to leave like a certain radius and you’re not supposed to put over a certain amount of miles on it.

And I was given permission to take it wherever I needed to and put up to 2000 miles. On this brand new vehicle. Again, I was just floored. Floored that they were taking care of me so well, taking me seriously and putting the customer first. Hey photographers, quick question. Do you actually know what your marketing personality is?

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So if you’re ready to say goodbye to overwhelm, exhaustion, and the same dead ends you’re finding in your marketing, head over to sabrina gehart.com/marketing-quiz, and take my free quiz today. I can’t wait to hear what your photographer marketing personality is. Now, back to this episode. I went through this whole seven months of drama and again, getting to know my service advisor.

I can tell you about his daughter and what universities they went into and what things he collects and he knows about my kids. I mean, it’s wild you guys. But the experience while it was really crummy and like, do I wish I had all those hours back driving back and forth to do? Sure, sure I do. But overall I don’t look at that experience as negative because of the client experience, because of how well I was taking care of and prioritize.

And the same thing goes with your family photography business. Here’s the deal. When people hire us for photos, they want the end result. They want updated family photos, and the fact of the matter is there’s a million people that they could hire just like there’s a million car dealerships out there.

We’ve got endless choices. Unless you are in the tiniest town, I am venturing to guess that there is a ton of competition in your area, okay? People have choices. They can go anywhere to get the end result. Updated family photos. But when you have the best client experience, that’s what makes people come back to you.

And here’s what I want you to hear. That is true. Even if something goes wrong, even if it’s not perfect, people are more willing to give you a second chance when you take care of them. They’re more willing to hire you again and stay committed to your brand and your business when you have that exceptional client experience.

Okay? And I actually have a story about my own photography business and things that went laughably wrong with a family that has been with me for 12 years now. This family, the very first time I worked with them, they had just had their first baby and they hired me for a newborn session. This was very, very early on in my business, and two things went so ridiculously wrong at that session.

And it was one of those things that was like, you live and you learn. You don’t realize, you don’t know what you don’t know when you’re newer in business. So here, here’s the thing, and I’m gonna tell you this story, and I’m so embarrassed. But you guys know I am an open book and I am nothing if not genuine and honest with you.

So here goes first of all, the day of their scheduled newborn session. The weather was horrible, like dark, stormy, lightning pouring rain, just the worst. Okay. And I am a natural light photographer and I always have been, and I pride myself in being able to work in really poor lighting conditions, but I will always opt for rescheduling or better lighting to give us the best chances.

But back then I was scared to put my foot down and reschedule because of it being an inconvenience for my client. I was scared to speak up, even though I knew in my mind, ugh, I mean this is not gonna go well. You know, I was scared to. Now, 14 years later, I am never scared to, I reschedule all of the time.

I am really strict on lighting conditions because I want what’s best for my client and I know that they will be happier with the end result when I reschedule. But I digress. So I was scared to reschedule. So. I figured we’d roll with it and I arrived at their house, which I’d never been to before. Again, this was a brand new client and immediately upon walking in, I realized how little natural light they had.

Like on a good day, it wouldn’t have been a lot, but on this, I. Super dark stormy day. You guys, I can literally remember it like it was yesterday. It is so imprinted in my brain, this experience, but they lived in this little tiny bungalow and it was really close to the house next door, so there wasn’t light streaming in and there just, there just wasn’t a ton of natural light.

And then you add in the fact that it was raining and dark clouds and overcast, and it was just not good. About halfway through the session, I’m fighting through it. I have them slammed up against windows. We’re trying to make it work, but about halfway through the session I said, you know what, you guys, I really think that we should redo this in a couple of days.

I’m not loving what I’m getting from this. I’m afraid you’re gonna be underwhelmed with the end result. And I kind of gave them a lesson on natural light and lighting. I. And asked them if they would be flexible to reschedule, and I felt terrible that they had gotten their house clean and gotten themselves ready and they’d had a new baby and all of that.

But here’s the thing, when I explained everything to them and I was honest with them and I told them, of course I will come back at no charge. We will just do it again. It’s gonna be so much better. They were so understanding with me. So I went back to photograph their session, and the second time it was a gorgeous, beautiful, sunny day.

And I honestly don’t remember if it was a few days later or a week later. It wasn’t a, it wasn’t terribly long. I got to the session, I opened my camera bag and my camera battery, battery was dead and I couldn’t find up my, find my backup battery. Can you believe what I’m saying to you right now? We shot half of their session.

I. I called it and said, we’re gonna reschedule. I show up for the reschedule, and I have no camera battery charged. Like it’s not hanging on for a dear life. It won’t turn on. Okay. Luckily, I live three minutes from where they lived at the time, and so I had to suck it up and swallow my freaking pride and say, oh my gosh, I need to run home and get a battery.

They were like, literally, it’s no problem. I was door to door, I was back in 15 minutes. You know, they had time to like have a cup of coffee. It was not really a big deal. But again, I had to swallow my pride, look like a complete, ridiculous, unprofessional, and tell them that, oh my gosh, I need to go get a battery.

Like I’m not prepared for this. Just ridiculous. Here’s what I wanna tell you. Even though this experience of working with this family is absolutely mortifying, mortifying, to say it out loud, my friend, 14 years later, they are still my clients. So I want you to think about that for a minute. They have been with me through umpteen price changes, guessing on the timeline of when they hired me.

I imagine that I am four times what I cost back then, maybe more, maybe even higher. I have changed my price a zillion and one times Since then, I have photographed all three of their babies. I have done hospital sessions, I have done extended family sessions, I have done milestones, I have done motherhood.

They have asked me to travel with them around the country multiple times for photos. I have gotten to know them deeply and personally, and this just shows you that client experience is the most important part. Even when something goes wrong, I have taken such loving care of them from the beginning that they keep coming back.

And here’s what I want you to hear. It’s not because of my photos. It’s not because of my photos. They can get the same quality of work from probably any other photographer in my area. I take beautiful photos, but I’m not the best by far. I’m not the best. We live in a super saturated, really big metroplex.

They keep coming back to me because of me and my client experience. So my hope for you in this episode, in this storytelling of my experience with a lemon. And this car dealership and then telling you this mortifying story of these things that went wrong with a client back in the day is that you will see that yes, you need to be able to take good photos and have a cohesive body of work, but your work is not what brings people back.

There are a zillion photographers out there, honestly. And honestly, there’s probably a lot that are better than you. And I say that with love because like I said, there’s a zillion that are way better than I am. You can still have an incredible and super successful business by making sure that your client experience is top notch, my friend.

That’s it for today’s episode, but I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to for you to send me a DM on Instagram. Let me know if this resonated with you. I’d also, I’m curious if, um, you’re horrified to hear my story. I’m, I wonder if you have a similar experience or anything. I just, I’d love to hear from podcast listeners, so if you’ve listened to today and you’ve got thoughts.

Send me a message on Instagram at Sabrina Gehart Photography, and that’s it. We’ll see you next week. Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot at Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart Photography.

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