I made a promise to myself to start immersing myself into business books this year rather than paying for workshops and webinars because I want to be careful with my money and learn techniques outside of the wedding industry. Everyone in the wedding industry tends to do the same things when it comes to marketing and often I feel like I’m just copying everyone else, which I hate. I want to push myself to learn from new people. The same principles are applied in any business so it’s obviously still very applicable. One of the main points in the book I’m currently reading is about customer service and making your client feel taken care of, which is basic business, but still, we forget so quickly.

We all have those stories where we were treated well by a business and those experiences never get forgotten. I learned something very valuable this past Christmas season because of Canon. I pay for Canon Professional Services yearly so that I can get a few benefits, one of which is five free equipment cleanings a year. I wanted to take my gear to Charleston with me in November so before sending everything off, I just sent my 35mm, which has always had major focusing issues. This past year it got to the point where I rarely used it because I couldn’t trust it. I was frustrated because I spent so much money on it and I had previously sent it in to Canon and they didn’t find anything wrong. Well, I got a call from Canon once they received my lens and they asked what was going on and then asked if I could send in my camera as well so they could calibrate the two. So I sent my camera in once I returned from Charleston but somehow, the day my camera arrived in Newport News at the Canon facility, I checked the tracking and it was being sent back to me. I called the guy I had been talking to, explaining that I thought there was a mistake because they were supposed to call me, let me know when they got it, and calibrate the two pieces of gear. He tells me they made a mistake and that I called just in time — they were able to stop my camera from being shipped back to me since it hadn’t left quite yet.

A few hours later, I get a call from this guy again saying they checked out my camera and it had over 150,000 shutter clicks on it which is usually when you replace the shutter. He asked me if I wanted to do that and I said to hold off on that repair because at that point, I was considering buying another Mark III to have as a third backup. So we hung up again and they went ahead with just the calibration. This is where the story gets good.

I get a final call a few days before Christmas from Canon saying they were so sorry for all the trouble and they went ahead and replaced my shutter for free. A shutter replacement is definitely not a $50 repair. The guy on the phone said to me, “Merry Christmas” and I almost cried. Canon’s customer service is the reason I’m writing this post, so obviously it goes a long way. We can’t forget that. And that taught me a valuable lesson.

You don’t realize how much you’ll learn in such a short period of time about business once you start your own. But you’re kind of just thrown into it, learning to either deal with problems and customers in a good way or bad. You choose to either put the customer first or to put yourself first. Money and pride are always on the line and in small business, when you rely on every penny you get and pay thousands in taxes, it’s sometimes HARD to put the customer first. But it’s always worth it. Canon not only fixed my shutter but they fixed my 35mm and it’s working correctly for the first time since I’ve had it! HALLELUJAH.

If you’re a business owner and you miscommunicated or you’re going to let down your customer in any way, do something to make up for it. Customers rarely talk about the GOOD unless they’re asked but they will talk about the BAD.