Our goal is to offer a more smooth planning experience, reduce the back-and-forth information sharing, keep more of the communications in one place to make it easier for you to see, and give you an earlier opportunity to build a trusting relationship with your customer. 

• The customer chat box automatically opens right after the inquiry converts to a booking. Either you or the customer can send the first message.

✨The new customer chat feature is not available for coordinated shoots (ie, those arranged by a travel agent or third party).

Once the booking is confirmed, a “Customer Inbox” will appear beside your Concierge chatbox.

• Your messages will appear in your chat in blue text boxes and your customer’s will appear in grey.
• Note that concierge has visibility into your Customer Inbox and they may include their own message in the chat if that message needs to be seen by both of you. For all private messages to the concierge, please continue to use the Concierge Inbox.
• When either you or the customer sends a message in the Customer Inbox, you will both receive an email notification so you know there is a new message.

Here are some best practice tips:

1. Start the conversation by saying hello to your customer and tell them how excited you are to meet them and capture their memories in your city. 🎉 This is now an easy way for customers to message you if they request to change locations, move the start time or if they have any other questions for you about the location or shoot. 
2. Right after the shoot, message your customers to let them know how much fun you had and check that they got back to their hotel safely/had a good time at X/whatever you normally message! This is also a good time to remind them that their photos will be in their email inbox within 5 days. (Never promise them earlier than that or tell them when you’ve uploaded the photos to Flytographer!) 
3. The Customer Inbox will close after you upload your gallery for that shoot. Before it does, message your customer and tell them you are so happy with how the photos turned out and let them know that you’d love their feedback when they see the images. You can tell them that they will find the feedback button in the same email as their photo link.
   (IMPORTANT! 🌟 There is some behind-the-scenes magic after you upload, so photos will take approximately 2 to 24 hours before getting to the customer. Again, never promise the customer anything other than within 5 days of the shoot, regardless of when you upload! See more about the Customer Journey in this video and resource.)

👉 Note that if a customer asks you questions about Flytographer policies or messages you post-shoot to do something extra regarding the photos, please always let concierge know and we will take over! 😄  

Once you have finished the shoot and uploaded your photos, the Customer Inbox will be closed. If the customer has requests post-shoot, they will see a message to contact the concierge, who will message you if needed for information as before.

• If a customer contacts you through your email or phone number asking for more photos, edits, or otherwise, please redirect them back to Flytographer to help them and notify the concierge team through the Concierge Inbox for that booking or by emailing concierge@flytographer.com

• Please review Handy Scripts for Photographers to help you know the ideal response for this and other situations you may encounter.