Hiring another Small Business

With intensity, I organized having an aerial and interior video made for the sale of our house. As someone who has voiced many-a-real-estate-listing and is a small business owner myself, I went into the task with some high expectations for hiring the right company.

From doing my research online and engaging with half a dozen video production companies, here’s what I learned about service and marketing:

• When responding to a new customer, watch grammar, typos, punctuation. Messy correspondence leaves a bad impression. Use full sentences. No need to be formal, but being too casual also leaves a bad impression.
• If advertising that you provide a certain service, make sure you have examples to back it up. Your website, or any other site that mentions your company, needs to be up-to-date, clean, and clear. Can you truly provide customers what they’re asking for? Okay, verify it…
• Don’t expect people to fill out a contact form. Display contact info where someone can reach you directly and immediately.
• Know where you need to be! Does video play a role in your offerings? BE ON YOUTUBE! (Or Vimeo) Audio? SoundCloud or equivalent. Have you audited your own sites on those pages? Do they need updating? Do they even make sense?
• Respond to an inquiry within two hours. If you get back to someone quickly, they’ll know you’re on top of your game. If it takes 24 hours or more, you’re not appearing interested in a new customer.
• BONUS: Price plays only a small part of why someone might hire you.

I know I found the right company to shoot my video by their online presence and professional decorum. I look forward to sharing the production process and I anticipate having a great piece of video to use for the sale of my house (!) and to use as an example of my real estate voice-over work… Stay tuned!