A lesson in outstanding customer service by Moo.com
Moo.com - purveyors of outstandingly classy business cards, postcards, mini cards, stickers and so much more - have given me a lesson in outstanding customer service this week. I shared this story over in the Ready Steady Pro Facebook community already, but I felt that this story deserved to be told to a wider audience as well.
Recently, Moo.com had one of their huge 25% off sales - meaning that for a limited time you could save a huge amount of money on all printed products from Moo! For those in business a saving like this on stationary and important items such as business cards is very handy indeed. In case you didn't know the mainstay of my photography is weddings and portraits and so this sale was a great opportunity for me to re-stock my dwindling supply of luxurious 'Luxe' cards from Moo; a triple-layered card that is so thick it oozes class and really does leave a client with a great impression of you and your business. Whilst I was at it I decided also to design and purchase some Luxe postcards, which I would use as 'With Compliments' slips and some stickers as well.
So, on the last day of the Moo sale after putting my children to bed I designed my new stationary by uploading my logos, entering my text and adding my photographs to my business cards. I sent the order and went to bed happy, knowing that a large box of printed goodies was on the way from Moo! The box would include Luxe Cards, Luxe postcards and round stickers. All-in-all an order worth a little over £120.
A few days later, as I have come to expect from Moo.com my order had arrived on time and well packaged, delivered by DHL. This was the first time I had ordered Luxe postcards so I opened these first - excited to see what was inside! The postcards were great. I got mine all in white with my logo featured on the front. Next I opened my Luxe business cards. They were all there, the images on the front looked crisp and sharp and the colours were accurate. I was, as I always have been with Moo's service, delighted. I was about to take to Twitter and share a photograph of my products when I realised that there was an issue: my telephone number was wrong! I had missed a number out! Disaster!
My beautiful, new Luxe business cards were now useless; I couldn't hand out a card to a potential client with the incorrect contact information on it, what good would that be?! Knowing that this was my mistake, and my mistake alone I sulked for a bit.
I decided to share a photograph of my delivery to Twitter anyway:
So, later that afternoon Moo came back to me on Twitter. I expected the Tweet to read something like "@RammellPhoto you complete numpty! #Fail" but instead Moo said: "@RammellPhoto Oh no, how frustrating! If you can please send over your order number we'll see what we can do for you."
I was very pleased they hadn't mocked me and even more pleased about their willingness to even discuss something that was clearly my mistake.
I replied to the tweet with my order number and was told: "@RammellPhoto No problem :) Our lovely customer service team will be in touch via email shortly to sort this out for you."...
At this point I refused to get my hopes up. I was convinced that the conclusion to this would be that Moo would simply ask me to pay for a pre-print and re-delivery of some new cards, or at least as some sort of sweetener offer free delivery. But the email I received from customer services said so much more:
“We want you to love everything that you print with MOO. If you could please send me the correct information I would be happy to make the changes on your behalf and reprint your cards, free of charge. Please also confirm if the problem is across all the products in your order.”
Wow! Free. Of. Charge?!!? Thank you Moo!
At this stage I would just remind you that the mistake in this instance was mine and mine alone. I wasn't thorough enough. I didn't check it twice. I was the person at fault.
So, I detailed the error I had made in that I had simply forgotten one, single digit from my telephone number, but that the rest of the cards were 100% perfect.
Later that afternoon I received another email asking me to review the PDF draft document showing my cards with the new, correct number. I approved the cards. Shortly after that was an email to let me know that my order was received and going to print. After that another email to let me know that my cards were being dispatched and that they should arrive on July 31st (just 2 days after my initial order arrived).
From disaster to elation. Moo had gone out of their way (and at their expense) to correct a mistake I made. I was more than happy. I'm still surprised right now that Moo are doing this!
I'm not suggesting that Moo.com will replace all your cards for free if you make the same mistake, but I will say that Moo clearly have a culture of great customer service in their business. Coupled with the excellent products they offer I can't ever imagine looking elsewhere for my cards. Moo really have got a customer for life!
Check out Moo.com today and get 10% off your first order by using this link, or by entering the discount code '7qftdq' at the checkout.
I love Moo and I'm sure you will too!
Read my Feature in the June Olympus Magazine
Earlier this year when the sun was setting much, much earlier than it has been recently you would find me in London on a regular basis. I found a love for the darkness with my camera and wrote a few pieces on shooting in low light with the Olympus OM-D E-M1.
The posts I wrote right here on this blog did the rounds in the various Olympus communities until Olympus themselves got in touch to say that they liked what I was doing with the camera and asked me to put together a piece for the Olympus Mag! I'm incredibly pleased to share with you that my piece is now featured in the June edition of the Olympus Magazine:
The front cover of the June Edition of the Olympus Magazine
For my first feature in a magazine (albeit digital only) i was pleased to see quite a few pages of content with my words and photographs featured. The magazine itself makes full use of the fact it's digital and allows you to interact with some of the content such as switching between colour and black and white versions.
Included in the article are:
- My top tips for Black and White
- A complete list of the gear I own and use
- My thoughts on black and white
- Making the switch from DSLR to Mirrorless and it's benefits
- Wedding Photography, Street Photography and more
You can read the article in the magazine itself by heading over to the Olympus Magazine Website.
Here are a few screen grabs from the magazine:
Much more to come!
I'm always updating this blog with new work and in the coming weeks you'll start to see lots of wedding-related features too as the season starts here in the UK. So if you're a wedding photographer and you're interested to see how an Olympus handles on a big day be sure to subscribe to the blog and you'll get a notification when those articles are released!
Until next time!
The Olympus OMD EM1 at Le Mans 2015
I promised myself I wouldn't make this post Olympus-centric. And I haven't. Despite the title this isn't another Olympus-fan advertisement for the company, but I felt it necessary to mention that all of the photographs in this series were shot using the Olympus system. After all, it's all I use now!
All photographs featured here were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro and the Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro
So, that out of the way...onto the photographs!
About a week before this years' Le Mans I posted a preview - a small showcase of photographs from my last trip back in 2013 sharing the sort of photographs I got back then. My hope this time around was to shoot much more 'B-roll' type content: the Pit's, the cars in the garage, the sights and scenes of race-goers at the track etc. But alas the one free and open day we had to roam the pit's at our leisure was one of the wettest days I can remember for a long time! Although we (Neil Graham and I) weren't concerned about the cameras as they were more than able to take what nature could throw at them, it was us getting too wet! It made maneuvering around the Pit lane very challenging as so many spectators had their rather large umbrellas up, which stopped us from getting to good spots in the garage.
So, when life hands you lemons...you go back to the campsite and wait for the rain to stop!
When the rain decided to take a short break we darted back to the pit's to have our fill. Not many of the teams had their cars as openly presented to the race goers as they did in previous years, so we instead focussed on those cars that were outside of their respective garage. A few teams, such as Aston Martin and Ferrari were even doing practise tyre changing. I took a couple of stills with a reduced shutter to capture the motion. It also warranted a slo-mo video too:
The sun stayed out for a while and it actually started to get quite warm. We made our way to the stands that overlook the pit lane for a slightly different perspective. I previous years at Le Mans I hadn't been up to this stand. From here we were able to get some great shots, including some of the short Aston Martin race that was taking place:
The Running of the 83rd Le Mans 24 Hours
So by now it's race day - Saturday. We've had our practise during the Le Mans race and during a couple of other events that were put on for spectators and were ready for the main event. The race, as the name suggests lasts for 24 hours from 15:00 on the Saturday to 15:00 on the Sunday. It's a long and arduous test of endurance for everyone involved - the drivers, engineers and the spectators! Neil Graham and I stayed out all night to watch the race from 8pm to 6am. It was exhausting.
We started our evening at one end of the track and slowly walked to the other. With plenty of time to watch the cars race we had ample opportunity to try different viewpoints and perspectives to get better photographs. Suffice to say I wasn't disappointed.
Here are a few from the main race taken during the day:
So, for now that's just about it. In the next week or so I'll share some of the night shots from the Le Mans 24 Hour which took the E-M1 up to ISO 4000 - 6400 with some really horrible and uneven ambient light. Add to that I was shooting moving subjects too.
If you want to see how the Olympus OM-D E-M1 handled such an awkward and fast-paced task then be sure to check back next week. The best way to make sure you see that post though is to subscribe! You can do that right here or click the link below. It takes 30 seconds.
I hope you enjoyed these photographs as much as I did taking them. Until next time.
A Photographer's Preview of Le Mans 2015
In just under a week I'll be making the drive down to the French town of Le Mans to watch the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hour. A race that is widely acknowledged among fans of motorsport to be the penultimate test of both the car manufacturers and drivers!
I don't perhaps know the ins-and-outs of the world of endurance motorsports as much as I'd like, but this trip to Le Mans is as much about photography as it is racing, engines and good times with good friends.
As much as the cars and drivers are put to the test, this spectacle challenges us photographers too: changing weather conditions, changing light (and of course nearly no light overnight!). This is all with cars travelling at incredible speeds. The great news is you have lots of time to perfect that panning technique and to find a great spot around the track to get your photographs of these amazing machines battling it out.
Last Year
I didn't actually go to Le Mans in 2014 as my son Adam was born just a few months before. My wife was on maternity at the time and so we decided to tighten the purse strings. It was a great race though with the eventual winners being Team Audi once again, retaining their Le Mans crown from 2013 (a year I did go!)
This Year
This year I'll be back. I'm our nominated driver for the road trip and I'm armed with an entirely new camera system. 2013 saw me at Le Mans with the incredibly sports-capable Canon 7D (mk1) and an array of Canon lenses, including my old jewel the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM II. This combination proved to be perfectly suited to the racing on offer.
This year (2015) will however see me carrying a much lighter setup in the Olympus OM-D range, including the diminutive OM-D E-M1 and E-M5. I had a chance to practise with this setup at Silverstone back in April and they proved they were more than up to the task.
Looking back at 2013
I want to get something different this year. I don't think I'll know what different is until I'm at the track and making my photographs, but rather than just going for technically perfect panned frames I want something more creative. This caused me to look back on 2013's photographs, which I want to share with you today.
The full gallery is available right here on the site, but below is just a selection that tells something of a story from 2013. It was about more than just racing. Le Mans is a festival!
Please enjoy these photographs and don't forget to subscribe!
