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Craig in Virginia asked:
Can you remind me where to look back to find the post about the service that allows you to require payment automatically when clients download images?
I'm talking with Pixieset (whom I've used for two years now) and they say they can do exactly this but not automatically.
The service that I've posted about in the past is PaymentTab.com. Payment on delivery is a good model for payment although most real estate photographers collect payment at the time of the shoot with Squareup.com.
Another payment upon delivery service is FileShip.io. The attractive feature about PaymentTab.com and FileShip.io is that payment for using the service is not a monthly charge.
Fileship is 4%. Paypal and Square are 2.7% + $.45. Cash and checks at the time of service are zero percent. A stack of little fees on each job starts to become a big chunk before long.
I collect upfront as much as possible. A couple of my best clients get 7-10 days as a convenience so they can run checks through their system with their other payables. The bulk of the properties I photograph sell within the first two weeks on market so it's not a huge burden on my clients. Getting paid at the time of service is not unique. Most trades and home services expect payment on delivery if they are working for the client on a job to job basis rather than consistently every week.
People usually ask how they can pay. There's nothing stopping us from saying check or cash, even when you are setup to take PayPal. That's what I do now. It works great. Most people pay with checks. If someone asks if they can use a cc I fess up and let them. The key is to avoid the fee methods and use them as a last resort... like when a client is late paying for example. Anytime I am owed 100 dollars and I receive less than 100 dollars I think it's wrong. The credit card fees are often more or equal to the fuel it costs to get to my shoots, so ignoring them like they're insignificant is a huge mistake I think. Fuel is one of my biggest expenses!
Best and most affordable option for RE photographers currently is http://www.viewshoot.com. We had a dramatic change in how payments come in once we implemented this system and required payment before download. Some agents fussed at first but then got used to it. We still invoice larger clients every few weeks.
We use http://www.shootproof.com. We require our customers to pay before downloading the photos and they have a great invoice and payment system. Our larger clients pay every two weeks and we send them an invoice via Shootpoof. It is very nice and easy to work with.
Over here at Tourbuzz we just released a feature that does just this!
Our new payment collection feature allows you to mark a tour as 'payment required' during delivery which will allow your client to review the images and then require them to pay before granting full access. After they pay, your client's card will be securely on file to use to charge on future tours.
We would love for you to try it out and send us feedback!
I completely agree with Jimmy Plessinger. I've been using Viewshoot for about a year and I love it. It's so much more than just a payment-before site ... it has everything I need to seamlessly communicate with my clients and deliver their images. They've also recently added the ability for clients to schedule themselves. If something isn't working or I run into a glitch, Lance and Kwynn respond immediately. Lance is, first and foremost, a real estate photographer and built this system for his own needs.
We have just tested Pixieset and they do, indeed, have required payment before automatically downloading. They even allow delays of delivery if you wish to verify payment has gone through (we don't use that, but nice to know it's there).
It allows for Stripe, PayPal or directly by credit card with slightly different fees depending on which you use.
It's a bit of work when setting up rate schedules and very slightly convoluted when you first encounter the actual purchase. But we found that it only takes seconds to overcome the learning curve, and very easy to use after that. ...so far.
I'll update if/when this thread is revisited.
Zenfolio, aside from their free default if 'sharing', is designed to require payment at time of download plus requires acceptance and prints out license agreement. Great if doing event work where participants can review and select just those they want to the shopping cart for checkout. For RE, my clients pre-pay so I created a custom RE Menu with $0.00 for either the full size or 1500px/MLS/Web packets but then added additional cost items such as individual prints or bound books to give to their clients, etc. For full size I generally suggest that they choose only those they want/need rather than "All" to minimize download time as they can always come back for others. Initially, checkout was a very convoluted process, but they have worked to streamline the process.
For those running WordPress, NextGEN Pro (the paid upgrade of NextGEN Gallery) offers file delivery.
Our policy is payment post-shoot via personal check. I email them the photos same day w/receipt of payment included.
I think TourBuzz just came up with a new flow just for this (2 weeks ago).
@ROM - good point - this service is explained at: https://support.tourbuzz.net/hc/en-us/articles/115003811543-How-to-start-collecting-payment-with-Stripe#require-payment
Is anybody that uses one of these services having any issues with clients wanting rework, discounts, etc after viewing the images but before paying?
I like to get paid at the time I make the photos unless I have a good relationship with the client and they understand that they are liable for payment once I show up at a property (and a cancellation fee in some cases if I don't). So many things can change. An owner can change their mind, the home sells before the images get used, etc.
Perhaps the topic of another blog...but what about requesting payment online at time of scheduling? This is assuming that the scheduling is done online through an "intelligent" (configurable) calendar.