My New Policy of ‘Untipping’ as a Pro Photographer

It occurred to me yesterday that the whole idea of “tips” is a bit lopsided. If someone does a great job, we give them a hefty tip; if they do a terrible job, we give them no tip. In other words, the worst thing we can do to someone who provides a bad level of service is to not give them extra money.

That’s… kind of a low bar to set. It’s not even carrot-and-stick — it’s carrot-and-smaller-carrot.

As someone whose career revolves around providing a service to his clients, I want to put my money where my mouth is. So here, then, is my formal, completely-official, no-takesies-backsies, promise to anyone I ever work with, no matter how big or small a client:

You can untip me.

If I should hope to be rewarded for excellent service, it’s only fair that I accept a penalty for disappointing service. If we work together and you walk away from it feeling you didn’t get what you really wanted, untip me. Knock off 10% or 20% or whatever you think is a fair.

I won’t b**ch, I won’t moan, I won’t snipe you on social media. I will ask you in a separate email what I could’ve done better, and I hope you’ll reply to it frankly. But beyond that I won’t say a word about getting untipped.

In my line of work, I am the product. If I am to expect people to invest in it, I have to offer them some sort of assurance that it’s worth their time and money.

And yeah, maybe I’m opening myself up to getting ripped off a lot. We’ll see. Everyone I’ve worked with so far has been really cool; I couldn’t see any of them dodging a bill. I’ll take my chances.

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Image creditsHeader photo by Dwayne Bent