A commercial shoot is booked for a Wednesday. On Monday the forecast is uncertain. On Tuesday morning it is worse. Nobody wants to be the person who calls it off, a crew is booked, a location is paid for and a client is waiting for an answer.
By Tuesday evening everybody has made a decision under pressure that they will disagree about afterwards.
The checklist
Agree these at booking and the Tuesday stops being difficult.
1. Who makes the call
One named person, usually the photographer with the client informed. Shared decisions under time pressure are how relationships are damaged.
2. When the call is made
A stated time, such as the afternoon before. A deadline removes the drift that costs everybody money.
3. What forecast is used
Named source, and what threshold triggers a postponement. It sounds excessive until two people are looking at different apps.
4. What counts as unworkable
Rain, wind, light levels or safety. Light drizzle is fine for some work and ruinous for others, and the client does not know which.
5. The rescheduling terms
Whether the first postponement is free, what a second costs, and what happens to crew and location costs already committed.
6. The contingency date
Booked at the same time as the original. A held reserve date turns a postponement into an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
7. The indoor alternative
Where one exists, agreed in advance with what can and cannot be achieved there. Many shoots can partially proceed.
8. What is non refundable
Location fees, permits, models, crew and anything paid on the client's behalf. Say it plainly before anybody pays.
9. The deposit position
What is held, what transfers to a new date and what happens if the client cancels entirely rather than postponing.
10. Who tells everybody
Crew, models, location, assistants and the client's own team. One person, one message, before the deadline passes.
11. What happens if it is wrong
A shoot postponed into a day that turns out sunny, or proceeding into rain that arrives. Agreeing that the decision is made in good faith at the deadline prevents recrimination.
11b. What partial completion means
Many shoots can get half the list done before the weather closes in, and whether that counts as a completed day matters commercially. Agreeing in advance what constitutes a usable day, and how a partial one is charged and rescheduled, prevents an argument about a morning that was genuinely productive.
11c. Insurance and what it does not cover
Clients often assume weather losses are insured and they frequently are not, particularly for the costs a photographer commits on their behalf. Saying plainly what your own cover extends to, and suggesting the client checks theirs for a significant production, is a five minute conversation that avoids a large one later.
12. Seasonal realism
Booking an outdoor shoot in a month with short days and unreliable weather carries risk, and saying so when quoting is honest rather than discouraging.
13. Put it in the agreement
Alongside delivery and usage terms, which is the same contractual clarity as usage rights and licensing questions from commercial clients and delivery, editing and usage questions clients ask.
14. Some conversations still need a person
A wedding postponed, a bereavement or a client under real pressure needs a human rather than a policy, which is the discipline in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot, and packages are set out the way treatment plan and package questions describes.
Getting started
Publish your weather policy, decision deadline and rescheduling terms, then answer booking questions at any hour. SpideyChat for photographers answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.