While redeveloping this website, I spent some considerable time searching for the right images for it. It was taking me ages and I was having trouble finding what I thought had both the impact and consistency I wanted.

Eventually I came across some that I really liked on OJOimages. I asked a few questions of the company by email just to clarify their purchase terms, and then decided I would sign up and purchase the photos I wanted.

They have a one-month subscription where you can download 25 images a day, every day for a month. It costs £139, which I think is a a good deal. Especially as some of the images I wanted were being offered by a competitor for more than that each. So, I was pleased I had found a solution, but it was near the end of the day on a Friday and I had to urgently finish some work for a client, so I decided I would sign up the next day – which was a Saturday – and finish my website images over the weekend.

When it came to the next day, for some reason, the website just wasn’t allowing me to pay. I refreshed and re-opened the page and I re-submitted the request, but the subscription just wouldn’t get from the basket, past the virtual cashier and into my grubby little hands! This meant that I wasn’t going to be able to download the images I was after. Which in turn meant that I wouldn’t be able to sort out my website that weekend. I was deeply disappointed, and I dropped a quick email to the company telling them that I couldn’t check out and could they look into it for me. I sat back, expecting to have to wait until the following week for a reply.

I was surprised – and genuinely delighted – to receive an email from an OJO Images director telling me he would set up my subscription then and there and we could sort out the payment the next week. How fantastic is that? What great service: to be able to sign up to a service on trust; to use it for two days; and then pay later on. And even better that that was the fact that I received this great customer service on a Saturday and from a director of the company. I’m certain I wouldn’t have received that level of service from other stock photography sites. In fact, I had previously emailed another, very well known, photo site with a simple query and they took four working days to reply.

Typically, “an unhappy customer will tell about 10 people, whereas a satisfied customer might or might not tell one person” *. I want to do my bit to buck that trend and tell you all. So big thanks and a huge thumbs up to OJOimages. You get the Kerrmunications love this week. Thank you for your fantastic customer service; more companies should act like you.

* From the TARP website, quoting their 1978 market research study conducted for Coca-Cola.