Final Examination

Tonight I'm studying for the test I will take tomorrow morning. It covers everything we have learned so far, and we need 80% to pass. I think it will be very easy, but everyone is freaking out about it, which makes me kinda freak out about it too. Someone asked "what happens if we fail?" and they said "chicken or beef?" (an ongoing joke about your flight meal options after being sent home), but they said it with a smile, as if to say that no one has failed before. The 3 sections it will cover are Safety & Environmental, Sales & Services and the Camera, Equipment & Posing.

For environmental safety we have to know about the company's Zero Tolerance Policy (for photo chemicals and photo waste), which states "no liquid or solid waste materials (directly or indirectly in contact with photo processing) are to be disposed in any of the ship's drainage system." Image has 2 tag lines: Save our Seas & Respect Your Mother (nature, that is). We learned about MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheet) that outlines every chemical used in photo processing. There is a SRU (Silver Recovery Unit) that is used to filter out silver-bearing chemicals (such as bleach fix & stabilizer). The silver recovered by this unit can be sold and recycled, but mostly it's used to keep the waste out of the drain system (and ultimately into the sea!). The majority of waste on the ship is recycled. For instance, all the photos that we print that do not get sold are incinerated and the heat is transfered to heat water, pretty neat!

The sales & services part covers customer service ("we start selling the picture the first time we approach a guest"), how the photo gallery is run, the types of services we provide (besides taking photos and selling them, the gallery also sells digital & disposable cameras, film, batteries, cases, memory cards, frames, folios and a Cruise in Review DVD). Since there is no cash onboard the ship (everything is done using a card), we are not allowed to accept cash for photos, or to give any away for free (we are allowed to get tips, but we must report it to our manager). We talked about closed questions vs open questions ("Do you need any help?" vs "where are you from? how is your trip so far") the trick is to ask questions to the guests (people love to talk about themselves) and to be sincere and friendly at all times. "The most important part of your uniform is your smile" I heard that over and over (BTW we got our uniforms today and they are super ugly :(

(I'm writing this mostly to help me remember the material, sorry if it's boring, but this is my life now!)

We need to know what KPI's are (Key Performance Indicators: a performance measure used to evaluate how successful the ship is): IPP (Images Per Pax: image counts per person per day), PDR (Passenger Daily Rates: a dollar target each guest should be spending per day) & Sales Percentage: images taken vs. images sold. The highest profit service we sell are the photos (the "bread and butter"... 300%!), Cruise in Review DVDs are 40% profit, digital cameras are only 15% profit. We get team commission on all photos sold (and also accessories). Some items (frames, folios, DVDs, digital cameras) we get individual commission on. Images customer service policy is as follows:
Greet ALL guests within 30 seconds of entering the gallery
Recommend packages and daily specials to ALL guests
Entice ALL guests to purchase add-ons
Ask ALL guests whether they found everything they were looking for
Tell ALL guests about upcoming events & promotions
Pretty much, "every guest, every time" (a phrased that was used over and over again)

The events we shoot are: embarkation, captain's handshake, costumes, dining room tables, dining room couples, gangway (port days), portraits (formal, casual and "lifestyle" aka freestyle), group shots, events onboard and occasionally weddings. The gangway shooting is all about speed and being loud to attract the crowd into taking a picture on the dock. With thousands of people leaving at the same time, you need to get their attention and take the picture quickly so they can continue on their way. For this event we have 1 photographer and 1 'smudger' (someone who is dynamic & entertaining, and sometimes dressed in costume, who approaches the guests to have their photo taken). Portrait shooting is more relaxed. People will actually line up to get their picture taken with a backdrop, and are usually dressed up for the occasion. We take 3 poses of each couple/group and are in charge of posing them in a specific way (we practiced 10 classic poses). The set-up and take-down of the portrait studio is kind of a hassle, but it's getting easier. For portraits we us a Pentab computer to swipe the guests card to collect their information. For all other events we use face-recognition software to sort the photos. The dining room shooting is kind of awkward, because you have to approach tables of people eating and get them to pose for pictures (first the ladies individually, then couples/families, and on the last night only, the whole group, usually 6-8 people per table). One of the hardest things to keep in mind when shooting any event is that the final photo size will be a cropped version of the composition (8x10, 6x8). So if shooting portrait (vertical) the top and bottom get cropped, and landscape (horizontal) the sides will be cropped. To take a great image we must pay attention to the details (jewelry, clothing, hair, etc.) and make the guests feel comfortable and always come off sounding confident and acting professional.

We talked a lot about diversity and harassment, but that won't be covered on the test (but we will have to do more training in those areas once on the ship). I think I covered everything. I'm really tired now, so I'm going to bed.

Oh, just a few things I learned while here in Miami (that I wish I had known before!). As a new hire, we are not allowed to get off the ship at any American port for 90 days (that's almost half my contract!), but there are no ships that only do American ports, so we are able to leave the ship anywhere else (it's just a dumb American law). Also I will have to pay for my return flight home from wherever my ship's home port is! If it is a transatlantic itinerary then there is an option to be left off at the port closest to your home (NYC for me, Southampton for the Brits) and there is also some special cruise-crew flight offers from some places. I think that if my home port is far away (Europe or elsewhere) I will probably stay there and travel a bit, might as well!