"Class Photography"

A review of Olan Mills by Grahame written on Friday 22nd of December 2006

Olan Mills had become a dinosaur with outdated methods and little or no concern for its customers. The USA based company realised that many years ago. There is no place in the current photographic market or in any market for a business that does not really care for its customers. Olan Mills in the UK actually perished many years ago. In 2004 it should have changed direction and looked for new markets as did the then parent company. The business as was, only had a short period to make profits and the investors at that time and Olan Mills in the USA recognised this. The problem was it continued to trade and continued its shoddy practises for far too long. The effect was to almost ruin the photographic market.

With the resources available back a few short years ago it should have done what was absolutely obvious at the time and gone for, quality of service, and established itself in a niche market. Just look at Olan Mills Church Directory. It has built great relations in a niche with fantastic success. There were and are similar opportunities in the UK and the sin was that Olan Mills did not recognise it. Instead they went into the inevitable spiral of short-trermism. All they have done is upset customers and taken them for granted. Getting involved with large organisations such as the church or other institutions was the best way forward. But instead Olan Mills continued its path to inevitable demise and failure.

There is still a place for customer focused good quality photography fortunately Olan Mills did not totally destroy that market. The problem is the market will not sustain any business that has no regard for its customers and can not move with the times. With Olan Mills its only measure of success was how many people we can get into our studios the “Hard Sell” techniques actually alienated customers and helped create a DIY photographic market which has suspicions and a totally negative attitude towards photographers and the photographic industry.

I sincerely feel for those who have lost their jobs but the business never did make commercial sense and from the customer and industry view point it has at last died and hopefully we can now re-build faith in photography. The model can not and will not work but there continues to be people out there who think it will.

There are better ways and as part of a sustainable possibly niche business the studio type of business can survive. But not in the form that Olan and other similar operators have adopted for far too long. I do hope we have seen the last of this type of negative business and I hope and know that there are better and far more profitable and dare I say ethical ways of doing business.

The saddest thing is that it was not the fault of the employees as in most cases they were just doing their jobs to the best of their ability and to the KPI’s set by its management. In essence the staff were the only asset unfortunately they were miss led and miss guided by people who should have known better and could not see that the business had no future or any ethical base. The customer is everything and not realising this has caused its downfall. I am only pleased that it has had no long term effect on the market but what it has done is made good photographers have to work even harder to convince people that they are customer focused and that not all photographers treat customers with distain and only want a quick “Buck”.

To those of you who wish to continue this type of business I hope you use the opportunity to shed the bad practise and find better solutions which put the customer at the forefront of your business and don’t go for the quick fix which will only lead to further heartache and further dissatisfaction and please do not continue to take advantage of your customers. I know we can make profits in the photographic industry and now that Olan has gone hopefully the public will gain faith in this fantastic and rewarding industry. Olan Mills RIP died 2004 but didn’t realise it.

I would like to wish all of you a very merry Xmas and a happy new year. There is a future for good people and I am told by the many people I have spoken with that most of you are good people. It is such a pity you missed a great opportunity.

If I can do anything for any of you, help or advice, then please contact me. There are better ways and to those very talented people out there, we can make the photographic business a success story.

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