Phone-tag and other olympic events

I’m a photographer. I work with my hands. Lining up the perfect shot can be a painstaking process, and there’s nothing more frustrating than having the phone ring as you’re about to press the shutter. Don’t get me wrong, if the phone stops ringing my kids stop eating – that annoying vibration is the lifeblood of my small business. Or was, anyway.

Even worse than the constant interruption is the wonderful game of phone-tag. You know the one: I don’t answer your call in time (despite ruining my shot) so you leave a message. I ring you back twenty minutes later when I’m done with my shoot. By that stage you’re teeing up on the second hole, so I’m leaving you a message telling you I got your call. And so on. And on. And on.

You’re ringing me up to give me a job. I’m ringing you back to try to coordinate when and where, and a bunch of other details. Given the other jobs I have on, I need to figure out how long it will take me to get from here to there (so to speak). I have to find out whether you want me or my offsider to do the shoot, and if the vendor will be home or I need to go via your office to get the keys.

Enter Ubookr. Rather than leave each other half a dozen messages, you call up my Ubookr page on your web browser (or mobile app), and in less than a minute your job is booked and confirmed. I have all the details I need, it’s scheduled into my diary in a slot that the system knows allows me enough travel time to get between jobs. I get my shot and you get a birdie.

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