The first few days of a photography class are an exciting, and sometimes hectic, time for everyone. That goes for students, teachers and parents alike. One of the biggest challenges is making sure students have the supplies and equipment they need.
To help you and your students, we've collected the best tips for ordering supplies from our CPC Certified sales staff:
Let students order as far ahead of your class deadline as possible in order to avoid rush shipping charges. This tip alone can save students (and in many cases, their parents!) enormous headaches, not to mention extra financial costs. This is especially true for those of you on the East Coast, since Freestyle's Nationwide Distribution Center is in California. We don't want students to pay any more than they absolutely have to, and not procrastinating in placing the order is the best way to avoid this.
If you take advantage of our free Supply List Online service your students can view and print out your supply list months before class starts.
Order in the morning. Be aware of the 12:00 noon PST (3:00 PM EST) cut-off time for same-day shipping. Orders placed before noon leave our Distribution Center the same afternoon. Ordering early can often save the student an entire day in shipping time, which of course helps them assemble everything they need before class begins!
Have a pen and paper while ordering, if possible. Not only will this help your students go through the individual items in their order, but allow them to keep track of their packages with Order and Customer Numbers. This tip makes order look ups and package tracking much faster and efficient.
Have your item numbers for your products ready while ordering, if possible. This is true for both web and telephone orders. Our Supply List Online lets you set up a printable supply list, with item numbers that you can hand out to your class. It is also accessible from anywhere your students have internet access.
If students are unsure about a product, encourage them to ask questions -- both while working with you in the classroom, and on the phone with one of our CPC Certified staff. Having as much information about the products as possible in advance helps tremendously in getting the right things to them, the first time. Since photo classes are, by nature, on a deadline, this will enable students to avoid costly delays and get them in the darkroom more often.
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