ShootQ vs. Tave - A Review of two studio management systems

As some of my clients have known I have been searching for an online studio management system for a little while. I asked some to be my guinea pigs and they graciously put up with spam and confused stares.

My two options were ShootQ and Tave (pronounced Tav-ay). I would like to break from my typical short-n-sweet blog post and provide a review for my photographer friends out there. I identified some important characteristics and identified each accordingly:

INTERFACE:

To start things off, ShootQ is sexy. You get in and are soothed with a silky blue screen, chrome, and a coordinated color scheme. The interface has a lot of polish and the interface is designed with simplicity in mind. A gracious amount of white space makes the workflow seem clean and uncluttered. Corners are rounded. The tabular layout features the key components of managing a shoot - tasks, shoots, relationships, business, Q club (a peer network for photographers) and settings. The layout is pristine and very easy to work with.

Some of these menus seem a little hard to find just what you are looking for (where is the pricing tool again?) but with time you can figure it out.

For Tave, the interface is easily workable however is sterile and resembles some scary excel worksheet from college accounting (complete with Easter pastel colors). The grid layout on your home screen is well organized and without clutter - but again, it is all numbers and lines and colorful boxes of pastel spreadsheet goodness.

Interface win: ShootQ.

PRICING AND MANAGEMENT

With ShootQ you must play by its rules. You cannot shoot a wedding for free - I have to charge friends $1.00 to shoot if I want to do it for no charge. If you want to add a book in a package for free - you cannot have a zero in the equation. Packages are very confusing to put together especially if you are like me and include free shoots under one big package. You will be posting negative amounts to offset the positive amounts required by ShootQ. I also do not like the automated email feature and really wish a dialog would let you know that an email was about to be sent to a client, and allow you to cancel the send. If I just spoke with a client a minute ago, I really don't want an automated email going out that sounds like I forgot our conversation.

The relationships section also does not allow you to add new categories. Photographers are not an option, so my friends that I may second shoot for or ask to help me are listed somewhere in with the florists.

Tave's pricing is geared toward photographers. When you add a new product, the menu is relevant to photography - albums, prints, photography are some of the default options. And, it is hierarchical. You can have "books" at the high level then parent albums, coffee table book, or leather albums beneath it. With ShootQ's new product menus, you get item type (product/service), workflow, and categories as options (categories for weddings, portraits, etc). Tave's preset variables for things like albums already allow you to add price per page and add ons like binding types, material styles, or textures. I had products online in minutes. As with ShootQ, you can then bundle these into packages.

ShootQ did however score big points with the automated workflow. You can assign a standard series of steps based on your own customized work for shoots. I can create a "wedding" workflow, then list out all the steps I need to take to get the job done. Based on the dates, these tasks are entered into my upcoming calendar to make sure I get things done and stay on contract. I kept the automated emails out, as I felt this was impersonal, but it is a cool idea... just be careful of how you execute this. Tave is limited to tasks which is a good feature, but very basic.

Tave has a powerful ally - flexibility. I am able to change just about every menu in the system. From shoot (Tave calls them "jobs") types and billing terms to lead sources and vendor types (my photographers are no longer stuck in with florists). This allows a solid amount of tailorability for us photographers.

Tave also has a location in all client profiles to log (copy/paste) emails individually and also track upcoming meetings and phone calls. Very nice. ShootQ is missing these elements.

Pricing and management win: Tave. A little more substance to the pricing element of ShootQ, and this would be a harder call.

PAPERLESS CONTRACTING

With ShootQ, clients cannot see their contracts or other files you upload to their profile. Unless they sign their contract online, there is no way for them to view it through the client site. While the client sites are well laid out and designed, it does not really act as a communication hub for the client like I think it was intended. Tave is in the same boat.

ShootQ also freaks me out with online contract signing. It seems weak. There is no visible server logging or IP tracking to enforce a case if something ever did happen.

Tave is solid in the online contracting arena. They have built in a very cool way for photographers to have clients initial whatever parts of the online contract they want, in addition to the standard signatures (just type "%%" wherever you want initials). In addition, Tave tracks all kinds of information when the signatures do happen. IP address, server information, you name it. A much more rigid defense if it was ever needed. A nice security feature is that you cannot edit contracts that are in use. You must create and publish a new one. While this may be a time consuming process, legally and ethically it is a good one.

Paperless contracting win: Tave. The server and event logging combined with initializing and locking of contracts really puts Tave ahead.

EXTERNAL CLIENT SITES
Note: In the image, my site is green as I have not had time to configure my HTML. Tave allows you to make it look just like your own website. ShootQ does not.)

Tave's external client sites are very well designed. One area where Tave blows ShootQ out of the water is in your ability to really customize the client sites to look like your own. CSS and HTML (as well as Google analytics) can be modified, allowing your client site to mirror your actual gallery site. This means a transparent jump for your clients.

Tave does not allow the client to login and update key elements of their wedding like ShootQ does. I think this is a nice tool in the event an address, phone or email changes at some point. The client can login and take care of it, saving you time. Tave needs to step up and improve the functionality of the client sites.

Another way ShootQ has Tave in the corner was the use of a client code. This was just a series of alphanumeric digits that the client needed to get into their site. Tave relies on the old school User ID and password method. Not a big deal, but ShootQ's unique and user friendly approach is noted. Who needs more IDs and password combinations?

External client site win: ShootQ. Tave needs to think outside the booking box and deliver more continuous value add for clients through this medium.

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

Both ShootQ and Tave support payment processor integration. Both seem to be about equal in their implementation but both get poor marks for ignoring Google checkout. Personally I cannot stand PayPal and would love an alternative. Photographers from hobbyists to full timers should be offered some variation in our options.

Credit card win: A Draw. A valuable feature, but some diversity and inclusion of Google checkout please.

PHOTOGRAPHER NETWORKING

A major shortcoming of Tave however is the external photographer network. ShootQ's "QClub" is a very nice way for photographers to share leads and establish relationships (but my non Q-club photogs had to be listed as florists). Unless they were ShootQ clients though, they could not be in Qclub. That's understandable but still a little frustrating.

Tave does have a networking tool but it seems to be aimed squarely at referral based business and not reaching out to photographers currently using Tave. This feature seems to be lacking the same level of detail and functionality seen through the rest of the tool. Hopefully plans are in the works to really beef this part up.

Photographer networking win: ShootQ. Their network is solid. They could have earned extra points if it did not require both parties to be members, but I understand.

iPHONE INTEGRATION


Another HUGE plus in working with Tave is actual iPhone integration. You can tap a number and it will call it, or point to an address for directions. The interface is buttery and a huge plus for photographers in the field. I now have a Tave icon right on my phone home screen.

With ShootQ, you must use your mobile safari to use the site just as you would on a computer. Reports in the forums also claim that it causes the browser to crash.

iPhone integration win: Tave, hands down.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Last and certainly not least, the customer service for ShootQ seems a little lacking. Although I did finally get a phone call, it was after many emails and back and forth until I could finally get a hold of someone. I was buried in automated emails with information I did not need (many were just duplicates form some bot somewhere).

Tave's customer service is exceptional. I was contacted promptly and properly with confidence and quick resolution. We used messenger as needed as well as very fast email exchanges. In addition, Tave launched (tonight) a new program called the Idea Bank. The Idea Bank allows member studios to suggest features, and other studios can vote on getting those features promoted. It is further evidence of Tave's commitment to the photographer and of their holistic, community approach to designing a successful product.

Customer service win: Tave. The CTO contacted me to make sure I was taken care of. The automated email spamming and robot on the phone calls got old with ShootQ - even though I was calling on a weekday and during normal hours.

PRICING

ShootQ is $39.95/mo for a studio.
Tave is $25.00/mo and offers a yearly price break during WPPI.

CONCLUSION

Shoot Q is very pretty and their attention to the workflow is evident. But the bugs and quirks in the system combined with an inability for me to adjust things is very difficult to work with.

Tave is the opposite. Not as pretty, but focuses on the photographer and making her/his life easier and more productive. You do not need to sacrifice the personal touch with your clients by using Tave - ShootQ encourages it through automated emails.

I look at these like cars...do we really need the inside of our business to be sleek and sexy - or the outside? Do automated, robotic emails help us look personable? Tave wins the battle for my business and has so far proven to be a significant value add. I do hope they continue down the path they are going and beef up the photographer network piece and apply a little more polish where it is needed.

What someone needs to do is take both of these tools and mash them up to build the ultimate studio management tool.

WISH LIST

Both of these guys are missing some pretty important things here:

Equipment Management: Make a section of your tool where I can enter my equipment and serials as well as insurance policy information. If my home burns down, this remotely-hosted source of very important information will be very important.

Shoot Locations: Why can't we keep track of our favorite shoot locations when scouting? Especially with Tave's awesome iPhone interface, you could take a snapshot as well as the GPS coordinates and save that spot to view later. Integrate Google Maps. Allow the photographer to suggest locations in the shoot details.

External file viewing: If we scan and attach a file, we should be able to make that file visible on the client site. Pretty simple and important.