• Client Servicing

The one with the football tickets

Since launching in 2010 I am most proud of our longstanding client relationships, five of our current clients have been with us for over seven years, and one has been with us for almost the entire fifteen years.  

As anyone running an agency knows, client retention is a critical part of success, and our success in retaining clients is a testament to the importance we place on client servicing. 

Creative businesses often highlight their strategic approaches, big client wins, award-winning creative work, their processes and culture, but rarely do they promote their client servicing excellence. 

Having grown up in pubs and hotels across the country, I was well trained by my parents that the customer really is king. And let me tell you, behind the bar on a jam-packed Friday night, with tourists, local fishermen, and the yachting brigade all vying for attention, it was hard to keep a smile on your face. 

I’m pretty old school and believe it’s how we look after and care for our clients that is the most important aspect of what we do as an agency. 

As a colleague of mine once said, “client servicing is easy – you just need to constantly delight them”. Now that sounds less than easy when you believe you’ve already given them a great idea and jumped through hoops to get it through their onerous approvals system. So increasing that delight factor is often about the softer stuff: not being difficult about their demands, doing them a favour here and there, mentoring their more junior team so they don’t have to, simply looking out for your client. 

I always say no matter how well a project started – the insightful strategy, the powerful creative, the attention to detail – at the end of the day, we are only as good as our last piece of artwork. By that, I mean it’s client servicing excellence from start to finish and again and again. 

Our very first client has stayed with us, I hope, because they know we truly care about them and their brands. We took time right at the beginning to get to know them and carve a way of working in partnership together. And whilst the people might change, that first brand Traumeel we worked on 14 years ago, has come back for a relaunch. 

In these days of remote working, it’s really hard to build in those softer servicing skills, but we enjoy finding ways to surprise and delight. 

Another client of mine says when it works with an agency, you always want them to be able to do more. It saves time, means the agency can pre-empt their client’s needs, and can offer broader benefits to the working relationship. This mentality has pushed us into areas we might not naturally have ventured, but now we can confidently say we work through the line in one of our sector specialisms – consumer healthcare – from branding to campaigns to medcomms. 

I am fortunate over the years to have become good friends with some of my clients too, and although it can be a fine line, at the end of the day you want to be able to get to know and like the people you quite often spend a great deal of time with. I’m reminded of the time my husband took one of our clients out to a Champions League match. They flew over from Germany, enjoyed pints and burgers with my husband and… their team lost.

Difficult on occasion, demanding always, down-right wrong sometimes – whatever – we love our clients. 

Thank you to Sandra Scheule for accepting a first date, that spawned a longstanding client partnership and friendship. 

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