The subtleties of working with a competent customer
Hi, Habr! As part of a cycle of materials about studios / agencies, I decided to talk about such an interesting moment as organizing work with a competent customer. Fortunately - now this phenomenon is becoming more and more common.
I myself worked for almost ten years on the agency market, but then at some point I was on the client’s side - and this made it possible to look at the situation from a completely different angle. We had many tasks in the field of digital, decent budgets - and therefore there was a lot of communication and interaction with different agencies and studios. The material, of course, is written largely from my own bell tower and I use my personal experience in it.
First, we define who within the framework of this material I refer to as competent customers. So, the main characteristics:
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It would seem that such a customer is the dream of any agency, “your own board, sane client.” But often everything is not quite that great. I tried to give a number of practical recommendations on how the agency should work with such a manager on the client side in order to avoid standard problems.
Probably, the main thing here is to understand that the greater the competence on the side of the customer is, the more demanding it is for the agency with whom he works.
Probably the first fact that struck me as a new customer representative was that in 90% of cases agency representatives come to the first meeting without knowing anything about my company. It is clear that in a short time it is impossible to immerse deeply in the specifics of a particular industry, to become a pro, but we are talking about trivial things - what products the company produces, who the target audience is, what has already been done in the digital area.
The typical situation was as follows - the first meeting (after sending some kind of request / task), the studio comes to the briefing. Representatives sit down in a negotiation room, settle down more conveniently - and say: "Tell us what your company does." Looks weird. You ask, but you at least visit our site, at least come to see what is written about us? No, why? You now tell us everything.
I, as a person who had worked for a long time on the other side of the barricades, was somehow wildly - since one of the most important guarantees of successful participation in a tender is finding out as much detailed information as possible about the client’s company and the manager with whom he would have to communicate.
Another point about presale. A competent customer, as a rule, is well-versed in industry averages, KPI on digital channels, and price segments. And therefore, when the agency overestimates certain indicators in the proposal, it hurts especially in the eyes.
A representative of a major online media of general subjects arrives. Bring a media plan for the special project. It indicates the announcement of standard banners 240x400, and the CTR value is indicated at the level of 3%. And you immediately think that they want to deceive you, and an order of magnitude. Since one cannot take a CTR of three percent like this out of the blue - for such an audience, this is one case out of a hundred, with some kind of rabid creativity. And if they want to deceive here, you think, then, probably, in other areas in which you do not know the market average values, either.
When working with a competent customer, it is especially necessary to pay close attention to the “re-mortgage” places when calculating the effectiveness of a project or advertising campaign, even if they are insignificant.
Here, perhaps, the reader may have a question - how to determine the level of customer competence in general so as not to make typical mistakes? My experience says that it is not necessary to rush to extremes, and that the first glance is deceptive.
I will give a simple example. One of the first meetings with the agency, literally the first 5 minutes of conversation. The manager uses terms and at some point I ask again the meaning of one of their narrowly specialized abbreviations. After that, representatives of the agency immediately conclude that they are new to them. Then within an hour they explain to me what SEO is, how contextual advertising is arranged, and that there is such a cool thing - Google Analytics. To my timid attempts to argue that I do not need to explain all this, that I have been on the market for a long time - zero reaction and continuation of educational program. Needless to say, no one likes it when their time is wasted? Accordingly, cooperation with these guys did not work right away.
Do not make hasty conclusions. Elucidation of the level of professionalism of the interlocutor should be built on iterations - threw a bait here, applied the professional term here, looked at the reaction, corrected the behavior - and the following iterations.
Since a qualified customer understands the specifics of the agency, he understands how pricing is built. Therefore, the estimates are paid close attention. And here one of the common "corrupt" techniques can play a cruel joke with the agency. It often happens that the initial price is too high, and then, when a customer asks for a discount, in the form of a favor and demonstration of loyalty, it is immediately provided by the seller.
The problem is that a competent customer immediately sees the re-installment and thinks: “Guys, the estimate is too high, we remember these tricks. Here I asked about the discount - you gave it to me right away. And if not asked? Would you be deceived? ”
At the same time, for example, I always treated normally when the studio put its risks in the estimate at the iteration of improvements. I did not consider myself the best customer in the world, and I realized that I would have a lot of amendments, including even “move the logo”. Therefore, sometimes I even asked the agency to put in the estimate an item “possible improvements” - with a budget and time reserve. It is always easier for me to make a cheaper plan than to knock out an extra budget within the company and break the deadlines.
Another technique that often helped me out in “agent life” was the inclusion in the proposal of some ideas, unexpected approaches, new-fangled pieces, quickly cast in within an hour of a brainstorm with the project team. Such "visits". Almost always for an inexperienced customer it worked perfectly.
When working with a competent customer for whom the digital direction is key, such ideas often have the opposite effect. He is well versed in the digital environment - and this is his main job, to think about how and what can be done in an unusual way.
Therefore, all other things being equal, all the ideas that you can sketch “on the knee” before the meeting will go to the trash bin, simply because the client side has long thought them out and either started to implement or discarded as ineffective. Just because they had more time to generate and evaluate them.
The local moment, which is often a stumbling block. At one time, I got used to writing a short contact-report on the machine after talking with a client - that they had discussed, that they had decided what the next steps would be. It is very convenient - on the one hand, you fix all the arrangements without delay, on the other you show the client a normal level of service.
90% of agencies, unfortunately, neglects this. Even after the reminder at the meeting that it would be good to get such a document on the results, only half a page - often this task is ignored.
Once I could not stand it and after the big meeting I wrote such a contact report myself. I think at least I will shave a few colleagues, they will start doing it themselves. Do you think it worked? It was not there. Good, they say, the document, Andrei, is very useful, could you write such questions after each meeting? =)
I don’t think that the client is always the main one, and the agency should “dance” around him, often the relations can be quite equal and partnership (and should), but at least the minimum level of customer service should also be present. Do not repeat such mistakes.
Few things can infuriate a customer as effectively as silence of a studio at the time of the deadline. Terms, especially in the field of web development, are often shifted, often the agency is not to blame. I understand this perfectly. Warn in advance - and a normal customer will take it calmly (within reasonable limits, of course). And when the agency starts to play in silence and quickly tries to finish everything - and the client does not know what is happening - this is the worst. Because you do not know - whether the last minor bugs are left there, or if there is some serious fix with a global time shift. And you have no information. Including, to answer the question of your superiors.
You must always be absolutely honest and warn the customer in advance about any planned time delays, because this is often seen at the earliest stages. There is nothing worse than an agency that says “we will be in time, we will be in time, we will complete it, there is a moment left”, when it is obvious to both the customer and the agency that they will not meet the deadline.
For a competent client-side manager, a project manager is the key role in the agency. Because it is with him that the main pool of communications and works will occur.
And it reduces the role in the framework of presale and sales manager, and the "factor of the director." I understand perfectly well that no matter what communication skills a sales person possesses, I’ll work with him not PM, but later. It’s the same with the director - even if he came to the meeting, I understand perfectly well that if there are more than 30 people in the company, then, most likely, he will not take operational part in the project.
Accordingly, when planning meetings, you should try to allocate the maximum time in communication with the customer to your project manager.
In due time, by the way, I made a short list of characteristics of the ideal PM for me on the side of the contractor. Of course, this is absolutely individual, and this list cannot be considered a benchmark. So, for me, the perfect PM (or PM / Account):
Competence has a downside. Often it seems to such a customer that he knows the agency better and how to do it. Therefore, sometimes it happens that he tries to appeal directly to the performers, try to “move them with his hands,” and so on. It has always been important for me that the agency be able to bring me back to the land in a tough form. “ Andrei, you interfere. Andrew, do not do our work for us . ”
It is always sobering very quickly, because you remember well how such a behavior of a customer infuriated you. Just sometimes you forget a little - and then the agency should hit hands on time.
In communicating with a competent customer, you must be careful about disputes. Sometimes a dispute can become a losing one for an agency in both variants of the outcome of a dispute. I lost - the customer will think "I understand the question better than the agency, why do I need it at all?" Won - the customer may be offended, because he considers himself competent, and such a loss can hurt his pride.
Of course, it is very individual and depends on the individual. I've always liked to argue =) But I met super-qualified clients who have always been very sensitive to the situation when the agency won this or that professional dispute.
Everything is clear with direct offers and hints - the counterparty immediately goes to the black list. But there is another moment - a slight paranoia can develop, when some trick begins to be imagined everywhere. At some point I caught myself thinking that I immediately had a very negative attitude towards the proposal of the representative of the studio “to meet in an informal setting”. I understand with my mind that this is most likely not at all what I think about, but the sediment often remains.
This must be borne in mind. For example, after “capturing” this fact, I began to recall my agency practice and understood why sometimes my own offers to cross with a client outside the office (to pull him out of the usual environment or shake him a little) were often taken hostile.
As usual, it is impossible to list absolutely all the subtle points within the framework of one material, so I hope that you will give your examples in the discussion.
By the way, you may be interested in our previous materials about the life of web studios and agencies:
Terekhov Andrey, www.ruward.ru .
I myself worked for almost ten years on the agency market, but then at some point I was on the client’s side - and this made it possible to look at the situation from a completely different angle. We had many tasks in the field of digital, decent budgets - and therefore there was a lot of communication and interaction with different agencies and studios. The material, of course, is written largely from my own bell tower and I use my personal experience in it.
First, we define who within the framework of this material I refer to as competent customers. So, the main characteristics:
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- A good understanding of the specifics of the business of your own company, business processes, KPI;
- Full knowledge of analytical data in their industry;
- Excellent understanding of the specifics of the work of web studios and digital agencies;
- Understanding all aspects of the digital environment, possession of numbers;
- Often: the qualification is higher than that of the agency manager.
It would seem that such a customer is the dream of any agency, “your own board, sane client.” But often everything is not quite that great. I tried to give a number of practical recommendations on how the agency should work with such a manager on the client side in order to avoid standard problems.
Probably, the main thing here is to understand that the greater the competence on the side of the customer is, the more demanding it is for the agency with whom he works.
Presale - preparation for the meeting
Probably the first fact that struck me as a new customer representative was that in 90% of cases agency representatives come to the first meeting without knowing anything about my company. It is clear that in a short time it is impossible to immerse deeply in the specifics of a particular industry, to become a pro, but we are talking about trivial things - what products the company produces, who the target audience is, what has already been done in the digital area.
The typical situation was as follows - the first meeting (after sending some kind of request / task), the studio comes to the briefing. Representatives sit down in a negotiation room, settle down more conveniently - and say: "Tell us what your company does." Looks weird. You ask, but you at least visit our site, at least come to see what is written about us? No, why? You now tell us everything.
I, as a person who had worked for a long time on the other side of the barricades, was somehow wildly - since one of the most important guarantees of successful participation in a tender is finding out as much detailed information as possible about the client’s company and the manager with whom he would have to communicate.
Knowledge of market average
Another point about presale. A competent customer, as a rule, is well-versed in industry averages, KPI on digital channels, and price segments. And therefore, when the agency overestimates certain indicators in the proposal, it hurts especially in the eyes.
A representative of a major online media of general subjects arrives. Bring a media plan for the special project. It indicates the announcement of standard banners 240x400, and the CTR value is indicated at the level of 3%. And you immediately think that they want to deceive you, and an order of magnitude. Since one cannot take a CTR of three percent like this out of the blue - for such an audience, this is one case out of a hundred, with some kind of rabid creativity. And if they want to deceive here, you think, then, probably, in other areas in which you do not know the market average values, either.
When working with a competent customer, it is especially necessary to pay close attention to the “re-mortgage” places when calculating the effectiveness of a project or advertising campaign, even if they are insignificant.
Use of professional terminology
Here, perhaps, the reader may have a question - how to determine the level of customer competence in general so as not to make typical mistakes? My experience says that it is not necessary to rush to extremes, and that the first glance is deceptive.
I will give a simple example. One of the first meetings with the agency, literally the first 5 minutes of conversation. The manager uses terms and at some point I ask again the meaning of one of their narrowly specialized abbreviations. After that, representatives of the agency immediately conclude that they are new to them. Then within an hour they explain to me what SEO is, how contextual advertising is arranged, and that there is such a cool thing - Google Analytics. To my timid attempts to argue that I do not need to explain all this, that I have been on the market for a long time - zero reaction and continuation of educational program. Needless to say, no one likes it when their time is wasted? Accordingly, cooperation with these guys did not work right away.
Do not make hasty conclusions. Elucidation of the level of professionalism of the interlocutor should be built on iterations - threw a bait here, applied the professional term here, looked at the reaction, corrected the behavior - and the following iterations.
Honesty in pricing
Since a qualified customer understands the specifics of the agency, he understands how pricing is built. Therefore, the estimates are paid close attention. And here one of the common "corrupt" techniques can play a cruel joke with the agency. It often happens that the initial price is too high, and then, when a customer asks for a discount, in the form of a favor and demonstration of loyalty, it is immediately provided by the seller.
The problem is that a competent customer immediately sees the re-installment and thinks: “Guys, the estimate is too high, we remember these tricks. Here I asked about the discount - you gave it to me right away. And if not asked? Would you be deceived? ”
At the same time, for example, I always treated normally when the studio put its risks in the estimate at the iteration of improvements. I did not consider myself the best customer in the world, and I realized that I would have a lot of amendments, including even “move the logo”. Therefore, sometimes I even asked the agency to put in the estimate an item “possible improvements” - with a budget and time reserve. It is always easier for me to make a cheaper plan than to knock out an extra budget within the company and break the deadlines.
Ideas on the knee
Another technique that often helped me out in “agent life” was the inclusion in the proposal of some ideas, unexpected approaches, new-fangled pieces, quickly cast in within an hour of a brainstorm with the project team. Such "visits". Almost always for an inexperienced customer it worked perfectly.
When working with a competent customer for whom the digital direction is key, such ideas often have the opposite effect. He is well versed in the digital environment - and this is his main job, to think about how and what can be done in an unusual way.
Therefore, all other things being equal, all the ideas that you can sketch “on the knee” before the meeting will go to the trash bin, simply because the client side has long thought them out and either started to implement or discarded as ineffective. Just because they had more time to generate and evaluate them.
Customer service - contact reports
The local moment, which is often a stumbling block. At one time, I got used to writing a short contact-report on the machine after talking with a client - that they had discussed, that they had decided what the next steps would be. It is very convenient - on the one hand, you fix all the arrangements without delay, on the other you show the client a normal level of service.
90% of agencies, unfortunately, neglects this. Even after the reminder at the meeting that it would be good to get such a document on the results, only half a page - often this task is ignored.
Once I could not stand it and after the big meeting I wrote such a contact report myself. I think at least I will shave a few colleagues, they will start doing it themselves. Do you think it worked? It was not there. Good, they say, the document, Andrei, is very useful, could you write such questions after each meeting? =)
I don’t think that the client is always the main one, and the agency should “dance” around him, often the relations can be quite equal and partnership (and should), but at least the minimum level of customer service should also be present. Do not repeat such mistakes.
Breaking deadlines and deadlines
Few things can infuriate a customer as effectively as silence of a studio at the time of the deadline. Terms, especially in the field of web development, are often shifted, often the agency is not to blame. I understand this perfectly. Warn in advance - and a normal customer will take it calmly (within reasonable limits, of course). And when the agency starts to play in silence and quickly tries to finish everything - and the client does not know what is happening - this is the worst. Because you do not know - whether the last minor bugs are left there, or if there is some serious fix with a global time shift. And you have no information. Including, to answer the question of your superiors.
You must always be absolutely honest and warn the customer in advance about any planned time delays, because this is often seen at the earliest stages. There is nothing worse than an agency that says “we will be in time, we will be in time, we will complete it, there is a moment left”, when it is obvious to both the customer and the agency that they will not meet the deadline.
The role of project manager, perfect PM
For a competent client-side manager, a project manager is the key role in the agency. Because it is with him that the main pool of communications and works will occur.
And it reduces the role in the framework of presale and sales manager, and the "factor of the director." I understand perfectly well that no matter what communication skills a sales person possesses, I’ll work with him not PM, but later. It’s the same with the director - even if he came to the meeting, I understand perfectly well that if there are more than 30 people in the company, then, most likely, he will not take operational part in the project.
Accordingly, when planning meetings, you should try to allocate the maximum time in communication with the customer to your project manager.
In due time, by the way, I made a short list of characteristics of the ideal PM for me on the side of the contractor. Of course, this is absolutely individual, and this list cannot be considered a benchmark. So, for me, the perfect PM (or PM / Account):
- Understood in my business. I spent my time and plunged into the specifics of my area, and now I can communicate with him in the same language.
- Understood in my tasks. Understands what is important to me and what is not, what I am doing the main emphasis on, and what can be ignored.
- Very angry. In the sense that it always rigidly kicks me in terms, stages, controls that I provide the information necessary for the agency in time.
- Punctual. There are no comments here =)
“Beat my hands”
Competence has a downside. Often it seems to such a customer that he knows the agency better and how to do it. Therefore, sometimes it happens that he tries to appeal directly to the performers, try to “move them with his hands,” and so on. It has always been important for me that the agency be able to bring me back to the land in a tough form. “ Andrei, you interfere. Andrew, do not do our work for us . ”
It is always sobering very quickly, because you remember well how such a behavior of a customer infuriated you. Just sometimes you forget a little - and then the agency should hit hands on time.
About controversy
In communicating with a competent customer, you must be careful about disputes. Sometimes a dispute can become a losing one for an agency in both variants of the outcome of a dispute. I lost - the customer will think "I understand the question better than the agency, why do I need it at all?" Won - the customer may be offended, because he considers himself competent, and such a loss can hurt his pride.
Of course, it is very individual and depends on the individual. I've always liked to argue =) But I met super-qualified clients who have always been very sensitive to the situation when the agency won this or that professional dispute.
Kickbacks
Everything is clear with direct offers and hints - the counterparty immediately goes to the black list. But there is another moment - a slight paranoia can develop, when some trick begins to be imagined everywhere. At some point I caught myself thinking that I immediately had a very negative attitude towards the proposal of the representative of the studio “to meet in an informal setting”. I understand with my mind that this is most likely not at all what I think about, but the sediment often remains.
This must be borne in mind. For example, after “capturing” this fact, I began to recall my agency practice and understood why sometimes my own offers to cross with a client outside the office (to pull him out of the usual environment or shake him a little) were often taken hostile.
Conclusion
As usual, it is impossible to list absolutely all the subtle points within the framework of one material, so I hope that you will give your examples in the discussion.
By the way, you may be interested in our previous materials about the life of web studios and agencies:
- Justify the cost of developing the site and protection from dumping
- Client service in a web studio / agency
- Subtle points in the contract for the development of an Internet project
Terekhov Andrey, www.ruward.ru .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/170805/
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