Negotiator of nonsense & navigator of bullships.
A snappy job title, and what it often feels like to lead at an agency.
Why is client services so hard?
Design agencies and consultancies enter the world of client services because they want to be paid to create cool stuff, it’s a gateway to getting interesting experiences out into the world.
1. So why is it so damn contentious?
Landing a paid project is the beginning of a delicate dance between client and service provider. You’ve agreed the budget and the scope-of-work, and now you’ll spend the remainder of the project pulling and pushing each other over an invisible profit-margin line.
2. Eroding margins and rising stress.
Clients want value for money. It’s that simple. They’ll continuously look for ways to get more out of you, it’s just human nature. It’s the reason all-you-can-eat buffets exist. We could just be content with an appropriate portion of food at a reasonable price, but we want to feel full. Satisfied.
3. Saying NO, a lot.
It’s your job as service provided to be comfortable saying no to requests, often and consistently. You need to be unshakable. Don’t get pressured into freebies and discounts. Know your worth, set clear boundaries and communicate these clearly and plainly. Offer up-sells if appropriate.
4. Managing expectations is a huge time-sink.
Not factoring account management costs into your fees is a classic mistake. your margins will disappear through time spent in discussions and conversations, or worse, you’ll get sucked-into doing ‘extras’ outside of scope. The longer you spend talking things over, the blurrier the scope gradually gets for both parties. Before you know it, you’re delivering a bunch of things you hadn’t anticipated when you priced-up the job.
5. Quick cash is never fast.
There’s a lull in the workload. Suddenly a few team members have nothing to do and internal marketing gets some TLC. An agency can feel like a monster with an insatiable appetite. Its during these times that a quick cash injection becomes tempting. You agree to a significantly cheaper price because the project has an urgent deadline. The quick turn-around and injection of cash fills a hole. The things is, ‘quick’ projects are rarely fast. Deadlines get extended, launches get pushed, and decision makers disappear on a two week holiday that they forgot to tell you about. The cash doesn’t come when you needed it to, and the already low margins evaporate as quick as they appeared.
Learn from my mistakes.
Like most, I learned this the hard way over 10 years in the industry, 2 years as a graduate, 6 years running my own practice, and 2 years leading a global design team at an upcoming Agency.
This substack is a place where I share real examples of project headaches and massive fails that taught me painful lessons over the years.
I don’t name names, but I do include the most important details, the value that I learned from our mistakes.
Subscribe to get them straight to your inbox (semi-weekly-ish).
Cool Links 🔗
KeironCalder.com ✌️
KenPlaylist.com 🪩
TheGoodWord.Club 💬
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