"Honesty is the best policy" is a lesson learned very early in our life and often taught to us by our parents. And on many occasions I have found that this really is true and an incredibly worthwhile approach.
In my opinion, advertising agencies for the most part have a problem with this. Now, as an ad professional, I am certainly not calling myself or my colleagues liars.
But then there is the dreaded posturing - the long conversations, the rationalization and the spin. Why? Sometimes because we screwed up or sometimes we are just trying to get our way. From my experience, though, all that does is waste a whole lot of time and make everyone look like idiots.
Domus' client relationships defy industry average for length of time with us. This is a direct result of our culture of treating our clients and vendors like we would want to be treated - with hbonesty and integrity. We all make mistakes, but early and honest conversations help minimize potential problem and build a level of trust. No one is superhuman, but we must all be passionate about what we do and remain true to our principles, starting with honesty.
6/09/2009 07:02:00 AM
Categories:
Client Service.
Author: Anonymous
by "Being the Client"
A few years back, I had the distinct pleasure of actually being the client as VP of Marketing for a flooring manufacturer. During that time, my philosophy completely changed with regard to “client service.” After a good ten years of training on the agency side, I felt like I knew the client perspective pretty well and this was going to be an easy transition. Yeah...no. The pressures, the priorities, the issues were all very different than the way I felt them on the agency side. I found myself in meetings where my agency would present something that I would reject. On their face I saw “she does not get it” and in my heart I felt “they do not know the whole story."
A big part of our philosophy at Domus is the notion of “be the client.” Most of our senior managers have been clients or are trained to think like clients. That does not mean we do not provide an outside objective opinion or be incredibly creative—that's the job we are hired to do. But it does mean that we should think beyond the task at hand or the role we play and really understand the business and the day-to-day pressures around marketing a brand in this environment. This philosophy is as simple as asking ourselves, "Would I do this if I were making all of the final decisions?" (Well - maybe a simple question and a really well thought out strategic planning process.)
As a full-service advertising, PR, and internet marketing agency, we have maintained client relationships that long defy the industry average for the account lifecycle. We believe it is because we take this job as seriously as our clients do.
4/21/2009 11:11:00 AM
Categories:
Client Service.
Author: Anonymous
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