How to prevent 3 difficult client conversations – a checklist for account managers

“People who accomplish big things did small things well”

Horace Jackson Brown, author of ‘Life’s Little Instruction Book’

 

There are little things account managers can do well to avoid big client complaints.

(The caveat to this is there will always be clients who complain regardless of how well you do your job – but that’s a topic for another day).

Here are 3 common scenarios in which an account manager has to have a difficult conversation:

 

1. Overspend

• • Agency spends more time/resources than estimated and the account manager has to inform the client the project has gone over budget (and ask for more money to cover the overspend)

1. Delays

• • Something unexpected happens to delay delivery on the agency side and the account manager has to inform the client of late delivery

1. Quality

• • The client isn’t satisfied with the quality of the work delivered and the account manager has to deal with the client’s negative feedback

 

In this blog post we address each one and cover:

1. Why these scenarios typically happen
2. The little things you (or your project manager) can do to prevent them

Let’s take each one and uncover why it typically happens and the little things that can help prevent it.

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Depending on your agency’s business model, these things may be the account manager’s or project manager’s responsibility:

1. Overspend

Why it happens

• • The client requests additional changes out of the agreed scope and at the time no one points this out or asks for more money
  • The agency underestimates how much time the project will take and realises too late e.g. because timesheet data wasn’t available or it was poorly scoped
  • Individuals working on the project aren’t aware how much time they’ve been allocated to work on the project so spend more time than anticipated

 Little things to help prevent it

• •  Highlight what’s in and out of scope
    • Clients don’t typically look at the details of what’s ‘in scope’ and ‘out of scope’ therefore they can easily ask for additional tasks that fall out of what’s been agreed so it’s important to highlight this at the beginning
    • People remember visuals and diagrams more than written details so consider drawing a graphic with two interlocking circles with a list of tasks that are ‘in scope’ in one circle and what’s commonly asked for that’s ‘out of scope’ in the other. Label these tasks “A” tasks and “B” tasks – by labelling the tasks, you begin to form a common language with the client and they’ll more easily remember that not everything is included! They may end up saying ‘I need to request a B task’ because they know it’s additional
    • Include written ‘assumptions’ clearly so it’s clear what you’ve based the cost estimate on e.g. number of rounds of amends included
    • Explain the agency’s ‘change order’ process i.e. if the client requests additional work outside the agreed scope you’ll assess the feasibility of the addition, revise the scope and request additional funds

 

• • Reconcile similar past projects
    • Review spend on similar past projects to see if the agency is consistently underestimating and overspending (and why) – adjust the estimate accordingly

 

• • Involve everyone in the scoping process
    • Ensure everyone involved in working on the project is included in the estimating process so they have the opportunity to flag any issues they have with the time allocated (or the task itself)

 

2. Delays

Why it happens

• • The client disappears and the agency can’t reach them in time for approval deadline
  • The client involves a new approver into the process at the eleventh hour who requests additional changes
  • The agency spends more time than anticipated e.g. the person allocated to work on it falls ill or takes longer than they thought they would
  • The client requests additional changes which affect the delivery timings and still wants to reach the same deadline (see ‘overspend’ above)

 Little things to help prevent it

• • Ask how long the client needs for approval, who will be involved in their approval process and who from their side will be responsible for collating all their feedback and giving one set of amendments back to the agency
  • Talk the client through the cost estimate and timeline to ensure they agree when they need to give approval at each stage of the project and the impact/consequence if you don’t receive their approval in time e.g. the deadline won’t be reached OR the client will incur more costs for your ‘overnight’ service IF there is still time.
  • Ask the client how they would like you to contact them if their approval is overdue and you can’t reach them via normal channels e.g. agree you’ll call their mobile if normally your communication is via email or Slack.
  • Keep monitoring the project progress and spend, pre-empt any delays, keep the client updated on progress and flag issues early so you can propose options for how to deal with them

 

3. Quality

Why it happens

• • There was a verbal brief/no brief or it wasn’t mutually agreed
  • The client’s feedback is subjective and/or not aligned with the brief
  • The agency made a mistake e.g. typos, poorly written copy, wrong/low quality image, missed elements, didn’t follow brand guidelines etc

Little things to help prevent it

• • Hold a brief “co-creation session” for the opportunity to input on the brief, ask questions & help the client write a clear brief understood by both parties
  • Follow your agency sign-off process:
    • Brief – request signatures from both the client and agency team members
    • Deliverables – request multiple team members check and sign off work
  • Ask for clarity on words used by the client that can be mutually mystifying e.g. the client says “I need this to be impactful” or “Give me the wow factor”… don’t assume you know what the client means, ask them to share with you a few relevant examples for what they deem ‘wow’ or ‘impactful’ (other ads/photography/visuals/copy etc)

 

I hope that’s given you a few points to help prevent your difficult client conversations.

What else can account managers do to prevent difficult client conversations?