Step into the clients shoes to build long-term relationships

By Truong My Duyen
Building and maintaining value-added relationship between clients and agencies has become
more and more difficult. It is a process which requires both sides to invest time and effort to
develop mutual understanding and become each others trusted partner. More importantly,
great relationship leads to great work and vice versa (Solomon 2008).
A recent interview with Ms Amy Truong, assistant brand manager of Ponds at Unilever, who has
been working for the company for 4 years has provided me with highly practical and interesting
insights about her experiences in managing and dealing with agencies from the clients
perspective. Ultimately, the single most important lesson I learned from the interview is that
the first step in building long-term relationship is to put yourselves into anothers shoes.
Understanding clients dilemmas
A question popped up in my mind and I went straight to the point to ask her: Why do clients
sometimes have to push agencies so hard and create a lot of tight deadlines for them?
Amy made me realize that there are many reasons behind clients controlling behavior and its
the agencys job to understand, empathize and manage. Amy asserted that clients do have their
own dilemmas and difficulties. They are not intentionally unreasonable.

Clients controlling behavior
She began by sharing that agencies often accuse clients of pushing them too hard and setting
unrealistic deadlines on projects but do not understand that it is the increasingly fast-changing
and demanding business environment that requires clients to do so.
Most of the time, we have to be quick in order to launch a product sooner than our
competitors. We sometimes need to run the ads or activation soon to drive traffic into
supermarkets before special occasions. Otherwise, we run the risk of losing market shares to
our competitors, said Amy.
Therefore, we really expect agencies to respond quickly and flexibly to such changes and
deliver effective work whenever we are in need, she added.
Another difficulty that clients face is that they have to deal with multiple things and look at the
big picture at the same time. For instance, whether the agencys work can increase sales and
build brand preference, whether the ad work fits into the whole marketing campaign theme are
always clients concerns, said Amy.

Clients dilemmas
According to Amy, the reason clients disapprove or modify agencys work many times is
because their work does not fit into brand personality and the whole campaign. Additionally,
brand team has another dilemma to stand from the perspective of consumers to judge whether
the ad will get its message across.
To illustrate, Amy shared her personal experience in launching the latest Unilevers product
Ponds BB Cream 2 in 1- whitening and foundation. Even though we emphasize the 2 in 1
feature in the brief, they came back with a concept that the product should mark a trend for
fashionable young girls, which is irrelevant to the brand despite its creativity. Given that this is a
new product, we have to educate its special features to consumers, the focus should not be
about fashionable or dynamic girls, she asserted.
What client says is not what they really need
Good clients are very rare in Vietnam, Amy admitted. Most clients do not know what they
truly want. They generally say in the brief that they want to sell stuffs and demand the
campaign to be creative. For this reason, clients truly make agencies confused and view their
expectations as unrealistic.
A good client is the one who communicates crystal clear their expectations and priorities.
Similarly, a good agency is one who can dig deeply to figure out what clients really need as well
as what they should do to achieve their goals effectively.
Amy emphasized the concept of A True Partner whom every client is pleasant to work with.
She expects agencies to be her true partners who can proactively anticipate clients problems,
be accountable for their tasks and provide valuable inputs to business. Her sharing is consistent
with Sebastian (2008), good client managers do not wait for their clients to give
recommendations or directions; they are not order-takers but should be the one who make
things happen. Amy prefers to work with those who can forecast and highlight potential issues
in advance. Then when issues arise, Amy expects agencies to work with their team first to figure
out solutions themselves and be prepared to present solutions when meeting with clients as
proactivity in client relationship is the driver of client satisfaction (Beverland, Farrelly,
Woodhatch 2007). While working on a project, agencies should ask the right questions and
maintain conversations with clients to demonstrate to clients that they care about the service
they deliver (Oade 2012).

True partnership
In reality, most conflicts are caused by unclear and untrusting communication style of both
sides. Amy remarked that there are times when clients only need A but say they need
A,B,C,D,X,Y, Z in order to get more from agencies. In contrast, agencies can potentially deliver
much more than clients expected but they say they can do only a small part.
Clearly, both sides are not being honest and transparent to each other, which is the major
cause of ineffective or broken relationships. She considered client-agency relationship as similar
to romantic relationship and said that the reason couples argue or break up is because they do
not understand each other enough or keep on hiding the truth.
I confirmed my understanding by telling Amy that the best way to reestablish a productive
relationship is that we should communicate upfront and honestly about each others
expectations during the ongoing process of cooperating and forming partnership. We have to
put ourselves in anothers shoes and acknowledge that they also have difficulties like us since
empathy and trust are essential building blocks for effective understanding, communication
and relationships (Stevens 2010).

Listening and understanding
Amy agreed with me and advised that both sides should sit together and get expectations
clearly committed to in writing or documents. Write a checklist, agree on things each other
should do, and do them all together. And since it's all about business, remember to write things
down.

Closing

The interview with Amy has broadened my horizons and provided me with significantly helpful
insights into clients viewpoints, which I believe agencies should get to know in order to
appreciate the clients dilemmas and deliver what they truly expect. Contrary to popular belief,
the relationship between clients and agencies is not necessarily a battlefield. With an effort to
empathize the other sides difficulties and communicate transparently, both sides can gain
mutual respect, meet expectations and build sufficient trust for long-term quality relationships
(West & Paliwoda 1995).
After all, I believe that the client will remain the client and it is the agencys responsibility to
handle clients effectively under any circumstances. For agencies, the best way to gain trust is
through the work, in which agencies should be proactive problem-solvers who can respond to
clients need timely and deliver what they have promised with integrity. For clients, they should
communicate clearly their expectations and priority in order not to confuse agencies.
References
Beverland, M, Farrelly, F and Woodhatch, Z 2007, 'Exploring the dimensions of proactivity
within advertising agency-client relationships', Journal of Advertising, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 49-60.
Oade, A 2012, Managing challenging clients: Building effective relationships with challenging
customers, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Solomon, R 2008, The art of client service, Kaplan Publishing, New York.
Stevens, D 2010, Briliant Customer Service, Pearson, London.
West, DC & Palidowa, SJ 1996, Advertising Client-agency relationships: The decision-making
structure of clients, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 22-39.