Love is in the air

As PR professionals there are three things we love: talking, talking and clients. But when we think about it, do we really love our clients enough?

At this time of year we’re all bombarded with love-inspired paraphernalia, so perhaps it’s a good time to check whether, as an industry, we are  truly looking after and ‘loving’ our clients. I need to point out that I am not advocating or recommending any ‘extra curricular’ activity with clients here, just some good old fashioned professional relationship building!

Like a girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife, clients need to be looked after and nurtured to make sure they don’t get fed up and run off with someone else. Here are some ideas for keeping clients happy.

1)      Don’t get ‘new girl’ syndrome. When you meet a new partner it’s easy to be romantic and make the other person feel special, but this gets difficult over time (for some people…apparently). Clients are the same; new ones are always more exciting, so make sure you feel that excitement and energy for existing ones too.

2)      Don’t stop dating! Indeed, some agencies could probably do with starting dating in the first place as anecdotal evidence shows that some younger PRs at larger firms don’t ever meet their clients and communicate solely by email. This doesn’t work. Imagine a romantic relationship where you don’t ever see the other person. For most sane people, this is not good.

3)      Work through issues as they arise. This can actually make a relationship stronger in the long run. Don’t worry about the odd relationship issue along the way, if you deal with them early and openly it can actually be better than having no problems at all. Don’t wait until the showdown.

4)      Show them that you love them. Like girls (and, lets face it chaps, boys too), clients need to know you love them. Think about how you show them that they mean a lot to you – do your clients feature heavily on your website for example?

5)      Don’t forget birthdays or other special occasions! Need I say more?

6)      Introduce them to your ‘family’. They’re not just hiring you but your whole agency, so introduce them to the whole team and show what great, talented colleagues you’ve got.

7)      Get to know their ‘family’. Daunting as it is, meeting the family is an important part of a successful relationship. You’ll help your client out if you know how their company works and have a relationship with other people within it. It will also help you if and when your key contact moves on. Make friends with procurement, it’ll pay off one day.

8)      Don’t fall out with their friends. Work together with your clients’ other agencies: marketing, design, branding, web, the lot. You’re all working for the same end so don’t get protective and precious. Try meeting them and working together. You never know, you might actually find you’ve got a lot it common.

That’s all for now, but I’m sure there are plenty of other nuggets of advice out there. Feel free to share them here (but keep it clean as Flagship is a family show).