Insights

Clients Behaving Badly

A major corporate client briefed five agencies on what they described as a critical project of huge importance to their business to resolve a specific issue they faced. The five agencies diligently took the brief and developed their response and proposal to the client. (Obviously at no cost to the client) My specific agency client spent around £25,000 on their pitch, a mix of internal soft costs and bought in services with real hard costs. My agency client believed that the other four agencies are likely to have spent a similar amount, so well in excess of £100,000 in total. The client took the five proposals and their board decided to do nothing. No agency was appointed. What a huge waste of time for the agencies involved.

I specialise in helping agencies work more commercially, be more successful and sell more effectively with clients. Having worked with over 120 agencies I hear many stories about the bad behaviour of their clients and some stories that make my skin crawl. To write this article I spoke to 10 of my agency clients in different disciplines: advertising, healthcare, research, B2B, experiential, PR, and digital. I wanted to understand their view of good and bad client behaviour.

I started by asking about what constitutes client good behaviour both in new business pitches and with ongoing existing clients. My key findings about how these agencies defined client good behaviour in pitches are:

• The pitch process is clear and fair. There are a maximum of four agencies pitching and the brief is well thought through.
• The brief has involved the key stakeholders at the client’s end.
• The brief is written and discussed with the agency so the agency can build on it.
• The client comes with a problem or opportunity, not a prescriptive solution.
• The client’s expectations in terms of time scale, requirements and budget are realistic.
• They see the agency as a true partner not a transactional commodity.
• Procurement was praised by several of my agency clients for having improved the pitch process.

With ongoing existing clients there are similar patterns of good behaviour:

• There is an open partnership with sharing of information.
• The client involves and inspires the agency and work in collaboration.
• They appreciate the agency’s effort and expertise.
• They recognise and praise great work.
• Equally they will be straight when the agency doesn’t produce their best work but can see it in context.
• Smart clients recognise that when you are appreciative, praise and recognise great work the agency will be far more motivated to deliver fresh thinking and drive high performance.

So what about client bad behaviour?

My agency clients had many different stories and examples to share of client bad behaviour. So I will pick out the ‘best’ examples to demonstrate bad behaviour. One theme which was echoed by every single one of my agency clients was a ‘lack of appreciation’ by clients. When appreciated the agency will walk over hot coals for you. Agency folk generally work really hard for their clients and love to please. They don’t respond to nit-picking. They know all too clearly that clients have a choice and that agencies are in a highly competitive market.

Clients who bully their agency create an imbalanced relationship of fear which simply leads to safe work, not standout work or brave thinking. Sure, if the agency has screwed up then tell them straightaway. Have a grown-up conversation. See the screw-up in relation to the bigger picture of the agency’s output. Threatening the agency that you ‘will put the business out to pitch’ is counter-productive. Yes, it gets their attention, but won’t necessarily get the right result. One agency director reckoned he had an agency employee in his office in tears one or twice a week due to client bad behaviour. Another said that if some of the types of bad behaviour by clients had been exhibited by one of their own agency employees it would have led to a formal warning.

One senior agency client felt that ‘the bullied become bullies’ as he told me the story of a high profile client who worked originally agency side and was bullied badly by his clients. He then moved onto the client side and has since become a nightmare client. He has a high profile brand which many agencies would love on their client list and he abuses that ‘popularity’.

One agency talked about their client’s Procurement director who demanded a 7% rebate on their spend in the previous year. My client refused quite rightly. Another agency had a client who wanted a reduction in the agency’s prices otherwise ‘I won’t get my bonus and then won’t be able to buy my children their Christmas presents’. Emotional blackmail crosses the boundary of a healthy agency-client relationship.

Rushing the agency was a common complaint. Agencies appreciate there are urgent projects which need to be seen as a priority. However when the client then sits on the agency’s rushed response for several weeks and doesn’t make a decision this is very frustrating for agencies.

Sexual bad behaviour by clients was mentioned by several agencies. Those sorts of clients need to appreciate they are buying your time, your thinking, your ideas but not your body! Especially when the client who was rebuffed then bad-mouths the agency or individual is outrageous.

One agency director mentioned that they had read some research suggesting 70%+ of marketing people agreed that targeting their senior stake-holders is their number one priority and wondered if that made the situation worse. Another had read that more than 25% of agency folk suffer mental anxiety and stress due to client bad behaviour.

Several agencies discovered their proposal document and creative work had been handed to another agency by their client or prospective client. Doing so is a breach of trust and, in some cases, a breach of contract. Agency intellectual property is so valuable. Agencies talk to other agencies and share information. They have friends in other agencies. The agency grape-vine is highly effective and well connected.

Briefs that are a waste of time were a common complaint. This can take several different forms: Verbal briefs, poorly thought through, given to a dozen or more agencies, flaky objectives, unrealistic in terms of budget, requirements and timescale…… Agencies must however take some responsibility for accepting poor briefs. It’s their job to turn a poor brief into a great brief. It’s the agency’s job to qualify the brief and satisfy themselves of the seriousness of the brief. Moving the goal posts regularly was also a common frustration. My belief is that ‘The average client brief is below average’ (statisticians, I know that’s impossible but trust me it’s true)

The recession had put immense pressure on some agency-client relationships. One agency cited they are being paid less fees from several clients than 5 years ago, yet the scope of work had remained the same.

I then asked my agency clients whether they felt there were particular patterns or trends of bad behaviour. Some felt it came from the top while others saw it as coming from junior clients. A few notable companies were mentioned several times as being particularly difficult. Several agencies mentioned that they appreciate that many clients are under massive pressure within their own businesses and how some clients are doing the work of several people compared to a couple of years ago.

I asked what action the agencies had taken in response to client bad behaviour. Several agency directors had had to have an open conversation with the badly behaving client and in some cases with the individual’s boss. Several recognised the importance of getting the relationship right from Day 1 by laying out the ground rules. Face to face was felt the best way to resolve bad behaviour. Pre-empting bad behaviour was carried out by several of the agencies I spoke to. Another used formal monthly review meetings with clients to ‘nip in the bud’ problematic client behaviour.

Finally I asked for the agencies’ top tips about client behaviour.

• Clients to see their agency as human partners not transactional suppliers of goods.
• Be clear from Day 1. Have a kick off session to pre-empt issues and agree the Rules of Engagement. (three agencies recommended this)
• Treat the relationship like dating or a marriage. You have to work at any relationship. You get out what you put in. Treat others how you want to be treated.
• Say thank you. Appreciate great work. It costs nothing.
• Be brave and honest with your clients. Don’t avoid confrontation. Tackle problems early.
• Good behaviour will enable us to make you (clients) look good to your boss.
• Have mutual respect for each other’s expertise and job roles.
• Have shared goals so we are on the same page.
• Agency people need to learn to be less needy and to recognise that ‘good enough is no longer good enough’.

What good and bad behaviour by your clients has your agency experienced? Drop me a note to chris@spring8020.co.uk