Useless Client Feedback

As account director on a client, I can see my team getting hacked off with the feedback on creative work which they get. There are particularly 2 or 3 clients who are either vague or very proscriptive. What can I do before my creative director gives the order to issue the AK47s?

Well hold on there. Before war is declared, I have a few suggestions but I get the feeling I will be returning to this subject again and again in different guises in other posts.

Here are some quick questions which may provoke some ideas how to solve this deadlock:

1) Ask yourself if the issue is further up the line at the client. I’ve found a lot of the time the problem is that the senior decision makers are approvers of the creative but have not seen the brief or been exposed fully to the thinking that got you there. Maybe a shorthand rationale of the thinking emailed to the senior client before they see any creative. Ideally what saves time in the long run is a face to face presentation of the work to all approvers.

2) Do the clients feed back via phone or email? I reckon the vagueness comes from interpretations of verbal comments. Ask your guys to encourage the clients to follow up any unclear phone calls with emails. Hopefully the process of writing it down should identify any anomalies and get more logic into their feedback.

3) Can you put together a short workshop run by your planner and/or creative director/team? It would could be positioned as a “value add”, establish how you want to get feedback, may show them the error of the ways and get them to think how they want feedback from their colleagues. Use of humour can sometimes hit the nail on the head and show people the error of their ways. My proof? Exhibit A – well not this but like this....or yes like this...or not..