Game of two sides

Who was your worst client?

It’s funny; when I think of the answer to that question, I am routed back to the first real mistake I made as an account handler, the feeling of pure naive embarrassment and the hell the client made for me as a consequence. I was an account manager with not much production experience. We needed a shot of the incentive for a mailpack and the art director wanted to use a particular photographer. It was a pack shot of an electronic address book and in my inexperience I did not realise he was using the likes of David Bailey for the equivalent of a tube pass photo. In my head now, the cost is £500 but I would like to think that I have priced it up over the years of telling the story to equate to modern day prices but I have to say I am not sure whether it was not really £500! Anyway like a lot of familiar agency stories, time was tight and I could not get client approval because of holidays so I gave the go-ahead and when the client got back, she refused to pay for it and wanted me off the business for such a crass error (so you can see why I am not sure whether it was not actually £500). For years afterwards I was mortified that I had done this, felt under supported by the production manager who should have known better and advised me accordingly - but you know what - I never made another production error like that again – in fact I was more on the ball than most because of it. Looking back on it, whether the cost was £200 or £500, the client was right to kick up a stink about it and I think she was really using it to show to my MD that she felt that the account was under-resourced by not having an account director on her business – which she was also probably right about. Historically, she had been a “hardass client” with a number of my colleagues having rubbed her up the wrong way so my reputation in the agency was not really damaged but at the time I felt like she was my worst client. In effect, how bad your client is depends on where you are standing – whether in the middle of your own personal maelstrom or with perspective some time later. My learning now – as that happened in another severe downturn – would be from a management perspective, ie about making decisions re under-resourcing accounts to make the books balance without considering the risks involved.

The packshot story was my personal experience. A more recent one which I observed but was not personally involved in other than in resourcing decisions was where the client had taken ages with the pitch process, screwed us down too much in the negotiations and, with it being a very big account, let the floodgates open with the number of briefs which had been delayed in the 2-3 month pitch process. Now that was stress! – with everyone working overtime to get off the backfoot, much crying in the toilets on account of the demanding clients and everyone knowing we had bent over backwards too much to make decent enough money. The fault was equally with the agency for agreeing to certain terms but what was missing from the client side was a sense that both the client and agency had to make the relationship work.

So the obvious next question: my best client so far? I know that definitively – one of those moments in your career where the stars align – chemistry with the clients, right people on the business, sense of collaboration, shared objectives and mutual agenda. It all leads to great work and amazing business results. I remember some of the business highlights which we achieved together. I also remember the risks the main client contact took and the way she worked with us in partnership. I also remember the celebrations we had – one Christmas taking over Café Kick and the client and account supervisor taking over the bar and pouring the beers while the caipirinhas were being made late into the night but that’s another story.... In the meantime if anyone needs a pack shot of some foosball players as above, my rates start from £500...