The Art of Client Service

Chapter 24In Writing the Brief, Provide the Client's Perspective

One of your key roles is to represent the client within the agency to your colleagues. In fact, no one in your agency should know the client better than you do. You want to be the first person that agency staffers turn to when they want to know something about your client. That means making yourself an expert on your client's products, people, and culture. Here's how to do that.

• Spend as much time in your client's offices as you do your own. It's amazing how much you can learn by walking the halls, eating in the cafeteria, and generally seeing first-hand how the company works.
• Get out in the field. Nothing is more valuable than meeting your client's customers and hearing their issues and concerns. Traveling with the salespeople who serve those customers gives you an opportunity to get their frontline perspective on the company, its customers, and its competitors.

• Spend time with your clients away from the office. If I have a meeting scheduled with an out-of-town client, I make it a point to arrive the evening before. I schedule a dinner for that evening with one of my key client contacts. I schedule a breakfast the following morning with a different client contact. I'll have lunch that day with yet a third client contact.

  My purpose isn't to run up a big entertainment bill. My purpose is to use that time away from the client's office not only to talk business, but also to really get to know my clients, to understand ...