I am not talking about how well you know your client. I am talking about how deep and wide your clients know you.
How deep do your client relationship roots and tentacles go within their organization?
Does your clients’ President know the name of your agency?
Have you ever met them?
I am sure that your day to day people know their client counterparts. They probably email them often, maybe a text or two, a phone call but probably less often and an occasional visit to their office if it is not too far away. Clients might come to your shop from time to time.
More often if you are on their way home.
Today’s digital financial stresses can make developing deep relationships more challenging.
When there is a scope of work with allocated hours of engagement going beyond can be like stepping outside the lines. Employees are told more often to watch their hours and then to think about the client’s business.
There can be no encouragement to invest in the client’s business beyond the scope of work.
This isn’t a great way to foster customer loyalty.
The better the clients know you and the deeper you are known within their organizations they stronger the bond will be.
It is harder to fire a shop when you know the people within their organization. Clients will be more inclined to give the shop a second chance than if it is a utilitarian transactional relationship.
Each account needs to have a certain amount of client investment time outside of a timesheet.
The President of your client companies might not have time to have lunch with you. However they will be glad to talk to you if you attend their sales meeting. You might end up sitting at their table at lunch or dinner.
You can sit near to the client’s Senior Staff without asking if you attend their conventions or National meetings.
No client has every criticized an agency for showing extra interest in their business.
If your client has a sales organization when the last time members of your team have ridden on a sales call.
If they have a dealer meeting do you attend?
The last store check you conducted was when?
Do you present at your client’s conventions and meeting or just your client counterpart? Bad news could be a coming if nobody knows you.
It is easy to fire strangers.
Building client agency relationships doesn’t start with a time sheet.
I have never met one agency when facing the prospect of losing a client who wouldn’t say I would have invested more time into them if I had another chance.