What is Client Servicing?
Simply put, it is the process of creating and maintaining a strong working rapport with a customer. It is about understanding the needs and desires of the customer, and moving to meet those needs proactively.
The key to good servicing is providing the client with people who know the account well, or have the ability to grasp the brief, and are able to be of assistance whenever needed. This would mean looking beyond the brief and at the brand itself.
An understanding of supporting information like - goals of the customer, the conditions that the client works with, expectations to be met, about the client, etc. is very essential.
Our Advantage:
Normally, most agencies make the mistake of securing a new client, and then never allow the sales person to introduce other support personnel to the new client. Thankfully, in our case, we do not follow suit and instead the Servicing Person gets hold of the account as soon as the deal is signed.
This allows the customer to be incrementally migrated from relying on the BD person and begins to develop a relationship with the Servicing Person. The idea is to help the new client understand that he or she has a support team that is in place for the long run.
The Basic Responsibilities Of This Profile:
• Meeting clients and taking briefs
• Preparing MOMs
• Debriefing the team
• Organizing and participating in ideation
• Ensure Internal Processes
• Preparing time schedules (project time tables)
• Handling client and internal coordination
• Ensuring delivery as per deadline
• Ensuring billings and payment
• Ensuring client satisfaction
• Preparing monthly site traffic analysis report and presenting it to the client
• Maintaining regular client contact
• Handling one or more key account/s and other set up accounts
• Updating seniors on existing projects as and when required
• Preparing annual plan for key accounts
• Constantly ‘thinking’/innovating for existing accounts
1. Meeting Clients and Taking Briefs:
Briefs are the client’s requirement for his brand or product. They can come in either an oral or a written format. A written format is the most preferred way as this is a documented format, which can be referred to later on during the project implementation as well.
A brief can be discussed over a face-to-face meeting or over the phone and sometimes-over mail as well. The best way to obtain a brief is to get a written brief over a face-to-face meeting. This allows the client to talk about his brand, which in turn helps the servicing person to gather additional information that can prove handy during execution.
While attending a briefing, it is mandatory for the servicing person to pay attention and take down pointers. It is also important to ask the right kind of questions that the servicing person feels can help later on. e.g. budgets – these help for us to plan, or the brand’s market share which could give us an indication of the scale on which the brand would want to advertise.
In our case, we have a brief format ready, which covers essential questions. However, since each requirement has some uniqueness it becomes important for the servicing person to dissect the brief.
2. Preparing MOMs:
MOMs or Minutes of Meetings are documents of matters discussed over a meeting. They act as reminders for both the agency as well as the client during execution and thus are helpful to both. The typical format of an MOM should include the names of the people who participated from each side, date and location. The content should ideally be in points yet covering all that was discussed.
While this can be made in a word document and sent to all as an attached file, we normally put it on the body of the mail itself. This is done to avoid corrupt attachments, overcome any scenario where the attachment may be blocked at the receiver’s end, and simply to save time.
3. Debriefing The Team:
The right way to debrief a team is a tricky issue. Firstly, for this the servicing person needs to know the pulse of his creative team in and out to select the members that shall ideate for a particular brief. Each creative team member will have their unique strengths and weaknesses, which makes them suitable for a particular set of jobs.
In an ideal scenario, the servicing person can induce his creativity to set the teams’ wheels in motion. E.g. If the brief is for fanta apple which is a new flavor from fanta you keep apples with a fanta sticker on them on the team members’ desks with a note on the meeting time. This acts as a teaser and they will immediately start to ponder over the hint.
However, unfortunately, at most times we do not get time for such quality actions. Thus the ideal thing to do would be to mail the Brief and the MOM to the team and give them sometime to read, understand, raise questions and then meet them for the debriefing.
During a debriefing, the servicing person should emphasize on certain things like: Objectives, TG, Preferences, Budgets (if we are aware of the same), brand guidelines (if the brand follows one).
4. Participation In Ideation:
Is necessary to see that the creative routes taken are in the right direction and that they do not wander away from the requirement or objective. The servicing person has to think from the brand perspective here and has to remain neutral about what may seem as really good ideas but might not be of use to the brand.
5. Ensure Internal Processes:
We have been following certain internal processes post securing our ISO certification. These processes, which are mostly the daily job responsibilities of a CS person have been documented and are available with the HRD.
6. Preparing Time Schedules:
Every project that we acquire is time bound. Infact time is how we measure our income and hence it becomes critical to prepare and maintain a time schedule/table. The timetable shall list down the various jobs as per the SOW in a project which we have signed for. They will be broken down as department-wise jobs featuring number of days, delivery date, date on which feedback was received, buffer time for acting on the feedback, final delivery date, and comments if any.
7. Handling Client and Internal Coordination:
During execution, the servicing person has to handle both the client as well as his production team. This can be a testing time as various unforeseen issues can pop up. The servicing person should keep a level head and should be able to handle these pressures with utmost diplomacy. Over this, he should keep a constant vigil on the timelines, the client’s needs, as well as the team’s requirement for raw materials etc.
Here, attitude is of great importance and only a positive attitude with a craving to take up challenges shall bring good results to the table.
8. Ensuring Delivery As Per Deadline:
Ensuring a timely delivery helps us in two ways a. It automatically gains client satisfaction who in turn would be ready to work with us again; b. We secure our income, and do not run into losses.
Two important factors that help ensure a timely delivery are a. Prioritize the projects under parameters such as – delivery time, amount of jobs on the project, type and amount of resource used. This can be planned with the help of the project manager and the respective team heads; b. Refer to the timetable regularly and ensure that there are no chances of delays anywhere along the way.
If a delay is unavoidable, the best approach would be to advance inform the client and be transparent with him. This act would only gain appreciation from the client!
9. Ensuring Billings And Payment:
The servicing person should have an eye over the billings of his account. While in the case of new accounts, this can be done with the help of the BD person on this account. For existing accounts or accounts, which have been on maintenance with us, it becomes the servicing person’s responsibility to ensure this.
Infact the billings on existing accounts – maintenance money, ad hoc promo work, etc. make a good percentage of our revenue and hence it is important for the servicing to take care of this.
The servicing person is also entitled to liaise between the internal accounts dept and the client to ensure that we are receiving the payments on time.
10. Ensuring Client Satisfaction:
A satisfied client is the best bet for more and regular income. It is a servicing professional’s duty to ensure that the client is satisfied. For this he should ensure the few basics such as: the project was delivered on time and sans hiccups, the objectives of the brand are/were met, follow up with the client, monitor traffic and give analysis. These actions give assurance to the client that the agency is constantly thinking for his brand. The client will have no hesitation in giving repeat business to such an agency.
11. Preparing monthly site traffic analysis report and presenting it to the client:
Once a site goes live and if it has its maintenance with us, it is important to monitor its growth. The servicing executive needs to check on the traffic regularly (weekly), on a monthly basis prepare an analysis report, and share it with the client.
The report should mandatorily include the following:
a. Number of Registrations
b. Number of Page Views
c. Number of Hits
d. Where are the visits coming from
e. Navigation Pattern on the Portal
f. Most Popular Sections
g. Least Popular Sections
h. Possible Reasons for Numbers to Have Faltered
i. Recommendations for improvement
Once the report is made (at the beginning of the month itself) the same need to be presented to the client post internal approval on the recommendations. In the case of long distance clients where a face-to-face presentation might not be possible, the report needs to be mailed to the client and then presented over the phone.
It needs to be understood that these reports are a main source of new business from existing clients. In way they are what could make or break us!
12. Maintaining Regular Client Contact:
The story does not get over with the execution of the project. Efforts need to be made to stay in touch with the client even if his work is done. However, this should not be done in a manner, which may cause inconvenience to the client. We should be smart and structure these regular contacts by adapting to the culture/habits of each client. We may maintain contact in the form of meetings, tele calls, mails, etc. as convenient to the client.
13. Handling One Or More Key Accounts & Setup Accounts:
While the servicing personnel of bigger agencies might have the opportunity to handle only or maybe two accounts, we have the luxury of handling more at a time. Our team members at any given point in time would have atleast five accounts on their plate. This system is imbibed to them from their start with us. This has helped us filter quality people on the team who can easily handle pressure.
This system allows each team member to have atleast one key account – which is on maintenance with us and which he is expected to develop, and other setup accounts. This system has helped build confidence among the servicing team and has made them ready to take up new challenges.
14. Updating Seniors On Accounts:
A servicing person is expected to update his immediate superior on the status of his various accounts on a daily basis. The senior in turn needs to help wherever there is any fire – internally or externally. The updates are mandatory and either morning or evening can be fixed as a deadline for submitting the same. The update can either be taken orally (for convenience of time) or can be sought on mail as pointers, the latter being a better format.
15. Preparing Annual Plans For Key Accounts:
Each servicing executive needs to keep an events calendar ready especially towards the renewal of the contract period of his key account. He should be ready with the plan for the year ahead atleast a month before the contract gets over.
The plan would be made with the help of the creative team on that particular account. This should be then made into a presentation and should be presented to the seniors. Their feedback should also be included before finally presenting it to the client during the renewal meeting.
There are chances that the client would also give feedback or where his strategy for the year ahead would be completely different, in such cases the plan will have to be reworked.
Though not on the first cut, the second cut of the plan which includes all feedback, brand strategy etc. should also feature the timelines and costs which then need to be closed with the client. The servicing can take the help of the BD on that account to close the costings.
16. Constantly Innovating for Key Accounts:
A servicing person needs to have a constant vigil on his key account performance – this normally happens through the performance reports. However, apart from the recommendations he makes in the reports on a monthly basis, he should be thinking of his brand throughout.
Only if he applies thought on what more can be done will the brand succeed. This becomes the duty of the servicing person of one particular account instead of a team’s because he happens to be the brand custodian from the agency end.
Servicing From A Supervisory Perspective:
Here, the challenge becomes more challenging. As in all jobs, a leader with a slew of the regular perquisites such as the ability to listen, control, decide, think, and act is what is required. He takes charge over the actions of his team and becomes responsible for any consequences.
The Qualities:
a. He needs to be a people’s person – popular not just among his team but also among other teams. This either comes naturally or is something that can be worked upon by meeting people, listening to them, understanding them and helping them with solutions to their issues.
b. He needs to know each individual of his team in and out – his or her strengths, weaknesses.
c. He should be a constant motivator and thus a mentor to his team.
d. He should never shy away from his team member’s problems – work related or otherwise.
e. He should get his team participating and voicing their opinions before he makes a decision or takes any action.
What is he expected to do – functionally?
On the job front a client servicing super or head is simply supposed to be in control!
1. Be updated daily on all existing projects – setup or maintenance accounts.
2. Meet as many clients especially key clients and be in touch with them.
3. Ensure we are getting repeat business from key clients.
4. Try and achieve targets individual as well as team target – if there has not one been set, then take the responsibility to set one.
5. Ensure that our long-term clients are happy with us and address their complaints if any.
6. Ensure smooth sailing of projects.
7. Ensure billing and payments are being followed upon by team members.
8. Ensure monthly traffic reports are generated and presented.
9. Push clients wherever they slack, especially the warm and cold ones.
10. Give an update report on weekly or fortnightly basis to superiors.
11. Escalate issues wherever required to seniors.
Remember…
When a client spends money on a brand and expects results it becomes serious business. The servicing person has to be equally serious about this.
A servicing person is the brand custodian. He is the one who knows the brand. He thinks for the brand and decides for it. He is responsible for the brand’s growth or death.
Ensuring that the brand objectives are met is key. The servicing person should also make the internal team understand this.
The servicing person needs to get his internal team to empathize with the client. The internal team who are not directly in touch with the client maybe reluctant, but they will if the servicing member proactively makes them understand the difficulties that a client also faces.
The servicing person needs to have the ability to take onus for the work. Even if the work passes many hands and in most cases he will be dependant on others, it is his duty to ensure not just a satisfied but a delighted client!
Keywords:
The following keywords need to boom through a servicing super’s head constantly –they can be of immense help!
• Happy client
• Monthly reports
• Repeat business
• Recommendations
• Team satisfaction
• Timely delivery
• Achieve targets
• Client contact
• Annual plan
• Events calendar
• Constant innovation
• Project updates
, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Fonts.
