2012 brings a fresh start – I need to begin as I mean to go so here is my first blog of the year. It is a plea…

Can we please LISTEN – especially to our clients! The number of times this past year I had to rescue jobs that other agencies and consultants messed up (4 in the last 4 months) was, although good for my business, unacceptable from a professional and industry perspective. And in almost every case it was because they didn’t listen to what the client wanted.

While we are selected for our knowledge and expertise, we need to respond and delight but not demand what the client gets. In the end, the customer is always right (stop screaming – I know I know there can be some difficult ones). But they do pay us to deliver to their mostly reasonable expectations.

So if a client loves the colour purple but its not part of their brand or colour palette, find some way to include it. Or if you know they aren’t the twitter type or truly won’t keep it going, then don’t recommend it. And if they say they aren’t happy with the font you’ve used to design their logo or in their website, then change it. A happy client will love what you’ve done for them and be proud to show off their new site, logo, banner, business card, ad etc. And then they’ll tell lots of people about you and that’s how business grows.

For the opposite is not worth thinking about – you’ll lose their business and other potential business. That is of course unless you want me to have it – I’ll happily take the new customers!

And if you need a good case in point about listening, then read this story about Verizon. They thought they could just add a small charge for payment services until an online campaign of 50k+ told them what they thought of the idea – oops now the charge is gone. They listened – shouldn’t have done it in the first place but good on them for bowing to the pressure for the unpopular move.

So my plea is this: take a full brief from your client and make sure you understand THEIR requirements. They chose you so now make them happy. It will be so worth it!