What makes clients stick around for the long haul? How can you build lasting relationships that keep your agency thriving?
Knowing how to satisfy clients is essential for any successful business. David Ogilvy, one of advertising’s most influential figures, shares proven strategies for maintaining strong client relationships and fostering loyalty.
Continue reading to discover five practical tips that will transform your approach to client satisfaction and help your company flourish.
How to Satisfy Clients
Once you’ve secured deals with a number of clients, the key to your agency’s success is keeping those clients happy. Maintaining ongoing relationships with clients is the primary way to keep your agency in business, and Ogilvy offers several pieces of advice on how to satisfy clients.
Tip #1: Be Reliable
First, Ogilvy argues that upholding your commitments—particularly deadlines—is absolutely necessary to maintain a client’s trust and respect. If your team fails to deliver on their basic promises to the client, your reputation as a reliable professional will collapse.
(Shortform note: To ensure that you reliably meet your promised deadlines, consider requesting 25% more time than you think you’ll need when committing to a deadline. In doing so, you counteract the planning fallacy: the fact that we consistently underestimate the time it’ll take to accomplish something, even when we know that it’s taken us longer in the past.)
Tip #2: Build Personal Connections
According to Ogilvy, forging personal relationships with clients is also crucial to keeping their business. The more that employees throughout your agency work alongside people at all levels of your client’s organization and genuinely connect with them, the less likely the client is to sever ties.
(Shortform note: In The Go-Giver, Bob Burg and John David Mann argue that the best way to strengthen your professional relationships is to offer favors to people you work with without expecting them to owe you anything in return. For instance, if your client mentions that they need short-term workers, offer to get them in touch with a temp agency you’ve had positive experiences with. This kind of genuine service gives you influence by making you attractive on a personal level. To create a culture in which workers at every level act selflessly toward whoever they interact with, you could publicly celebrate employees who go out of their way to help someone in your clients’ organizations.)
Tip #3: Make Your Clients Your Top Priority
Make sure that your top employees concentrate on pleasing your existing clients rather than scouting for new ones. Ogilvy asserts that your best marketers will be tempted to look for more lucrative clients than those they already have, but don’t let them—putting your current clients on the backburner will lose their trust and endanger your business. Ideally, every client should feel like they’re your organization’s first priority.
(Shortform note: Although Ogilvy implies here that catering to existing clients and scouting for new clients are mutually exclusive, he clarifies in his later writing that this isn’t the case. In Ogilvy on Advertising, he emphasizes that doing your best work for existing clients is the best way to attract new clients. The better your current work is, the easier it is to convince other clients to work with you—you just need to show them your work. Furthermore, doing world-class work may give you such a good reputation that high-quality clients will actively seek you out, removing the need to scout for them at all. Emphasizing this fact to your top marketers will encourage them to make their current clients their top priorities.)
Tip #4: Prepare Backup Campaigns
Finally, Ogilvy recommends preparing a specific emergency precaution to reduce the chances that a client will fire you. Every time you create a campaign for a client, prepare an entire second campaign as a backup. If your first campaign underperforms or your client decides they dislike it, having a second option immediately at your disposal will make it more likely you’ll get a second chance. Taking this precaution requires a lot of time and money, but if it can save you a client, it’s worth it.
(Shortform note: In The Dichotomy of Leadership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin concur with Ogilvy that contingency plans can be valuable—but they temper this advice by warning that it’s possible to overprepare. Consider whether your backup plans create more problems than they solve. Backup ad campaigns could be more costly than they’re worth, particularly for agencies operating with limited resources. Diverting money and time toward a backup plan could even prevent agencies from delivering a high-quality primary campaign.)
Tip #5: Remember That It’s Impossible to Keep Every Client Happy
Although there’s plenty you can do to keep clients happy, Ogilvy acknowledges that it’s impossible to satisfy all of them all the time. Losses are inevitable. Clients may switch agencies in search of novelty or due to other factors beyond your control. Therefore, continually scout for new clients (even though satisfying your existing clients should be your first priority).
(Shortform note: When a major client inevitably ends your business relationship, don’t focus solely on scouting for replacements right away. With the right approach, you can sometimes win back former clients. To do this, be respectful and professional rather than clingy during their transition. Do everything you can to ensure the client has a positive impression of you. After some time passes, research your former client’s current needs thoroughly and make them a tailored offer that precisely meets those needs. This dedication and thoughtfulness may be enough to convince them to give you a second chance.)
