<p>Why do agencies always grumble about their customers? Why do service industry representatives suffer so much about their clients in general? It would seem that it is the clients who give them money and the opportunity to learn. But as soon as you come to any round table where both are gathered, after a short prelude about "market trends", the participants immediately move on to their favorite topic.</p>
<ul>
<li>"You don't know what you want!" echoes agency Y.</li>
<li>"You don't give TM!" - shouts agency X.</li>
<li>"You make a million requests, and then you cancel them all!"</li>
<li>"You don't appreciate our creativity!",</li>
<li>"You are canceling events!",</li>
<li>"We don't understand how you make your decisions!" - passions heat up inexorably.</li>
</ul>
<p>When there is resentment, rational arguments are drowned in words. Customers are silent, sluggishly defend themselves and leave. Agencies, left with each other, continue to discuss the main conflict of their business for some time.</p>
<p>Let's analyze the main complaints.</p>
<p><strong>"You don't know what you want"</strong><br />It is usually believed that when a person chooses a car, a person chooses the class of the car, and then chooses the make and model within the class. But this is not true. People choose the wrong way.</p>
<p>Recently, I was choosing a car for myself. And the choice was between a giant SUV and an elegant sedan. And the managers in the salon did not tell me: "Maybe you should decide first? Because you don't know what you want!"</p>
<p>This is the right of the customer not to know what he wants. His budget, his right. The task of the party providing the service is to explain the pros and cons, to touch, to travel, to offer options, if asked, to give personal advice.</p>
<p><strong>"You don't give TOR"</strong><br />I don't know what color the interior of the car should be. I don't have an innate knowledge of the options that I definitely need. I'm not even completely sure that I will buy this car in this salon. Moreover, I'm not even sure that I will buy it now at all, and not postpone the purchase for next year.</p>
<p>The customer's planning horizon is much wider and there are many more unknowns. There is no reason for him to share all the unknowns with the contractor. It is very often almost impossible to draw up a technical specification in advance with such a horizon.</p>
<p>There are several bosses with their own vision. The opinion of each will influence the final result. One wants a banquet, the second wants a buffet, the third wants to send everyone to South Africa, the fourth wants to save money and invest in advertising.</p>
<p>There is a budget divided into several items. If you choose all of it, then the next project will be canceled. This is a difficult search for a compromise. Compromise is always stressful for the decision-maker.</p>
<p>It is normal to work without a clear technical specification. It is normal to help the client find the right solution. Working with a technical specification that has been there from the very beginning and has not changed is a miracle, beautiful and rare. If the technical specification says that the event will be held in GUM, in practice it means: "the event can take place anywhere, we just needed to write something."</p>
<p>No one hides the TOR. They simply do not exist in nature. People rarely know in advance what they want to get. The better you have learned to work without the TOR, the stronger your competitive advantage. And this is exactly the advantage that cannot be interrupted by rolling back or stealing the idea. It is unique. This is your mini-monopoly.</p>
<p><strong>"You make a million requests, and then you cancel them all!"</strong><br />This, of course, is more difficult. This means that the Client is in turmoil. Deadlines are pressing, there is no solution, unnecessary movements begin.</p>
<p>Agencies say, "You don't realize that every request is our time and our work! We spend resources on it and get nothing in return!"</p>
<p>The problem is that the owner of the budget should not understand this. He does not care how the business processes of another company suffer from his requests.</p>
<p>And don't you care if you order pizza over the phone and choose to take you one large one with meat, two small ones with meat and chicken for 30 minutes, or even gather your will into a fist and eventually not eat after 22:00?</p>
<p>In this case, the pizzeria should have a procedure for working with an undecided customer. For example, if it is a premium pizzeria, then they will find out to the end what he wants today. This is ordinary, then they will politely say: "Call us when you decide."</p>
<p><strong>"We don't understand how you make your decisions!"</strong><br />It's very simple. If you don't understand, then you just haven't been told. But someone else understands and is happy. Your task is to take his place over time.</p>
<p>Conclusion: if the agency grumbles about Clients without technical specifications who do not know what they want, it only means that the agency does not know how to work with them. There are two options: either it will learn over time or continue to grumble alone, without Clients. </p>
