Why do agencies always grumble about their customers? Why are service providers in general suffering so much about their customers? It would seem that it is clients who give them money and the opportunity to learn. But it’s worth coming to any round table where both are gathered, after a short prelude about the “market trends”, the participants immediately move on to their favorite topic.
“You do not know what you want!” - Agency Y repeats to him.
“You are not giving TK!” - X agency shouts.
“You make a million requests, and then cancel everything!”,
"You do not appreciate our creativity!",
“You are canceling events!”,
“We do not understand how you make your decisions!” - passions heat up inexorably.
When there is resentment, rational arguments drown in words. Customers are silent, weakly defending themselves and leaving. The agencies, left with each other, continue for some time to discuss the main conflict of their business.
We will analyze the main claims.
“You do not know what you want”
It is generally believed that when a person chooses a car, a person chooses a car class, and then selects the make and model within the class. But this is not true. People choose wrong.
Recently, I chose a car myself. And the choice was between a giant SUV and a sleek sedan. And the managers in the salon did not tell me: “Can you decide first? You don’t know what you want! ”
It is the customer’s right 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, ride, offer options, if asked, give personal advice.
“You do not give technical task”
I do not know what color the interior of the car should be. I have no inherent 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 will not postpone the purchase until next year.
The customer has a much wider planning horizon and much more unknowns. He has no reason to share all unknowns with the performer. It is very often almost impossible to draw up TT in advance with such a horizon.
There are several bosses with their own vision. The opinion of each will affect the final result. One wants a banquet, the second - a buffet, the third - to send everyone to South Africa, the fourth - wants to save money and invest in advertising.
There is a budget divided into several sections. If you select it all, then the next project will be canceled. This is a difficult compromise. Compromise is always stress for the decision maker.
Working without a clear statement of work is normal. Helping the client find the right solution is normal. To work with TT, which was from the very beginning and has not changed, is a miracle, beautiful and rare. If it is written in the statement of work that the event will be held at the GUM, in practice this means: "the event can be held anywhere, we just needed to write something."
No one is hiding TT. They simply do not exist in nature. People rarely know in advance what they want to receive. The better you have learned to work without TT, the stronger your competitive advantage. And this is precisely the advantage that can not be interrupted by kickback or theft of ideas. It is unique. This is your mini monopoly.
“You make a million requests, and then cancel everything!”
With this, of course, more difficult. This means that the customer is confused. Timing is running out, there is no solution, extra movements begin.
Agencies say: “You do not understand that every request is our time and our work! We spend resources on this and get nothing in return! ”
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.
But don’t you care if you order pizza by phone and choose 30 minutes to take one big one with meat, two small ones with meat and chicken, or even collect your will in a fist and finally not eat after 22:00?
In this case, the pizzeria should have a procedure for working with an undecided customer. For example, if this is a premium pizzeria, then they will find out until the victorious what he wants today. This is ordinary, they will politely say: "Call us when you decide."
“We do not understand how you make your decisions!”
It’s quite simple with that. If you do not understand, then you simply have not been told. But someone else understands and rejoices. Your task is to take his place over time.
Conclusion: if an agency grumbles about Customers without TK who do not know what they want, it only means that the agency is not able to work with them. There are two options: either it will learn over time or continue to grumble alone, without Clients.
