Put work into maintaining the relationship. That’s the hard part. We have to continually (review) that relationship by making sure we’re giving the client what they need and what they can see is of value to them.
We have a variety of different ways we work with clients. One of the ways we work with some of our major clients is called a steering committee, and we have people that interact with each other, both from the client as well as from our company, on a regular basis. It’s a very good form for resolving issues or for discussing future opportunities, as well. But because it’s interactive, it’s a whole lot more effective than us just (assuming) we know what the client needs.
The steering committee really is a pretty old model of people just collaborating together, and rather it (comin) just one way, it puts people together for a common goal of making sure that their clients’ needs are met. They can be run in a lot of different ways, but basically, they meet on a regular basis, they have an agenda and then they have an open forum part, which (is) very good for issue resolutions.
In a steering committee model, there’s more than one company representative there and more from just one category, not just from the account service but also from, for example, client solutions or creative or whatever category best fits the client’s needs. So when you have them all together it’s an easier model to talk about things that go well beyond the day’s business activity. And also it’s an opportunity for future growth for both because there you can talk about things that they might like to do down the road that no one had thought of.
Any relationship goes back to understanding what someone wants, what they wanted to begin with and what the evolution of that relationship changes that in terms of their needs. Once you’ve satisfied some of the basic needs, they expect other things to happen, as well, and so our ability to continually evolve and increase our level of service to them is very important.
If we were going to measure our success in a way that was meaningful to the client, it would be, did the client actually sell more of their products, and if they did, were we responsible or partially responsible for that activity? So those are the things we’ll continue to look at to help our clients grow.
If you’re going to have a long-term relationship, then you have to continually add value to that relationship.
How to reach: GROUP360 Inc., (314) 260-6360 or www.group360.com