The Art of Client Service

Chapter 50How Happy Clients Help You Gain New Ones

A few years back, I went looking for an art director to help me with the PowerPoint presentations I was writing for the workshops I was conducting for clients interested in getting better at client service. I could have relied on a Google search or checked with LinkedIn to find candidates, but did neither. Instead, I called my art director friend and former colleague Sandy Sabean, who put me in touch with Bel Downey. Bel and I have collaborated ever since. If you visit the Acknowledgments section at the end of this book, you will see I thank Bel for having created the cover for this version of The Art of Client Service.

When you need a recommendation for a restaurant, or which movie to see, or which music to download, or any other creatively oriented endeavor, you could turn to the web for help, but my sense tells me you turn to your friends and colleagues instead. It is no wonder, then, that for all the media options that clutter the marketing landscape, word-of-mouth referral remains the most powerful form of marketing, and the telephone remains the research tool of choice for many of us.

Which brings me to clients.

Clients have all sorts of options at their disposal when they go shopping for a new agency. They have the web. They have search consultants. They can watch the work of others to see what they like. But the thing I suspect they rely on most is the word of a colleague, a competitor, or a friend. “I need marketing ...