“I know exactly what I need. I just need someone to put it all together.”
Admittedly, we don’t hear this often, but we do hear it. And it sometimes complicates things.
In the communications field, anyone who believes “The customer is always right” is doing their clients and themselves a disservice. We’re not in this industry to pacify or placate. We’re here to help our clients make their marks and grow their businesses.
Remember, nobody can be right all the time. And, that applies to every one of us. After all, if we were always right, we’d never need anyone’s help, would we? When we accept that fact, we take a huge step toward bettering ourselves and our businesses.
To overcome that predicament without compromising our relationships, we respectfully challenge our clients when we believe their thinking might be a bit off-target or incomplete.
That doesn’t mean the customer is never right. (After all, we would never presume to know their business better than they do.) But, any time they’re open to being challenged, we gain our best chance of delivering the results they’re really looking for and growing our partnership.
Everyone wins.
During these times of commoditized design tools and creative services from discount houses and overseas sweatshops, we owe it to ourselves, our industry and, above all, our clients to have the creative communications professional viewed as a holistic, strategic partner who offers real value that reaches well beyond assembling clever words and cool pictures.
And, a huge part of that responsibility is in challenging conventional thinking.
So, if you’re up for it, let’s talk about what you really need.
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