Clients. The source of our prosperity and progress, but sometimes a mixed blessing. It’s often hard to manage measurement clients, especially when it comes to what they expect from you. I’ve dealt with my share of tricky clients, and when faced with an awkward or boneheaded request it hasn’t always been easy for me to hold my tongue. Here are five examples of confused client requests, together with lessons to learn from them. Yes, all names have been changed to protect client confidentiality. (And for more interesting reading about clients, see “25 Tips on How to Be an Angel of a Client.”)
Case #1: Miffed Over a Missed Mention
What the Client Said:
“Here’s an important mention that I think we missed. Did you guys see this? Do we need to sit down and review the screening to make sure we are looking at the right pubs?”
What I Wanted to Say:
“If you’d done more than scan the first five lines of this morning’s report you would have seen that the story was in fact included as a tweet, which is where news like this breaks. You do know what Twitter is, don’t you?”
What I Really Said:
“In fact, dear client, we didn’t miss it: It was picked up on Twitter, and the publication is definitely showing up in your monitoring stream. What is happening is a licensing issue. Some publications restrict access for the first 24 – 72 hours to specific individual subscribers. So some people may see it immediately, others don’t get it for a day or two.”
Lesson to Learn: Don’t be afraid to share the nitty-gritty details of clip collection with the client. Until the publishers and the monitoring companies all get around the same campfire and start singing Kumbayah, glitches in monitoring will always be routine. In 28 years of doing this I haven’t found any monitoring system in the world that catches 100% of everything, 100% of the time.
Case #2. When Is a Tweet “Only a Tweet”?
What the Client Said: “How do we identify key articles like this when there may only be a tweet? Clearly we could look at all tweets all day, but that’s not very efficient. Any thoughts?”
What I Wanted to Say: “Actually, a lot of news today breaks ‘only in a tweet.’ That’s where heads of state, elected officials, and most major news outlets put their breaking news first. So yes, in your business you should be looking at tweets all day.”
What I Really Said: “Actually, my dearly beloved client, it’s not at all unusual to have stories show up on Twitter before they show up on a news feed. Perhaps a more important question is: What outcome would have changed or what action would have been taken if we’d captured the full story, as opposed to just the tweet with the link, 48 hours earlier? Did you have a strategy in place to respond instantly? If so, we should probably set up more frequent Twitter alerts for you.”
Lesson to Learn: Focus on what matters to the business, and the strategy to accomplish it, not just on the media targets.
Case #3. Missing Clips? I Got Your Missing Clips Right Here!
What the Client Said: “I need to make sure that any stories by that VIP reporter are included in all my reports, but I don’t see him on the list of top authors. Are you missing clips?”
What I Wanted to Say: “Actually he has never covered you because he throws away your press releases. Who reads press releases anymore? And why are you still putting them out?”
What I Really Said: “Actually, my dear and best beloved client, we’ve noticed that he crowd sources most of his stories on LinkedIn and Twitter. Perhaps if you followed him there you might find his sweet spot and send him a news item that is actually interesting to him.”
Lesson to Learn: Don’t just identify the problem, offer up a solution.
Case #4. A Rose by Any Other Name
What the Client Said: “There’s a typo on this chart: Our program isn’t a ‘Snowball Fight’ it was a ‘Snowball Jamboree.’ ”
What I Wanted to Say: “When something looks like a snowball fight, smells like a snowball fight, and feels like a snowball fight, then the press is going to call it a snowball fight. What the hell did you expect?”
What I Really Said: “As you know, my dearest, bestest, beloved client, both the human coders and our natural language processor report on the terms the journalists are actually using. That is the way it appeared in the media, so that’s why it’s in the chart. But we’d be happy to change it for you.”
Lesson to Learn: Remind clients that this concept of “freedom of the press” means that the media can call your event anything they want to and say anything they want about you/your event.
Case #5. “Can I Have My Report 10 Days Early?”
What the Client Said: “I need my report no later than the 5th of the month. I know you normally deliver it on the 15th but I have a critical meeting and I need to review it before we present it.”
What I Wanted to Say: “There’s a better chance that Donald Trump will become president than of any team being able to accurately process 2,000 clips and produce a clean report by the 5th. And does it honestly take you 10 days to review a five page report?”
What I Really Said: “In fact, my truly, dearly beloved client, you had an extraordinarily successful month last month and your coverage doubled. Our best readers can process about 30 clips an hour, which means we need 66 hours or 8 person-days just to code the clips. Plus we normally allow 2 days to prepare, proof, and fact-check the report. To get it done within your time frame, we would need to bring on several additional coders. And I’m hesitant to do so at this late date because they would also need to be properly trained and validated on your subject matter. Are you sure it’s worth the additional expense? How about we compromise and deliver it on the 10th?”
Lesson to Learn: As soon as you can in a client relationship, tell them how long it takes to produce a product that you’re proud of. In the proposal, lay out the process, the time frame, and the ground rules. Then, if they don’t want to follow them, I advise you heed one of the best rules my former COO taught me: “Never say no. Just say ‘How much is it worth?’ ” ∞
(Thanks for the image to The Ticker.)
Paine Publishing provides communications measurement training and education. Katie Delahaye Paine provides customized measurement training and services.
