Importance of Clear Communication With Your Creative Agency’s Clients

As a creative agency in this industry, it is essential to ensure that you have proper communication with your clients. As you start working on projects, your clients, as we all know, will change their mind about details over and over and expect you, as the creative agency, to adapt and make those changes on the fly. How do you ensure that you meet all your clients’ needs, no matter how many times they change their ideas and minds?

In this blog, I will go through a couple of steps and procedures a creative agency can take to ensure they have proper and clear communication with their clients throughout the relationship.

1. Outline The Steps That Will Be Taken

When taking on a new project with a new or existing client, it is important to take a moment and sit with your them to outline in detail what needs to be done. Of course, as the project continues things will change, but it is important to have a basic idea of what the vision is and what needs to be done.

2. Have the Client Approve The Project Continually

As you complete parts of the project, it is always a good idea to have your client approve the work that is done before moving on to the next objective. This will ensure there is little to no backtracking and that you are keeping your client happy. If you don’t communicate with your client until the end of the project and only show the final work that was completed you run the risk of having an unhappy customer who may not want what you put together. This ends up costing you a lot of money as getting your graphic designers to redo work is timely and you can’t charge the client for work that was not done properly the first time.

3.  Approach the Client with Recommendations Right Away

If you have a recommendation about the overall project or even just a part of it, it is always best to approach the client with your ideas right away rather than just doing it and letting them see it at the end. Doing this builds trust with your clients, as most clients will take what you as the agency have to say as you are the “experts”. This keeps your client in the loop and makes them feel like they are 100% involved in the process.

4. Use an Online Proofing Tool to Approve, Request and Edit On The Go

I always recommend ensuring you have some type of online proofing through your creative agency. Having a client portal is probably the best thing you can do. A client portal gives the opportunity for your clients to check out samples that are already done, request estimates and request for more work to be done. It is a great way for your client to keep in touch with you and see the ongoing process as it unfolds. The portal usually has a spot for comments to be made, and for files to be uploaded. It gives the opportunity for everyone to keep in contact even after business hours.Online proofing, in my opinion, is one of the most useful and most reliable tools for any creative agency. I would recommend considering this option for all agencies as the importance of clear communication is imperative to ensure good business. What’s better than offering a service like online proofing? – Nothing!

This article was contributed by former Function Point employee, Eric Ivker.