How to address client feedback
Ah the dreaded client feedback. For many juniors (and seniors alike), it’s common to experience a moment of dread when client feedback hits your inbox. But it shouldn’t be that way. When a relationship with a client is working well, feedback can help you deliver work that wows. So let’s break down how to address feedback (good and bad) and how to challenge it when appropriate.
Step 1: Review
Before you dive into the specifics of the feedback or gather the team to discuss, take a moment to review the feedback yourself and form an opinion on the best next step. Often, there will be questions you can ask and/or answer as the account handler that will avoid lost time with the studio team. Here’s our review checklist:
Is this all the feedback, from all relevant stakeholders, and has it been consolidated? This is really important to ensure you don’t either waste time deciphering whose of the 200 comments on the PDF are the ones you should action or, worse, complete the amends only to discover the Head of Brand hasn’t yet shared her thoughts.
What’s the overall tone? Is it positive with some tweaks? Or do you have an unhappy client on your hands? This will help you determine whether a call would be beneficial before beginning the next stage of work, to ensure everyone is aligned.
Are you missing any information, or is any of the feedback unclear? Do any comments reference documents you don’t have access to, for example? Make sure you fully understand all the feedback or make a note of any areas that need clarification.
Remember, Client Services is not an admin role or a go-between from client to agency. As the voice of the client in the agency, you hold a huge amount of information and context, and your opinions are both valid and helpful.
Step 2: Remove (the emotion)
Repeat after us: “My client is paying us to complete a project. If they pay as agreed, are respectful of our professional opinions and rationalise any changes against the approved brief, they have every right to ask for more amends.”
When you’re proud of work and share it excitedly only to receive a less than enthusiastic response, it can sting. But this is business and clients are paying customers. It’s your responsibility to ensure the work meets the brief (and will perform well), but it’s also your responsibility to keep your clients happy.
If you find yourself immediately typing a reply, or seeking someone out to discuss how unreasonable the client has been, then it’s time to take a breath. Close that email, make yourself a cup of tea and come back to it later.
If you find yourself immediately typing a reply, or seeking someone out to discuss how unreasonable the client has been, then it’s time to take a breath. Close that email, make yourself a cup of tea and come back to it later. As Client Services, you are the voice of the client in the agency - feeling personally offended by their feedback creates a divide that’s unhelpful and counter-productive. Instead, you need to reframe their thoughts as another collaborator’s opinion, which can be discussed and implemented (if beneficial) in order to achieve the best possible outcome.
Step 3: Respond
The first response should clarify anything that’s unclear from step 1 above. Consider it more of an acknowledgement than a full response. If the feedback is overall positive, address that and say if you’re pleased. If it’s more critical, or you think there are some issues that will need discussing further, use this first response to suggest a meeting. Keep it short and sweet, and provide yourself and the team with suitable time to properly digest the feedback and formulate your recommend approach. The response might go something like this:
Thank you for sharing this feedback with me. Can I check whether this is all the collated feedback or whether you’re still waiting for any stakeholders to share their thoughts?
Having reviewed myself…
(Positive) I’m really pleased you’re happy with the work so far. I’ll book time with the wider team for us to review together and confirm when you can expect to see a revised version by [date/time].
(Negative) I can see that there is still some work to do, to reach a place you’re comfortable with. In light of the comments shared, it will be best if we discuss them together on a call with the wider team, to ensure we’re aligned and agreed on the best next steps. Please could you let me know a time that suits you?
In the meantime, I have a few queries (please see below) if you could please come back to me on those by [date]:
[Questions]
From the above, you’ll see that you don’t need to commit to any turnaround times or address any specifics just yet. Instead, you’re acknowledging the feedback, checking whether there’s more to come and allowing yourself time to formulate a considered response.
Step 4: Regroup
As the account handler, how you share client feedback with the wider team is critical to how smoothly the project will run. Unless the feedback is directional and minimal (we’re talking punctuation or ‘check that blue is our brand blue’), avoid forwarding the email at all costs. Instead, take the time to mark up a clean document in your own words which captures the feedback in a clear and concise way. Once done, arrange a meeting to go through the feedback with your team.
The client feedback is really bad - how do I break it to the team?
Nobody wants to share negative feedback but, remember, we’re removing the emotion from this process and the team need to do the same. Revisit the mantra:
“My client is paying us to complete a project. If they pay as agreed, are respectful of our professional opinions and rationalise any changes against the approved brief, they have every right to ask for more amends.”
The key part here, where the team’s concerned, is ‘rationalise any changes against the approved brief”. If the brief said they wanted fresh new imagery, but feedback from stakeholders is asking for the same style they always use, then point that out and hold your client accountable to their original vision.
Recognise too that, for those in the project team, it can be incredibly frustrating to share work that you’re really proud of, only to have the brief seemingly change. It does happen though, so be prepared to highlight the great work they’ve done, and share your disappointment that it hasn’t worked out in this instance.
Don’t accidentally spend 30 mins discussing what a pain the client is and forget to work out how you want to respond though. Make sure there’s a clear agenda in place when you schedule the regroup. Start the meeting by recapping where you are in the project (for those that might have been on other client work in between), share the feedback and your suggested response and let the team discuss and ask questions. Allow time too to collectively agree on which parts you’re happy to action, which parts need further discussion with the client and which parts you’d like to challenge. If a call with the client is needed, agree on who will join that and their role in it.
Step 5: Resolve
So you’ve had responses to your queries back from the client, you and the team are in sync and you know the approach you’d like to take moving forward. Time to put this feedback to bed!
At The Secret AD, we always recommend a meeting to discuss any tricky or subjective feedback - so schedule it in and show up with the right attitude (and the right people) on the call. This is not an opportunity for your client to tell you why they think you’re rubbish. It’s an opportunity for you and the team to gain further insight into their feedback and the rationale behind it, and to challenge and debate any points you’re not yet aligned on. Be excited, enthusiastic and open in the conversation and you’ll have a much more productive session than if you approach it in a closed-off and defensive manner.
Your primary objective as Client Services at this stage should be to reassure the client that they are being heard and give them confidence that you and the team will deliver something they love. We’ll say it once more: you are the voice of the client in the agency. So put yourself in their shoes - they’re paying for a result, and aren’t yet confident they’re going to get it. What could you say or do to put them at ease?
We’d love to hear your experiences with client feedback. What’s the worst you’ve received, or the best? And what tactics do you use to manage any difficult feedback? Let us know in the comments below 👇
Have you found this article helpful personally, or feel your Client Services colleagues might? Get in touch now to discuss what types of training The Secret AD offers and how we can help your team excel.
