Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The Importance of Providing Client Feedback

Public relations campaigns thrive from successful collaboration between the client and professionals. The client relies on the agency/PR professional to deliver the materials necessary to grow, and we rely on the client for providing feedback and vision to help the campaign come to life. The end result is a purely symbiotic relationship that, when properly implemented, nurtures growth and yields positive results.

Throughout a campaign, the client will continuously be providing feedback, suggestions, or asking questions as to other ways things can be done. As PR professionals, it is our job to take that feedback, and structure our methods (whenever possible) to best suit the client's needs.

As important as it is to gauge the client's satisfaction through feedback, it is equally important to provide the client feedback on their performance. This may sound a little obscure, but when you consider the nature of feedback, it actually makes perfect sense.

The perfect client is an ideal that many PR professionals will never realize, but by providing feedback, we can help to create better clients-- which in turn, will benefit us as professionals.

Client feedback could appear similar to the feedback you would give a member of your team, but should be tailored to enhance, and not hinder, client relations. Take note of the client's strengths and weaknesses, and make suggestions as to how they can improve for smoother work on future projects.

If you noticed that the client was never available for meetings or interviews that you arranged, you could recommend that they appoint a member of their team to be a point of contact, or make appearances. If the client was not always timely in turning around content edits, see if there is a way that you could help them strengthen their reviewing methods.

Providing feedback allows you to help the client improve internally. The client will be grateful that you not only invested time in the campaign, but also in the company/product as a whole. Exceeding client expectations is always a good thing.

Do you provide your clients with feedback?

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