WARNING: Are your clients still with you?

By Raihan Hadi

When was the last time you met your clients in person?

Were you excited to see them?

Were THEY excited to see you?

Do they still love you?

Or have they gone to your competitor already?

I ask these questions because these are burning questions for current times. Most agencies have had such a hard time meeting clients due to that what shall not be named (yet again), that clients have also forgotten what they look like.

No really, when was the last time you went over to a client’s office, shook their hands and presented an idea?

And please don’t say hybrid, I don’t know how or why that term is being thrown around like it actually means something awesome. 90% of the attendees are still on Zoom playing ouija board.

“Do we have Terry among us?”

“I believe Carmen has joined us but we can’t hear her.”

Okay enough fun, let’s not disrespect the elephant in the room anymore.

A huge gap has been created in the ever growing space between agencies and their clients where one hasn’t met the other in person for way too long and many great ideas have been lost in the virtual space-time continuum.

And this gap is now being utilised by the competition to nab new clients with, if I may say, even the lousiest of campaign ideas just because they coupled it with fancy promises of numbers here and there.

The human connection gap will be a business issue till May at least, after which it is said things will revert to better interaction and more meaningful discourse.

Dangerous cracks in clients relationships may become open wounds if not managed well. And securing new businesses gets even more complicated with the current disconnect.

Trust me on this, no matter how virtually efficient you become, you’ll never be Tony Stark and your clients will never appreciate you completely unless they see things presented in person.

Yes, there are challenges, and risks – but who said that life would come without either?

This piece was first published in MARKETING WEEKENDER Issue 315

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