How to Lose Your Clients: Account Management
If you are wondering how account management could cause you to lose a client, please pay close attention. In my experience, account management is almost as important as results. Clients typically terminate accounts when they are confused or just plain frustrated with you. What are the common account management mistakes you should avoid? What are the best tips for success? Read on!
Account Management Mistakes You Should AvoidNot writing a fresh email.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is sending an email to their client with all of their internal correspondences included. In other words, they went back and forth a few times with colleagues, and instead of writing a fresh new email, they just replied to the client from the last email they received from their colleagues. This allows the client to see what you are saying back and forth to one another.
Depending on what was said, you could really end up with your foot in your mouth.Not being prepared. It's so easy to just copy and paste what someone else said to answer a client's question. The problem is, most of the time we don't really read what they wrote or get involved in the conversation.
Next thing you know, the client is calling you to talk to you (his/her account manager) and you have no idea what is going on. They might have follow up questions with regards to the multivariate test you are running.
Do you even know what they are testing or what the timeline is?
You can really make a fool of yourself, and the company, if you aren't careful here.Not clearly defining roles. As account manager, the client expects to work with you and only you. It is almost pointless for you to act as account manager if you are putting them in contact with your SEO, your PPC person, your usability expert, and your analytics analyst. Now the client has to try and keep five people straight.
This will really stress the client out, and things won't get done. If there is one person they work though, they'll be more responsive and they'll be less stressed.Not staying in contact.
As the account manager, the client is relying on you, and only you, to stay in contact with them. You should be prepared to keep them up to date with progress reports. Some projects won't require as much input from the client, by providing them with these updates they'll know that you are working hard for them.How to Succeed as an Account ManagerThe best tip? Make sure you don't make the mistakes listed above. Clients are looking for three things from you:
- Results
- Communication (with the client)
- Internal communication
If you can provide them with insurance on those three things, you'll be off to a great start. My only other tip would be to never lie to a client. You'll only dig yourself in a deep hole and put yourself, your colleagues, and your company at risk. While you may not like the mistake you made, you should always fess up. There are many ways to recover from a mistake, and lying isn't one of them.
Category: SEO Viewing 2261 | Added in February 3, 2014
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February 3, 2014
I have been an account manager for over 15 years,(with a variety of companies in several industries)and I have to say I would agree with the points in this piece. I would also add that excellent communication skills and a well honed sense of humour are also essentials!
Now if only we could set the clients some guidelines too.