Just this week we were called in by three clients, in new positions in new organizations.  This means a lot: it's a a recognition that, with their own personal success on the line, they come to us because they know, from past experience, that we will deliver.

And, in return, we WILL deliver, and put our best work forward.  In these cases, budgets become a secondary consideration.  We are thinking about our personal commitments to friends and colleagues, and investing in long-term relationships.  This is formula for mutual success.

After a spontaneous and fun visit with design blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg aka Swiss-Miss I discovered this fantastic video of one of her Creative Mornings lecture series by designer Michael Beirut.  As an experienced designer who has been in the "business" for years, I found his commentary to be spot on.  I spend a lot of time thinking and celebrating the idea of client service, Mr. Beirut managed to succinctly capture some key ideas: 

1. The business is the best part!  

The best part of being on the agency side is the opportunity to become deeply knowledgable and engaged in multiple industries....often simultaneously.  The number of businesses I have worked on now is huge and varied, and I can share interesting facts about each of them...from the laptop computer sector, to salty snacks, packaging machines, software and higher education.  Each industry is intense, interesting and presents it's own marketing challenges.  From my first days in the advertising business I have always recognized the advantage of this diversity for staying engaged in building my own skill set.  I would find it quite difficult to work a single product line for years at a time.

2. Good Clients & Bad Clients

He hits the nail on the head:  Good Work for Good Clients, Will Bring More Good Clients.

Good clients, in our experience, are the clients who truly care about their business and succeeding.  They are passionately committed to their business, and therefore willing to work collaboratively towards the best strategic or design solution. If you help them to succeed once, they will turn to you again in the future.  And this mutual loyalty leads to great work.

Bad Clients, on the other hand, tend not to know what they want, make you jump through hoops, act constantly disappointed, and complain about costs while eating a disproportionate amount of time.  In the end you produce work you do not want to show, and just try to get out of the job... they never let you go!  The critical factor is they are not actually focussed on their real business needs.  This means the priority is not on getting the job done, because they do not connect your work with their business performance.

We have been fortunate in building very friendly relationships with clients who return to us in new positions.  We appreciate the respect and loyalty, and we will pay it back with our best work.

<p>2010/01 Michael Bierut from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.</p>