Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning
Posted July 27th, 2007I have never had a client come to me and say, “My doctor thinks I sprained my ankle, what do you think?”
Good thing, I’m not a medical expert. So it puzzles me when a client will say to me, “I showed the draft of the brochure (or logo design, or tagline) to my accountant (cousin, sister, babysitter, lawyer, wife) and they don’t like this word (color, shape, phrase, tone).”
I get the value of asking for second opinions. And I understand that marketing (or what you do) is probably not a precise science like medicine. But it also seems to me that if we are going to engage a company for their expertise, we need to actually give them their due.
So if my lawyer says “you should file this report with the state” but the woman who cuts my hair says I don’t need to bother – shouldn’t I give the lawyer’s opinion a bit more weight?
Why am I sharing this with you? Because I think as marketers we are so driven to deliver a good customer experience that sometimes we forget that we were hired for a reason.
Whether you sell home health equipment or have a lawn service – you are the expert. Logic would tell you that the client should know that too…and heed your counsel.
But sometimes, I think we give in or compromise to make the client happy when we shouldn’t. In the short run it feels like good customer service. But in the long run, it is cheating your customer. On occasion, you need to remind them that they came to you for a reason. Because this is what you do every day and you’re good at it.
Otherwise, they might as well let the babysitter do it.
