3 Ways to Manage Client Expectations

At Fraggell, our role is to provide excellent creative that is both professionally made and that satisfies the various needs of our clients. Different clients will have different expectations depending on numerous factors, such as their own experience of video production, their budget and timeframe for campaigns.

Managing expectations is therefore very important to us from the get-go.

1. Get the Client into the Process

Before any content gets made, we find that it helps to go over the project in detail with the client and let them in on our own process so that they have a good idea of each stage that the creative will go through before launch. Professional messenger tools like Slack are great for giving the client updates on the creative process and allowing for instant feedback.

Transparency will go a long way to earn mutual trust and allow any issues to be brought to light and sorted out quickly before they fester into bigger problems in the pipeline.

2. Honesty

As creators, we owe it to our clients to be clear and honest with them about their projects. Changes in scale, budget and deadlines should always be explained as soon as possible and told truthfully. Exaggerating, or misrepresenting how well a project is doing will not stop it from being over-reaching, over-budget, or late – so you do yourself no favours by not being straight with the people paying you.

Regular updates will prevent any confusion in the expected scope of a project, so make sure that you set up a reliable framework of contact with your client and their team. Plan out weekly or bi-weekly meetings to go over any questions and always be ready to give examples of your progress when asked.

3. Consistency

If you are in the fortunate position to be working for a repeat client, then your main goal will be to maintain an acceptable level of consistency in your work. Consistency is a big part of what keeps a client coming back for more of your content, and any dip in this consistency can be very damaging for relations.

To keep doing what you’re doing to an expected level of competency, it’s very important that you are intimately aware of you and your team’s strengths and limitations. Over-promising will lead to under-performing.

Saying no to a client’s request in the name of quality control is also a hard skill to learn, but having that level of confidence is needed in order to make sure you remain on top of your game, and 9 times out of 10, the client will understand so long as you’ve been maintaining an excellent level of contact and transparency with them.

Check out the 5 rules for authentic video here!