You know the saying too many cooks in the kitchen? Well agencies are just like kitchens. Both can only function properly when there’s clear orders and everyone sticks to their stations.
You’re probably wondering how your team and clients fit into this little analogy of mine. So hear me out. The Head Chef is your agency director. The Sous Chef is you – the project manager. The rest of your kitchen is made up various Station Chefs who are responsible for certain processes. These are your developers, content creators, graphic designers, brand strategists and SEO specialists. Then, of course, there’s your hungry patrons (aka your clients). Some of these patrons are casual diners (easy-going clients), and others are food critics (more particular clients).
How your agency kitchen should function
In an ideal world, each customer (client) agrees on something from the menu (your services) and then the kitchen (your agency) works to deliver that meal (project) for a set price. The customer (client) may request adjustments or additions to their meal (project) such as add-ons or specific requests. Perhaps they have some intolerances (vetos). So, you do your very best to accommodate their needs and keep the customer happy.
Your casual diners (relaxed clients) will offer some feedback on the meals your serve and require small adjustments, whereas food critics (more demanding clients) might take a bit of back-and-forthing before they’re happy with the outcome. That’s all in a day’s work for a kitchen or agency. But it’s not always that simple.
Too many cooks in the kitchen!
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You begin working with a singular client touchpoint. You’ve had your initial meeting, established a good working relationship and set up healthy boundaries. You’ve got a process, direction and strategy and things are going swimmingly.
Then BAM! Someone else crawls out of the woodwork. Then another and another. A seemingly endless procession of ‘deciders’ from the client’s side. These latecomers start offering unsolicited or contradictory feedback and making decisions (often at the eleventh hour). Before you know it, instead of serving one client, you’re serving several and you have no idea who to listen to.
If we take it back to the kitchen analogy, that’s like preparing a meal for a singular customer only to be told halfway through that the order needs to be changed or paused. Not by the customer, but by the customer’s friend, colleague, or family member. Then they barge into your kitchen and start making orders which directly contradict your customer’s original order! Ridiculous right?
Why does it happen?
It’s frustrating, but I understand why clients might invite latecomers. It may be political, democratic, or they may simply feel uncertain as the project progresses and want a second, third or fourth opinion, so that they don’t feel solely responsible for the final product. After all, clients are investing lots of time and trust in your team and are entitled to some level of involvement. But as we know, from a PM perspective, the fewer deciders, the better!
When there are too many deciders, project goals become muddied and expectations become unclear. It results in procedural holdups, project tensions and compromised project outcomes. Put simply, it sucks! So, what can we do about it?
Make sure all the 'deciders' are in the room!
Like with most things in project management, your success hinges on setting clear expectations right from the beginning. In your very first meeting, you need to ask the client a series of clarifying questions.
Who is the primary touchpoint for this project?
Who makes the decisions?
Who signs off on approval?
Are there other stakeholders who will offer feedback further down the line?
By asking these questions, you are preparing yourself for ‘multiplying clients’ and setting yourself up with a strong justification against it. If any latecomers join the party, you can gently remind the client that you agreed to field feedback from 1-2 people, and that these additional ‘deciders’ are causing contradictions, delays and scope creep.
What if your client insists on a committee-based decision making process?
If your client insists on having a bunch of deciders, you need to ensure that your client reconciles their team’s feedback BEFORE sharing feedback with your team. Politely explain that when there’s lots of people commenting, issuing feedback, and asking for changes, things become more complicated for everyone involved. Try to frame this in terms of benefits to the client:
Less billable time chewing into the project’s budget,
Faster resolutions and adherence to the project’s timeline, and
Prioritisation of key features specified in the original scope.
At the end of the day, it’s your kitchen!
While the customer is king, the agency is your kitchen. Before you start cooking up a project, it’s essential that you set clear expectations about who it is you’re serving. Set clear boundaries about who has authority to communicate with, and give feedback to, your team. At the end of the day – your kitchen, your rules!