Above and beyond.

I appreciate that most of you will know this already, and so without impugning grandma’s skills in the egg sucking department,  how many of us, when we’re in the middle of our usual ‘chop chop, busy busy, work work, bang bang’ routine, stop to think about exceeding a client’s expectations?

You might in the normal course of things, get a brief or order from the client and work your usual magic in satisfying that requirement and then think to yourself “great, job done”. But…

How many of us look at the brief and think to ourselves, you know what? I can improve on that a little and I’m 100% sure I can make the client happier with the end result. It may only take a little extra time, a little extra effort, a little extra thought and you can lift a job to the next level and straight away, not only are you getting paid, but also getting some extra ‘Brownie Points’ into the deal too.

Now, you don’t have to be an actual brownie to realise this goodwill goes a long way in any line of business.  It makes you the first point of contact for when new work is in the pipeline. It makes your business a recommendation-worthy proposition and it gives clients confidence not only in the standard of the work you produce, but in your opinion when being asked about setting up any future projects.

For me, as a general rule, if I’m approached by a client to produce a new video piece, the first thing I’m thinking isn’t about the practicalities of the job, like gear or logistics, it’s the creative side of the job. What is the client trying to say, what is the core message? How do they want to be seen, and who is their intended audience?

In a former life as a freelance designer, I had to employ many skills to achieve a finished job that the client was happy with. 

Of course a design sensibility with all its aesthetic complexities almost goes without saying, but before all that would be the more important element; the core of the message. Without this, you can make a design as fancy and clever as you like and it will still miss its target every time.

I would regularly speak to my clients and tell them to write down what they wanted to say, and then I would sweeten it up, give it gloss, polish the rough edges and bring the main point to the fore in a direct and impactful way.

This routine still stands as the best practice within the video production and advertising world and this point in every production process is the key element that makes the difference between simply fulfilling the brief, and going above and beyond.

© theactionhouse.com

March 2024