{"id":23949,"date":"2021-01-06T09:16:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T13:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=23949"},"modified":"2021-01-18T01:35:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T05:35:37","slug":"advertising-complaints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/","title":{"rendered":"Advertising Complaints &#038; Bad Clients: Handle It Quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How do you deal with advertising complaints? What do you do when you have a bad client?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advertising complaints can come from anywhere, but bad clients pose a particularly troubling problem. It&#8217;s important to deal with bad clients swiftly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about dealing with advertising complaints from bad clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Advertising Complaints and <strong>Dealing With Bad Clients<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone wants good clients, such as \u201cfirst-class\u201d businesses, but when you\u2019re first starting your agency or in a dry spell, you might feel like you can\u2019t be picky. However, <strong>bad clients can do huge damage to your agency, so don\u2019t take on just anyone, no matter how desperate you are.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be cautious of, avoid, or drop the following types of clients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Those who won\u2019t be able to pay you. Profit margins in advertising are slim, so you can\u2019t afford to not be paid.<\/li><li>Those with different company cultures that would be incompatible with yours.<\/li><li>Those with potential but no current clout. These accounts could take off, but few of them do.<\/li><li>Those who make the people working on their account miserable. Your staff\u2019s morale is more important than one client.<\/li><li>Those who are failing, because they sometimes switch agencies often. For example, when Pan American started to struggle, they switched agencies five times in approximately 10 years. (Most major accounts keep their agencies for decades. For example, General Motors used the same agency for 70 years.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Public Opinion on Your Agency<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>No one\u2019s going to say anything negative about you or your agency to your face, so <strong>pay a research organization to do a survey and find out what companies think of you.<\/strong> If the survey turns something up, even if you fix the problem quickly, it will take some time for your reputation to change. This should turn up any advertising complaints you might be worried about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conflicts of Interest<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It\u2019s common practice that agencies don\u2019t take on more than one client in one category.<\/strong> (Shortform example: If you already advertise for a shoe company, you wouldn\u2019t sign up Keds.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, conflicts of interest can become complicated quickly. For example, if you have two clients in different businesses but one decides to expand, do you have to drop one of them? If you have two clients in the same business but in different cities, is that a problem? Additionally, <strong>some clients don\u2019t want their agencies to represent anyone who might even <\/strong><strong><em>indirectly <\/em><\/strong><strong>affect their sales.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McKinsey\u2019s Marvin Bower thinks that there\u2019s no harm in advertising agencies representing competing clients. He says that even if the agency staff responsible for competing accounts shared all their knowledge, it wouldn\u2019t negatively impact the sales of either company because companies are so different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether or not representing more than one client in a category will actually affect either\u2019s sales, don\u2019t do it because it will make your clients unhappy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you deal with advertising complaints? What do you do when you have a bad client? Advertising complaints can come from anywhere, but bad clients pose a particularly troubling problem. It&#8217;s important to deal with bad clients swiftly. Read more about dealing with advertising complaints from bad clients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,104,12],"tags":[189],"class_list":["post-23949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-marketing","category-relationships","tag-ogilvy-on-advertising","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Advertising Complaints &amp; Bad Clients: Handle It Quickly - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How should you deal with advertising complaints from bad clients? 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Here&#039;s how to do it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-06T13:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-18T05:35:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/common-communication-problems-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"Advertising Complaints &#038; Bad Clients: Handle It Quickly\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-06T13:16:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-18T05:35:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/\"},\"wordCount\":495,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/common-communication-problems-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ogilvy on Advertising\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Marketing\",\"Relationships\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/\",\"name\":\"Advertising Complaints & Bad Clients: Handle It Quickly - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advertising-complaints\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/common-communication-problems-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-06T13:16:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-18T05:35:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"How should you deal with advertising complaints from bad clients? 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