Ask the expert: The Science of Client Services with Christos Karakanna

Written by Christos Karakanna | UK | September 4, 2024

In the fast-paced world of client services, success hinges on building strong relationships, understanding client needs, and navigating the ever-changing marketing and communication landscape. To gain insight into this field, we spoke with Christos Karakanna, a seasoned client services expert with years of experience across different markets and agencies. Christos shares his journey in agencies and offers invaluable tips on client relationship management, overcoming challenges, and staying ahead of industry trends. Dive in as we explore the science of client services with one of the best in the business.

Please tell us about your background and how you got started in client services. What attracted you to this type of work? Can you describe your primary responsibilities?

Following a semi-related degree that included subjects such as marketing, writing genres, PR and crisis management, I finished university and applied for a part-time admin assistant job at a successful local agency in my hometown before I headed to London. Little did I know that I would soon be taken on full-time, and this is where I would learn the fundamentals of excellent client service. I stayed there and sped through the ranks to SAM level under the guidance of a great mentor, Brian, until I then moved to London, via Australia, to cut my teeth in the big agency scene. All of my early responsibilities were admin and project management-based, learning how to deliver to a high standard, being drilled in the basics so much that I can still do them with my eyes closed, and as I grew, I was trusted with client relationships and strategic input. Being thrown into the deep end with the right support definitely helped me!

How do you build and maintain strong relationships with clients? What strategies do you use to understand and meet client needs?

Client relationships are just like any significant relationship and should be treated as such. If you want them to work, they take dedication, nurture, hard work and, of course, a sprinkle of love. And the biggest golden rule is the truth. Work delivered based on insight and a questioning & thinking client service team is 1000% more effective compared to what someone arbitrarily thought might look good!

So, my tips:

Take the time to understand your client, their audience, their market and their business problems, and deliver all your work to an exceptional level
Get to know your clients personally, their world, challenges and aspirations, and their bosses and their boss's bosses!
Then you are ready to have grown-up conversations with your client that add value, which is based on insight and creativity, and that might mean that sometimes you are saying yes, and sometimes it might be a no, but how about this instead? These conversations are easier based on the equity you have built up with your clients and their trust
Take the time to invest in your clients.

What are some common challenges you face in client services, and how do you overcome them? Can you share a specific example of a challenging situation and how you resolved it?

Client Services are paid to be problem solvers, so it comes with the territory. But I would say, as a rule, the usual client challenges are around time, budget, education and briefs or understanding of the actual client challenge. There is always a solution, but the better the relationship with your client is, the easier it is to discuss and agree on the best (realistic!) option.

Internally, it is the art of balancing multiple tasks, projects, timelines, admin and strategies at once - again, relationships are key; the internal team, your specialists, and your creatives rely on you to be the centre of everything, so again, the more you work on those relationships, the more supportive, team-focussed and flexible they are!

An excellent example of this is a fairly recent brand brief we worked on; when discussed openly with the senior clients, it came to light that the focus and actual business problem needed to be corrected in said brief. Using your relationships to have an uncomfortable conversation that a client's brief maybe isn't on the mark is a real test, one that I'm pleased to say we could have. The resulting work was much more effective for the business, allowing proper strategy and creative solutions based on insight!

What are the most important communication skills for a client service specialist?

There are some obvious ones you will see on most client service professional CVs, like confidence, presenting and writing skills, but to me, the most important are active listening, asking questions, empathy and adapting your communication style for different audiences. I would also add respect, clarity and emotional intelligence.

What are your best tips for ensuring client satisfaction and retention? How do you measure client satisfaction?

Well, the first thing you should always do is deliver the work to a consistently high standard and constantly add value to that work and your client relationships. A key mindset approach should always be to treat your current and established clients as brand new ones; it's not fair to those who trust you to put them down the pecking order because you have won a shiny new client!

There are informal and formal approaches to measuring client satisfaction, and you should do both. You and your team should regularly check in with all levels of your clients, support them, and ensure that they are beyond satisfied!

Formally, I believe in two-way feedback between client & agency, and there are several vehicles to do this, including client satisfaction surveys and regular reviews.

Informally, I'd book check-ins quarterly or every six months with more extensive reviews annually. Sometimes, these are led by procurement on the client side, but I encourage agencies to think about this in some way yearly and make it two-way. I also recommend internal client plans where your account teams report to senior agency members about client satisfaction.

What trends are you seeing in client services today?

There are always lots of trends in client services, some that have been around for a while, some new and some that come back and forth in waves. The customer experience of your client's customers isn't new, but it is still vitally important, and it has a more omnichannel approach these days, so it is one to keep front of mind. AI is obviously the flavour of the day, and the use and navigation of this by clients and agencies is a challenge for Client Services and not an easy one when you layer in legalities and copyright.

There has always been a battle between cost X time X realistic expectations; this, for me, is one Client Service members need to master because there are so many rights and wrongs, and sometimes education is needed, and that can be hard when you are in a service industry. But it is our job to make sure we service the client correctly, and that sometimes means a difficult conversation. But, to me, that is the job and how you build great client relationships.

Insight (or even just reality!) is vital and even more so when it comes to pitching for new business; it can become bit of a conundrum when a client might expect a creative answer, but the proper creative process isn't allowed in order to get there i.e. not enough time, no insight yet, no brief or all of the above! In that case, an agency is delivering a creative idea that just looks pretty but probably isn't right, and the client is picking an agency for the wrong reasons… but as an agency and client service individuals, we have to find the balance.

How has the role of client service specialists evolved over the past few years?

The specialists are more specialist.

The continual rise of digital means that we need more specialist client service individuals who work within an agency framework. For me, this is no different to having a strategist, creative director or brand specialist involved in your client; the specialists are used where they are needed, and more generalist or relationship-owning client service makes sure they are brought in at the right time. The trick is making sure that you have an owner(s) within Client Service (and beyond!) that make everything tick, retain an overview and ownership, and most importantly, ensure the client knows who to go to for everything. And, of course, communication within the agency is then the key to making everything seamless.

What tools or technologies do you find most helpful in your work?

There are many, and even more so now many of us work in the cloud these days, but here's a quick overview of my favourites / most used recently:

Project management tools: Monday.com / Basecamp / Asana / Gant / Trello / Kanban
Slack is great for communicating daily. Other mainstays are Google, Teams, and Zoom. Also, WhatsApp with clients you know well!
We have an app at UP that we use to keep in touch and share, which is useful for internal communications to the broader UP group
I use the following daily for lists and reminders: notes on my phone, my calendar, emails to myself, and email drafts!

Everything you use should be helpful or add value rather than just being used for its own sake.

Are there any specific methodologies or frameworks you follow?

I'm a big believer in the original agency triumvirate, Client Service X Creative X Strategy, and it stands the test of time; however, that manifests in agencies these days. This framework, for me, is a must.

My methodologies for the Client Service teams are born out of years of working and delivering within different agencies' processes and learning from other Client Service professionals - they have evolved into my version of what are the musts in a framework that can be flexible and also where you let individual personalities shine through and add value. Our very own Base-UP is a great project management process that brings together many of these learnings.

I'm also a massive believer in the right structures of people around you - have your generalists and problem solvers but also around them have the specialists who know everything inside, out, in that space!

Lastly, always hire and surround yourself with people who you think will be or already are better / smarter than you. Don't be afraid to rise up with them; the client and the agency benefit!

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

It's the people, simply. The clients, meeting and supporting them with their goals, and that sense of achievement.

And the internal agency people. This includes bringing on the younger members and seeing how they grow.

But people generally really - client service and agency life allows you to meet amazing new people all the time, build relationships with them, learn new things daily and having fun along the way. Client or agency, some of my best friends and favourite people have come through my work, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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