When will Internet vendors learn how to service their clients? (page 2 of 2)

Communication: If you receive an RFP do you reply the same day? The same week? Year? Most likely the advertiser is running last minute due to creative delays, production delays, last minute changes and this is only exemplified in Internet which is always the last medium to be finalised in the mix. Many times if we haven't heard back the same day (at least acknowledging receipt) they have lost out as we don't have time to chase. Harsh but true.

2. Market Knowledge: What is the total spend in the market? What is your share of this spend? Who are the big advertisers? Who are the big agencies? How much do you know about an agency's clients? Where they spend, who do they want to reach? This list goes on and on...But a little research can go a long way.

3. Product Knowledge: How much should I price my inventory? How does this compare with other online media, offline media? How can I improve my products offering/options? What are the traffic trends across my website? Who is going where, when and for how long? A vendor who can not only support an advertiser but actually make detailed recommendations gets more business. As does a vendor who knows how to price and present their products based on advertiser value not competitor prices.

4. Campaign Management: This after-sales service should get a 5 star rating for importance. Don't hand the booking order over to a low-level exec and leave it. Take the responsibility to ensure that all booking orders are properly placed and delivered as per instructions. Keep abreast of campaign timelines, advise advertiser of traffic bottlenecks, and suggest optimizations based on the performance. A vendor who is watching out for an advertiser's campaign is like a financial advisor who looks after your investment.

5. Flexibility: We all work in the most flexible medium of all so why are we often so inflexible? A sure fire way of building barriers to relationships. There is always a solution but it most often comes down to whether the vendor is willing to support it or not.

6. Resource: How many account managers should a vendor employ to manage their advertisers? Notice I use the term account manager and not business development person. Highly likely that you have most of the key advertisers right under your nose so rather than spending huge resource going out to find new ones why not develop the ones you already know about? If you think you already have achieved optimal spends with these advertisers/agencies, think again.

7. Relations: How well do you know your advertisers? What are their biggest challenges they face professionally and personally? I always say that in advertising we are here to make our clients look good, so perhaps as a vendor you should be thinking the same. This is the vendor-client relationship after all.

8. Supplier reality: You are not the advertiser's partner. You are selling them a product with a service attached, and they pay big money for it. Hence as a supplier you need to focus your energies around keeping that advertiser satisfied (even delighted) at all times. Learn to bite the bullet when appropriate and learn to support in the same way. Simple marketing 101.

I'm sure that there are many more points out there which differentiate a world-class vendor from one who has stumbled on some Internet traffic. I of course speak from my own experience and so any disagreements; feel free to share or debate. Overall it is clear that our industry is growing so fast that we often need to pause and reflect on our business relationships as we move forward. As the industry heads to the future and naturally increases product homogeneity it will be areas such as client service which differentiate the successful vendors from the recently expired vendors with urls for sale.