What does this speech help you understand about your flight? Well, it makes you realise what a grand risk it is that you are taking and that there are more chances of you not making it alive to your destination than reaching safe and sound. The airline prepares you for the worst case scenario and makes you responsible for your failure of getting out of any unforeseen situation alive.
Well, account management aka client servicing is pretty much similar, if not starkly the same. You onboard an account and that’s your cue to fasten your seatbelt and secure yourself and the account securely to the seat. Next are the oxygen masks, which are basically your KPIs and goals, failure to understand and achieve them can lead to an escalation and a termination. It depends on how you deal with them and if you are able to pre-empt the escalation and avoid it, aka dropping the oxygen masks on time and securing it and breathing into them.
You are also asked to stow your tray tables in an upright position to ensure that they don’t hit your chest while take-off and landing, the similarity between the tray tables and your SPOC at your client’s is uncanny. Your SPOC becomes your tray table and basically an extended arm of your agency and vice versa. You both ensure you are nicely packed with information and in the most comfortable position with the correct documentation and goals in mind to ensure that neither of you poke into each other and rupture your ribcage! Costing each other lives, if not careers per say.
Another very important resemblance that I found while taking off for my last flight was how well equipped we are with the evacuation information. The flight attendant wants us to literally be able to open the doors and jump off in case we find the need to save ourselves. So when do you do that in client servicing? Some cue points that I have encountered in the past 1 decade
- When the client is unsure of their goals and KPIs
- When the client wants you to chase a KPI that is unattainable against the stipulated period of time that they have allotted. They are just setting you up for failure
- When the client is abusive
- When the client insists of extra work without payments
- When the client refuses to credit you for the performance of the account and instead says stuff like ‘this could have been achieved in any number of ways’ (well then go for it!)
- When they refuse to clear payments after 60 days of grace period (This is my personal learning from relationships that I built and was taken for granted basis the same)
- When they insist on meetings and calls post office hours and escalate when you tell them gently (but firmly) that you would not be working post a certain hour.
Also, have you noticed how everyone immediately gets up and sighs with relief upon landing? In some countries they even clap! Yes, that is how risky this entire business is. Unless you are well equipped with your safety gears and information, aka your goals, KPIs, support of functional teams, strategy and enough knowledge about the client and their business, there is no way you are making it to the end of that runway alive! And if the account off-boards, the entire crash landing becomes your threat to life. You are responsible for the entire business growth of your client along with sustaining the account internally. Your sales team is basically the on-ground staff most of whom have never even been on a flight. They will sell you the ticket and then say ‘have a safe flight’ all the while knowing that there is a 50% chance of you not making it alive.
Well we did say ‘fasten your seatbelts and in case of an emergency…’ didn’t we?