This one has always bothered me – I remember the first time I was called a ’supplier’ and thought – what a dirty word. A supplier suggests that we provide goods/service to order – rather than providing a service that works best when we work alongside or in partnership with our clients. Our best work is always produced when we are involved from the start, when we immerse ourselves in the product – in the case of some products – quite literally and when we engage with the client over several meetings sharing ideas to arrive at a solution that works for us all.
And when we exceed expectations, or deliver above and beyond the narrative on the purchase order then ocassionally it would be good to be noticed and thanked for our efforts. Clients are not buying anything prescribed from us – each piece of work we do is unique and tailored to their specific needs, objectives, target audience and most importantly budget.
And we are fortunate to have a great mix of clients who appreciate this. And over the years they have thanked us in a number of ways, the odd email, invitations to events, but today we were really taken by the flowers (below), which were sent to us for working alongside a client for over twelve months to put together an online and offline programme of marketing materials, which was finally presented at their global marketing meeting in London last Friday – and I guess it was a success!
Thank you Christine, Paul and Tom, it was a pleasure
Saying it with Flowers
