We all have clients, whether you are working client-side, for yourself or working for an agency – we all have someone that we are doing work for. The role of client services is to bridge the relationship between the person commissioning work to be done (the client) and the people delivering the work (you, your team, your agency).

 

The type of person suited to a role in Client Services is someone who is super organised, a good problem solver with strong people skills and diplomacy, as you spend your days interfacing with many personalities both in your organisation and in your client’s organisation. It helps to be curious and genuinely interested in new trends and technologies that may positively or negatively impact your client’s business.

Every day is different in Client Services, but routine tasks include regular status meetings with internal teams and your clients, overseeing monthly, quarterly and yearly review meetings, updating status reports, receiving requests from clients, relaying those requests to your team and overseeing the outputs to ensure they are delivered as intended. You are also responsible for maintaining and growing client relationships and managing client expectations.

 

The journey to landing yourself a role in Client Services can be achieved from many different career paths. I traversed travel and recruitment, and 10 years into my working life found myself in my first Client Services role as Account Director for a Digital Marketing Agency. 

 

I spent the next 5 years working here and learnt a lot. I learned that I operate best when I am not micromanaged and when my peers trust me to deliver results. These days I make it clear how to get the best out of me, and I would encourage those reading this to do the same.

 

My next move was tactical, and I took a sideways opportunity to join Foolproof. I had been following their growth from a team of 2 in a portacabin in 2002 to a team of 50 by the time I joined in 2011. I had heard lots of great things about the founders, Pete and Tom, and the culture, whilst working in recruitment and had earmarked them as a company I’d love to join when the time was right.

Foolproof was an amazing place to work. They embodied the mantra work hard and play hard. And we did both in spades. On my 2nd day, I was on the early train to London to meet the Head of Business Banking at HSBC and never looked back. I took all the opportunities that were presented to me – I travelled to Paris, New York, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Buenos Aires all expenses paid.

 

I was lucky enough to have a line manager who was my cheerleader. She created roles for me as I outgrew the ones I was in. 7 years later, as I was heading towards 40, I knew I wanted a family, but how would I fit that into my busy life. I was a Senior Account Director looking after 3 teams and an annual revenue target of £10million. 

I was naive about how easy it would be to start a family, and I finally fell pregnant when I was 39. Here I was, leaving a role I loved for a year with minimal income on maternity pay –  £156.66 a week. Please do check out the maternity benefit you are entitled to, and if it’s rubbish, start pushing the business to look at it!

 

13 months later, and horrifically sleep-deprived, I was back in my role, having negotiated a phased return on 3 days a week. I’m not going to lie; I was torn, I was back doing the job I loved, but I also had two little people that needed me too; plus, so much had changed in the year I’d been gone that I had major imposter syndrome. I fessed up, and I worked hard to get to know the new world and loved the next year. 

 

I made a difficult decision to leave Foolproof in 2020 as I wanted a better work/life balance to make sure I was around to see my twins grow up. I spent the next 18 months working for Borne and then was approached for a Head of Client Services position at Fountain Partnership which I took in May 2021. 

 

Fountain has an amazing team and culture, and I am proud to be part of an independent agency with such a focus on work/life balance and one that is going from strength to strength. 

A few takeaways from me:

 

  • It’s okay to mess up and make mistakes – I’ve made many, but the most important thing is to come up with a solution rather than dwell on the problem – even if the solution is fessing up to the client that a mistake has been made.
  • Be honest with your peers – if you are struggling like I was when I came back from mat leave, tell them. Equally, if you feel that you are being mismanaged, tell someone.
  • Don’t take things personally – clients will get angry and frustrated but contextually, they are doing so because they are in the firing line too.
  • Remember things about people – birthdays, how they take their coffee, their favourite dish/cake, their favourite restaurant, their passion – all these things help you to be memorable and stand you apart from other agencies or suppliers in the client’s world.