I have found when working with clients – and particularly those new to TV/Video/Visual Media that one of the most important aspects of the client relationship is managing their expectations.
Lets be honest and understand that TV/Video is a very expensive medium to work in – there is simply no way round that. Even “cheap” TV is still expensive when you compare it to things like print, online, and radio media – and clients that maybe used to working in these other forms of media will need a lot of help to make the jump to TV and video and to come to appreciate WHY it costs so much.
We always make it clear when we work with a new client that TV does not come cheap and “good” TV certainly is expensive. That said we also always try and tailor what we are doing to the budgets they have available – in fact we often try and find out if they have a figure in mind prior to even putting costs together for them. We pretty well always have a good idea of what it will cost us to do what the client is requesting (not always but with our experience in most cases this is true) and the reason we try and get information on budgets etc. is so that it can save us and the client time and energy. If for example a client wants something done that we know will cost around say £10,000 and they only have £1,000 to spend then there is little point continuing the conversation or us spending the time to put accurate costs together – rather we are better to advise them to look for some other form of media for their project. IF however we find in our discussions they have say £15,000 in their budget then we can be more confident in moving the discussions forward and putting accurate costs together – it’s worth us spending the time and energy to make that happen. NOW let me say at this point – it is VITAL we work with integrity and if we find a client has £15,000 to spend and the project budget is only £10,000 make sure you do it for this and DO NOT inflate the costs – that does no one any favours and trust me sooner or later the client will find out and that will be that!! Transparency is everything. We as a company have a policy that if we put a budget together for a project and ultimately it costs less then that saving is passed BACK to the client – trust me, its good business and it’s ethical.
The other value in identifying budgets is that if in the above example you find your client only has £8,000 you can quickly identify IF a. this is a project where you can tailor a solution to their budget OR b. you decide for the sake of winning a new client to do the project and make less on it – which sometimes can be a good idea – but that’s always your call. The key is to aim for trust and transparency from BOTH parties – that way you can move forward more effectively and quickly – a quick word to clients as well – PLEASE help us out here – we are trying to make it work for you.
Now, we recently had an interesting experience when it comes to budgeting AND also managing expectations (the real subject of this blog). We were asked by a new client to put together some costs for a project they had coming up where this was their first experience of dipping their toe in the water of TV Land. It was to film and edit a weeks worth of material and turn it into a DVD (it was also 1000’s of miles away from the UK). Well after putting some initial costs together we quickly realised they had no where near the budget available to do this – however they still wanted something done. So what we settled on is that they would use a local company to do the filming and we would do the post. Well – that as all of you will know is not ideal and CAN be a recipe for disaster.
As we suspected when we saw the material it was VERY poor – the audio was all over the place, it was very poorly shot and frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. However we had agreed we would do the post – so we dug into the project and this is where it became CRITICAL that we managed the client’s expectations.
Very soon into the process we informed them of the difficulties with the project and basically told them that with all the editing in the world they were not going to get anything better than an “average” product at best. We also kept them informed throughout of the ongoing problems and challenges we faced and how that would affect the final outcome. We also gave them options – one of which was to spend more time editing BUT we pointed out that ultimately we didn’t feel it was worth the investment for the improvements it would make – and thankfully they took our advice and saved their money.
All the way down the line we continued dialoguing with them and managing their expectations. I think ultimately they were pleasantly surprised with what we were able to do – and this was a far better outcome than having them look at the product and wonder where their £1000’s had gone.
This was not by any means our ideal way of doing things BUT it was necessary for the budgets they had available at the time and we ended up producing a product that ultimately they were content with given the NON ideal circumstances BECAUSE we effectively managed their expectations. We did however agree that we wouldn’t do this again and next time we would ensure we were involved in the whole process – filming and editing – that way we will get a much better product.
For me the key here is not only the managing of the expectations but also working closely with a client, keeping communication throughout the process and ultimately having their best interests at heart – after all they are the ones paying you.
I hope this is helpful for some and would welcome your thoughts, comments, experiences and stories.
Lets be honest and understand that TV/Video is a very expensive medium to work in – there is simply no way round that. Even “cheap” TV is still expensive when you compare it to things like print, online, and radio media – and clients that maybe used to working in these other forms of media will need a lot of help to make the jump to TV and video and to come to appreciate WHY it costs so much.
We always make it clear when we work with a new client that TV does not come cheap and “good” TV certainly is expensive. That said we also always try and tailor what we are doing to the budgets they have available – in fact we often try and find out if they have a figure in mind prior to even putting costs together for them. We pretty well always have a good idea of what it will cost us to do what the client is requesting (not always but with our experience in most cases this is true) and the reason we try and get information on budgets etc. is so that it can save us and the client time and energy. If for example a client wants something done that we know will cost around say £10,000 and they only have £1,000 to spend then there is little point continuing the conversation or us spending the time to put accurate costs together – rather we are better to advise them to look for some other form of media for their project. IF however we find in our discussions they have say £15,000 in their budget then we can be more confident in moving the discussions forward and putting accurate costs together – it’s worth us spending the time and energy to make that happen. NOW let me say at this point – it is VITAL we work with integrity and if we find a client has £15,000 to spend and the project budget is only £10,000 make sure you do it for this and DO NOT inflate the costs – that does no one any favours and trust me sooner or later the client will find out and that will be that!! Transparency is everything. We as a company have a policy that if we put a budget together for a project and ultimately it costs less then that saving is passed BACK to the client – trust me, its good business and it’s ethical.
The other value in identifying budgets is that if in the above example you find your client only has £8,000 you can quickly identify IF a. this is a project where you can tailor a solution to their budget OR b. you decide for the sake of winning a new client to do the project and make less on it – which sometimes can be a good idea – but that’s always your call. The key is to aim for trust and transparency from BOTH parties – that way you can move forward more effectively and quickly – a quick word to clients as well – PLEASE help us out here – we are trying to make it work for you.
Now, we recently had an interesting experience when it comes to budgeting AND also managing expectations (the real subject of this blog). We were asked by a new client to put together some costs for a project they had coming up where this was their first experience of dipping their toe in the water of TV Land. It was to film and edit a weeks worth of material and turn it into a DVD (it was also 1000’s of miles away from the UK). Well after putting some initial costs together we quickly realised they had no where near the budget available to do this – however they still wanted something done. So what we settled on is that they would use a local company to do the filming and we would do the post. Well – that as all of you will know is not ideal and CAN be a recipe for disaster.
As we suspected when we saw the material it was VERY poor – the audio was all over the place, it was very poorly shot and frankly it was a bit of a nightmare. However we had agreed we would do the post – so we dug into the project and this is where it became CRITICAL that we managed the client’s expectations.
Very soon into the process we informed them of the difficulties with the project and basically told them that with all the editing in the world they were not going to get anything better than an “average” product at best. We also kept them informed throughout of the ongoing problems and challenges we faced and how that would affect the final outcome. We also gave them options – one of which was to spend more time editing BUT we pointed out that ultimately we didn’t feel it was worth the investment for the improvements it would make – and thankfully they took our advice and saved their money.
All the way down the line we continued dialoguing with them and managing their expectations. I think ultimately they were pleasantly surprised with what we were able to do – and this was a far better outcome than having them look at the product and wonder where their £1000’s had gone.
This was not by any means our ideal way of doing things BUT it was necessary for the budgets they had available at the time and we ended up producing a product that ultimately they were content with given the NON ideal circumstances BECAUSE we effectively managed their expectations. We did however agree that we wouldn’t do this again and next time we would ensure we were involved in the whole process – filming and editing – that way we will get a much better product.
For me the key here is not only the managing of the expectations but also working closely with a client, keeping communication throughout the process and ultimately having their best interests at heart – after all they are the ones paying you.
I hope this is helpful for some and would welcome your thoughts, comments, experiences and stories.
1 comment:
Managing expectations is certainly one of the essential skills in the TV/video business. Our productions range from broadcast shows on channels like Showtime and CBS to small corporate shoots.
Almost every client says they want it shot in HD, but frequently, this is unnecessary and will break their budget. Usually the first question I ask is how they're going to use the footage. If the footage is only going to used for web videos, HD may be a waste of money after the finished product is compressed.
Also, asking if they have a budget range is important. We generally do not turn down projects if there budget is lower than expected, but we can certainly recommend using other equipment, changing the crew and using prep work to cut down on costs.
And like you said, integrity is very important. In the last year, I had a lot of clients looking to shoot mini-DV on the HVX200. I explained to every single one of them that the video quality of the mini-DV mode on the HVX is exactly identical to the DVX100, so they would be wasting their money.
I've just started reading your blog, but this post really struck me as true to our industry. Thanks.
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