Amends are the thorn in every agencies side.

The brick wall we all fight against at the end of every project.

The things that make us question our sanity and ask ourselves: ‘wouldn’t life be simpler if I worked at Late Shopper?’

Why, we cry to the gods, does someone hire us for our expertise and then feel they know better at the final hurdle?!

Well, however frustrating and soul destroying they can be – they are the real test of how good your Client Services team are. Ultimately, as the messengers or conduit between ‘The Client’ and ‘Production’ they run the risk of offending and alienating everyone, including their work colleagues, if they don’t manage the amends process in the most appropriate way.

So I have collected by thoughts and put together these few key points to remember – to make this tear jerking endeavor as pain free as possible…

1.The waiting game.

Think the client has sent their last amend? Think again. Amidst the empty promise of ‘just one more thing’ hear the cry of uncertainty.
There is nothing more annoying, for both production and account manager, than having to send email after email of ‘and another one’.
Wait at least 2 hours. Put all the amends that have dripped through in one Word document and then send it back to the client with the fateful words: ‘Here are your agreed amends. Anything additional will be charged at our normal rate’. Then wait another hour. The client will either call /email back immediately with a list of further details or a worried ‘Oh but so and so has to look at it first’. At least you know where you stand then. Only when the client in question has agreed their ‘final amends’ should you send them over to production, and they can work through the points methodically – all in one go.

2. Keeping an eye on production.

We all know that awful feeling you get when you see a design and it just doesn’t meet what you had been expecting. Likely the client will have that feeling – times ten.
If you have a good relationship with your client then you will have a good understanding of their likes/dislikes and expectations. Usually far more than the design team will.
This can be a hard bullet to bite (especially for design!) but keeping a regular and critical on work, before it’s at the ’send to client’ stage, will mean the final product will be as close to amend-free as possible.

3. Patience truly is a virtue.

I am the most impetuous person I know. I want things now and don’t have the patience to give things the attention they need a lot of the time. But I have had to learn to smarten my act for my job because, if I didn’t, I would be royally screwed.
So be patient. Test and work through the client’s project properly. Don’t rush the job and you will spot anything the client will BEFORE it goes over.

Anyway, hope these nuggets of wisdom save you from a potential baldness inducing amends debacle!