To be sure, the end of the calendar year is a hectic time for advertisers and agencies. Tasks such as wrapping up ongoing initiatives, closing out jobs, addressing last-minute out-of-scope projects and readying for year-end financial reporting take on a sense of urgency and seem to consume more time than either party has available to invest.
Then, seemingly without warning (but never too soon) the holiday season is upon us and co-workers, suppliers and client-personnel scatter to the wind as companies close down for the holidays and individuals use up remaining comp time. This is followed by a “return to normalcy” the first week in January when we close-out any remaining prior year tasks and turn our attention to implementing the new year’s plans.
Sound familiar? Probably so.
Thus, it comes as no surprise to anyone that certain intended actions fall by the wayside as people adjust schedules for the December/January timeframe in order to balance hectic and often stressful workplace and personal schedules.
In our experience, there are two Client/Agency activities that often fall victim to this re-prioritization:
- Undertaking year-end agency financial reconciliations (i.e. time-of-staff, agency fees, expenses); and
- Conducting annual 360º agency evaluations.
On one hand, it is easy to understand how and why these activities get moved down the priority list, receive a lower-than-desired level of scrutiny or simply get passed over. On the other hand, these are incredibly valuable practices that yield a wealth of financial, process improvement and relationship management insights and opportunities, well in excess of the time and energy invested in their undertaking.
Sadly, missing these annual end-of-year activities once, significantly increases the odds of annualizing their omission from the standard operating procedures “playbook” moving forward. Further, human nature being what it is, people then begin to rationalize why it is appropriate never to reconcile and review. Perhaps Paul Harvey, the noted broadcaster, got it right when he quipped:
“Ever since I made tomorrow my favorite day, I’ve been uncomfortable looking back.”
From a practical perspective, our experience would fully support Mr. Harvey’s lack of comfort with “looking back,” particularly when clients and agencies forgo these important annual oversights and relationship management practices. Why? The lack of oversight can beget poor record keeping, which in an estimated billing system carries huge financial risks. Additionally, forgoing a 360º evaluation and the opportunity to discuss how to address open issues, correct performance shortcomings and leverage those things that are working well is not only costly, but can sow the seeds of discontent in the Client/Agency relationship, which is not healthy for either party.
Therefore, we believe that these two “year-end” practices should never be forgone or given short shrift. The most practical approach to prevent this is to create project work plans for these practices, complete with timetables and milestones, the assignment of task level responsibilities to specific individuals and locking-in calendar placeholders for progress updates and report-out meetings.
In the end, everyone benefits from the enhanced levels of transparency, solid two-way communications and ultimately, improved performance.