I love Mexican food. This past weekend I wanted to take my family out to our favorite Mexican hangout but, upon arrival, it was way too crowded for us to stay. Someone kindly recommended a nearby alternative and so, slightly miffed by our disrupted plans, I called for a reservation. I was immediately accommodated.
“15 minutes? We’ll have the table waiting for you.”
Table waiting? Who am I? I’m nobody. But I suddenly felt like somebody.
When we arrived the manager was standing just inside the doorway, presiding proudly. He looked me in the eyes, nodded, and smiled genuinely as we walked in. “This guy’s on the ball,” I thought. Our waitress was lovely and incredibly attentive to my sprawling family of five. When we suddenly needed a spoon mid-meal, I asked the manager and he grabbed one in a flash.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I tipped handsomely and we left.
All we talked about the whole way home was the service. I share this story as a roundabout way of saying: service matters. More than matters, it changes everything—the sum total of your experience. Great service makes the food taste better. The ambiance becomes more lively. The prices more bearable.
But service like this shouldn’t be reserved for ambitious restaurants. It’s also vital to the relationship between copywriters and clients. Here are a handful of reasons (and there are many more) why service is crucial to the copywriting process.
You’re building a relationship.
Projects take time. So with every project, you’re building a relationship—whether you like it or not. Now, that relationship can generate trust, ease, positivity, and great outputs. Or it can be weighed down by frustration, delays, conflict, and difficulty.
Much of that has to do with the nature of the service taking place between the copywriter and the client. From day one, everyone at MarketSmiths strives to settle in for the long haul, aiming to serve with patience, precision, and a problem-solving attitude for the duration of the project (relationship).
There’s much at stake.
The words a brand uses to communicate with its audience are under increasing scrutiny—especially from within. I have worked on many projects of late where CMOs themselves are heavily involved in the messaging development. They’re not watching from a distance. And this takes place all the way down the ladder, from VPs and directors to marketing managers and team leads.
Understanding the dynamics within these organizational structures and making sure everyone is well-attended to and represented—let alone ensuring quality creative is being delivered—is no small feat. It requires the kind of service I received at the restaurant: pleasant, eager to help, skilled, and taking the big picture into account.
Hurdles are inevitable.
No project goes 100% smoothly. There are always hiccups. The tone isn’t quite right. The message is off. It’s too long. It’s too short. The designer needs an extra blurb. This feature has been discontinued. We’ve just won a new award—can you weave it in?
Expecting things to go perfectly is a recipe for disappointment. But when you’re prepared for the inevitable—and committed to delivering great service through and through—everybody wins. The work gets done and you end up stronger partners for it.
Great work requires trust.
Creative work always requires a measure of trust. And bold, barrier-breaking creative work: doubly so. If you really want to make a splash in your industry, you’re going to need to take a stand. Perhaps ruffle some feathers. Stick your neck out there in the name of something you believe in.
Doing so requires team-wide conviction. And that kind of coherence can’t be created when copywriters are at arm’s length. A good copywriter stays in the mix, helping to build clarity and consensus as your team develops messages that will ring true to your brand and resonate with your audience.
“I want to treat everyone like this,” I said, smiling at my wife as we left the restaurant. After all, great service is the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. I say it every day to my three daughters. And now I’m inspired to live it more myself.
Want great service and great creativity in one copywriting team? Get in touch.
