account handlers...
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- Wolfboy
...how many of you have to deal with these people on a daily basis? They are one of the big reasons I went self employed, 9 times out of 10 they are nothing more than a useless barrier between you and the client.
I've been freelancing in a studio for a few weeks now and it's the first time I've done this in quite a while since I went self-employed and I already need to get back to my own desk with my own client relationships.
Best quote of my time here so far:
me: "sorry those amends really don't work, you're gonna have to go back and talk to them about that one"
Account handler: "I can't it's a new client and we just have to give them what ever they want"
me (screwing on freelance blinkers): "fair enough, it's your client"
- kelpie0
Account handlers; my favourite people in the world, a constant help.
I love them, and I am totally serious. I worked for about 3 years here without any and it was hellish, then we got a few in and everything became clearrer, simpler and better organised.
- ah, i see. You must have hired all the competent ones leaving the chaff for other agencies.Wolfboy
- Studiospooky0
I feel for you. On the rare occasion they are good, account handlers are a god-send. Twelve times out of ten however they are people who had no focussed idea of what they wanted to be when they grew up and then someone offered them the chance to become 'an account handler'. From there on, they feel they have found their purpose and they just bumble through life with that badge on, getting through each situation as best they can ... for themselves.
I once worked at a company where they took on an account handler who had a face just like a pair of rosy buttocks. Literally. Her face was a big round bottom. She was hopeless too. Just a big round bottom on a neck serving no purpose whatsoever. God, I hope she doesn't read QBN.
She came to symbolise the account handler breed for me in terms of the menagerie of my mind, where all human sub-species are classified.
- skt0
a good account manager is a god send. a shit one is a nightmare. i don't want to be answering the phones to deal with client copy changes all day.
- Studiospooky0
That's conclusive then, when they are good they are literally sent from god.
- Wolfboy0
I do agree that a good account handler is a massive boon for any creative, but I have to say that the ratio of bad to good has been incredible in my experience.
I think a major problem could be that there doesn't appear to be a good solid route into the job and so many of them have no real background or experience to make some of the decisions they have to make.
Also, in my experience they are usually in the mind set of the client being the one person they speak to and if they are happy then the job is going well. They don't see the bigger picture of the target audience and market you are working to ensnare - after it's those people that pay the bills in the long run and the client has hired you to talk and sell to them.
- jamble0
I agree with the above, good ones who a good idea of what is and isn't possible or practical in a design or development and communicate that to clients are well worth their money.
The bad ones who just agree with everything the client wants are a waste of space. I once worked with one who promised full screen streaming video with no download time at all which wasn't very helpful.
- vague0
elaborate on shitty ones. aside from caving in to every useless demand a client makes.
- Studiospooky0
Vague: elaborate more below. why did she suck.
Well, she had a giant bottom for a face, but putting that to one side for a moment, in a nutshell she had the job of account handler, she had the desk of account handler, the salary... all the trappings one could require in order to confidently say "My job description is account handler", but she was actually a bit of flotsum who washed up at the company on a work experience ticket, or similar, and ended up staying becuase the company needed an account handler and she was at a loose end.
She really had no idea what the job entailed. So often this is the case.
Richard Buchanan of Interbrand London, if you are reading this, you are just about the only account handler who's name springs to mind when I try to think of all the good account handlers I've ever known. You were an excellent account handler. Probably an excellent director of your own excellent company by now.