Hidden overservicing by agency employees

If you’re anything like Chip and Gini, you have discovered employees doing work for clients that is outside of the scope of work you have agreed to.

There are many reasons for this behavior and this episode explores those as well as potential solutions.

Whether your team just wants to make clients happy, enjoys doing some work more than others, or simply isn’t aware of the actual scope of work for a project, you will get some practical tips on what to do — as well as a bit of reassurance that you aren’t alone in this.

Key takeaways

* Chip Griffin: “Put an end to over servicing as quickly as possible. Because the longer it happens, the harder it is to undo.”

* Gini Dietrich: “When your team sees that you’re over servicing and not charging the client, they just assume that that’s how things are done.”

* Chip Griffin: “What you do is the culture. You don’t create culture. You act in a certain way and others around you mirror that.”

* Gini Dietrich: “You’re there to help coach the employee through resolving the issue.”

Related

* The difference between over-delivering and over-servicing agency clients

* The six biggest PR business mistakes I’ve made

View Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin: Gini, I have a confession. I’ve been doing some work secretly on this podcast, and I haven’t been telling you about it.

Gini Dietrich: Oh, was it you or Jen?

Chip Griffin: I guess we’ll find out right after this.

Okay, fine, you, you, you caught me. I don’t do any actual work. I just sit here on screen and Kibbitz and Jen does all the real work.

Gini Dietrich: I know, I know, I’m aware.

Chip Griffin: I think, I think she’s secretly been putting in more time than I realize. Oh dear. To, to make the podcast as good as it is.

Gini Dietrich: Oh, my. Okay. But that is the topic today.

Chip Griffin: That is the topic. Not about Jen.

Not Jen. No, we’re not, no, we’re not going to talk about the amount of work that she does or doesn’t do. It’s, you know, that is what it is. But, a lot of you have employees in your agencies who are probably doing work for your clients that you don’t realize that they’re doing.

Even if you have a really good time tracking program in place. It’s entirely possible that they’re not reporting it entirely accurately to you. And if you don’t have time tracking, well, then I can guarantee you right there, they’re over servicing clients and you don’t even realize it.

Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And part of the reason this, this topic came up is because I relayed a story of how several years ago an employee left and about a month after he was gone, the client called and said, Hey, I really hate to bring this up,