If you are in advertising. Then you must know how fast paced the industry is. I believe abuse comes from fustration besides a client is a client. Its like buying a pocket of chips and you find only 10 inside the pack, what you are you going to do? Be nice! Dont think so. Its just that unlike a product service can only be measure to a certain level. But if I am going to pay for it, I want the best, worse if I have had better somewhere else.

I think we South Africans need to think on the service excellence mind framestop and complaining about customer service as if its owed.

I can understand the pressure clients work under. What I don't get is the rudeness and abuse that client service people in particular are subjected to. A bad client can poison an entire agency.

So why do clients behave so badly? What makes them think they can treat others like dirt and get away with it? They wouldn't treat their lawyer or their auditors like this - so why their agency?

In part this abuse happens, because the people/agencies let it happen.

Clients do it because they can. (It also satisfies some other deeper emotions that they themselves need to address.) But then - just who or what do they think they are. As pointed out they would not want their partner to be the focus of that kind of abuse ... but then...

In part - it has become the norm (not that I endorse it, at all - in fact I find it deplorable) Lets change this "norm'

If you want the best I have tried both ways , normally I try the nice way first and normally that gets you much further - in any event.

I agree! More often than not, I suspect, clients don't heap abuse on their lawyers and accountants (and other service providers) simply because they recognise that these people are the 'experts' in their particular field. but in our industry, it seems everyone's an expert ...

But then again, would you rather be a lawyer or an accountant?!

Wow - this I have to hear. Hanson, please elaborate!

I define abusiveness in part (since it is a complex phenomenon and takes many different forms) as the kind of rudeness/ lack of courtesy that belittles others. It ranges from curtness on the phone to showing your client service a middle finger and saying "swivel on it".

Some might call it a basic lack of manners. And yes, often these clients are rude and abusive to their own colleagues, especially their underlings.

In my experience, clients don't respect agencies the way they respect accountants or lawyers because they all think that they themselves are experts. Sadly, there is a low barrier to entry in marketing and advertising. It's not intimidating in the way that law or numbers are.

I have to admit to some satisfaction at hearing about the abuse suffered by ad agencies - although not in particular the client service guys.
Having worked for a major media owner for many years I am still disgusted by the manner in which media buyers / planners treat the unfortunate individual assigned to manage their portfolio. I have to admit it is usually the youngsters still wet behind the ears whose behaviour is the worst - unfortunately for them they haven't quite realised that this industry is built on relationships, and they just never quite seem to understand why they don't get the time they applied for - oops, there goes another application that just happened to fall onto the floor :). The way in which these bubble heads abuse media owners is downright disgraceful - so if agencies are now bleating about how they get abused by clients - maybe it's time to stop and think about how you treat media owners?
And for the record, I'm not referring to the Virginias, Harrys and Gordons of the agency world - those obnoxious youngsters I referred to earlier could do well to look to these true professionals for some much needed advice on how to get exactly what you want through being polite, honest and by building lasting relationships...

Media planners and buyers don't really fit into the same category as ad agencies these days. Very few agencies have in-house media people. Perhaps media planners are so used to being given enough free stuff to float a battleship that they become arrogant?

On my side of the agency, we don't deal with the media and we certainly don't get dinky little branded items to keep on our desks.

It seems to have become the norm that clients should be nasty and abusive towards their agencies. My client, that I dumbed two days ago, had no problem with waking me up at 5 am and expecting me to come to meetings at 6 am, whole day workshops on Saturdays, the list is endless. She was extremely mean, and justified it by saying she paid us a retainer fee. She did not even own a single percentage in the company, she was merely a mean employee.
All I can say is that clients need to get a life and differentiate between abuse and service.

We've seen this in the PR industry as well, and I agree, it does seem to be on the increase.

It seems that not only are we expected to endure the increasingly unrealistic demands, but clients don't want to pay for the overtime, changes or even the basic terms that they agree to upfront.

Plus, clients seem to expect freebees to such an extent that the account becomes unviable. This factor, for small businesses has made it increasingly difficult to remain in the industry.

We recently delivered EXCEPTIONALLY high ROI for a client, who expressed how delighted they where with the media coverage. When our invoices reached 30 days, we where fired for phoning to enquire when we might expect payment, banned from using the clients name as a reference, and barred from setting foot on any of their properties... all because they don't want to pay for the PR time they used - a time based rate that they'd requested upfront, and that we made exception for. Its really quite disgraceful.