Taking a step back from the day-to-day

Filled with post-holiday energy, the Cox Inall team is putting its work under the microscope, as Kaaren Latham explains…

It’s amazing how refreshed and productive you feel in the first couple of weeks after a decent break – especially when a lot of people have also been away, so you’re not faced with hundreds of emails to read!

The New Year is typically a time for reflection and resolutions, and that applies to work as well as home life.

While things are relatively quiet in the office, our team is taking a step back from the day-to-day tasks for our clients to have a really good look at what we’ve been doing for them, and put some of that post-holiday energy into creativity and innovation.

We constantly refine and tweak our approach, but it’s good sometimes to really scrutinise our efforts, and what better time than the new year: Is our approach meeting the needs of a changing, increasingly digital 24/7 world? How could we do it better?

Our aim is always to exceed client expectations, deliver high quality work, push boundaries and be thought leaders when it comes to communicating our client’s message to the world.

I recently went to a workshop on client relationships run by a sister company, and was pleased to discover we pretty much had the bases covered according to their ten-step guide on how to do it well.

“Know your client’s business so well they want to poach you” was one of the messages, and while I wouldn’t go that far, we certainly do our best to understand the operating environment and challenges, as well as the outcomes they’re trying to achieve.

This time of year is a chance to imagine what we would do if we were approaching them as a new client, with fresh thinking and no preconceived ideas about what they’re willing to try.

This gives us an opportunity to look at new trends, new ways of communicating, where their audiences are getting information, and what their competitors are doing.

Then we deliver an honest review of what worked – and what didn’t – over the past year, so we can focus on the most effective, engaging tools and channels.

The final step is to check in with the client, to see what’s changed in their business itself, in terms of priorities and strategic direction.

It always feels brilliant when you go back to them with a plan of attack that they embrace because you got it right.

Now we just have to put it all into operation, while trying to hang on to the ‘holiday’ feel (and organised inbox) for a bit longer!

Kaaren Latham is a Group Account Director with Cox Inall Communications, based in Sydney.