It’s been a busy few months here at The Old State. We’ve been on the road a bit more than usual, visiting clients in Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Bryan/College Station. While on the road and after our full days of meetings, we were able to spend some extra time with a few of our clients at lunches, dinners, and in a variety of other social settings. It struck us on multiple occasions just how important the time we spend face to face with our clientele really is. The image to the left was taken on our trip to Cincinatti, and just as this bridge links the two sides of the river, in many respects these in-person meetings bridge the gap in expectations, define and set the tone for the project, and give us the opportunity to understand the nuances of each clients’ needs. We do spend a lot of time with our clientele and we get to know eachother pretty well in many respects, but we don’t always get to spend time off the clock “chewing the fat” so to speak. So we relish being able to get past some of the niceties of the typical client/agency business relationship protocols. Being able to learn what makes some of these companies and their leadership tick and what they are all about in a deeper and more personal way is really important as it pertains to delivering for our clients. We were reminded that no matter how advanced the technology there really is no replacement for spending a full day(or days) focused on the needs of others and fully immersing in their businesses. We consider it a great honor, every time we are able to do it.

“In many respects these in-person meetings bridge the gap in expectations, define and set the tone for the project, and give us the opportunity to understand the nuances of each clients’ needs.”

No matter how busy we get, we think it is important to provide good communication with our clients. And quite honestly, building client relationships makes our job easier. Meeting face to face is not always the easiest or most convenient route but at TOS it is a core value for us. In a day and age where customer service has been outsourced or relegated to a recorded robot that doesn’t seem to quite understand you, we at TOS encourage our staff to pick up the phone or schedule a meeting. At the end of the day we are people serving people. We don’t like to be treated to poor customer service or support and get annoyed when we can’t get thru to a human in our personal lives, so why would we expect our clientele to be subject to the very thing we don’t want ourselves... well, we don’t. That is why we are one of the few agencies (that we have ever heard of) with dedicated support staff. That is why our team goes the extra mile (and in some cases many thousands of miles) to meet our clients face to face.  In a modern business culture where it is viewed as a waste of time, or an inefficient use of resources to spend time and money to travel, or to have actual humans answering the phones, we say that if you aren’t working on constantly maintaining good communications with clients in a meaningful and tangible way, then you are missing a very key component to business. But, that said, it is not easy, and we have not figured it out by any stretch. But our commitment is unwavering because the human experience matters, our clients’ needs matter, they matter as much or more than the bottom line to us. We feel that just as there has been a shift to crafted, and quality products, there will also be a shift to companies that focus on the quality of the customer experience. Building client relationships is something we are constantly working and tailoring to improve. Let us improve the State of your brand, one face to face meeting at a time.

Travis McElroy MANAGING PARTNER