New PR professionals and even some of us old pros, often have trouble  managing clients and keeping them happy. Of course, there are some things you can’t control and other things that make your client unhappy that are just screw ups. But there are some simple basics for client management that will keep you and your client symbiotic.

1. Be Responsive— There is nothing a client hates more than sending an email or leaving a message and not getting a response for several hours or even days. We’re all busy, so if you don’t have time to respond fully to the client’s question or request, just let them know that you got it and give them a timeframe for when you will get back to them.
2. Be Honest— The agency-client relationship is just like any other meaningful relationship; it’s based on trust. If youre client can’t trust you, then they won’t want to do business with you. It’s imperative that you always be upfront and honest with your clients.
3. Deliver Bad News Early and Often— Along the same lines of being honest, it’s also important to be really upfront with clients. The worst situation you can put yourself in with a client is to blindside them with bad news. If you find out that something is going wrong, you need to inform your client right away. Now that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t deliver the message in a way that softens the blow or try to put a positive spin on it, but it will be much worse to wait and see how things play out before telling your client—or even worse than that, having them find out on their own.
4. Listen— The worst thing you can do is not listen to your client. They are constantly telling you things that will help you provide better service to them. It may be buried in a conversation or email, but if you’re on the lookout you can constantly finds ways to improve how you interact with them and what you deliver.
5. Don’t Get Too Comfortable— It’s great to have a friendly relationship with your client. More than that, it’s encouraged. I once had a boss tell me that if I client likes you they’re less likely to fire you. It seems silly—it should be based on merit and quality of work, not a popularity contest—but it’s true. That said, don’t get too comfortable. They are a client and not a friend; you need to be sure not to cross that thin gray line.

A couple major client don’ts (based on real incidences)

• Don’t ever send a client email with the words “Yo” or “Snap” in it
• Don’t drink too much in front of a client…ever
• Don’t tell a client about your irritable bowel syndrome
• Don’t complain about how much you get paid
• Don’t gossip about your boss or co-workers
• Don’t gossip about their boss or co-workers
• Never, ever talk about politics or religion

Have a funny anecdote about a client snafoo or a real-life experience you’d like to share? Feel free to comment. We’d love to hear from you.

At the time, not all of the companies brought into the fold were also brought in to our existing marketing programs. But I can understand why, when Adobe acquired Omniture on September 15, Adobe would want to introduce itself to Omniture’s customers. I’m just not sure they went about it the right way.

I’m not an Omniture customer. I follow their news because staying abreast of analytics trends is relevant to my industry and to my clients. I’ve downloaded their whitepapers and have possibly attended a webinar in the past several years, but I’m not an Omniture client.

I received a joint Omniture/Adobe email this morning — more than a month after the acquisition — addressed “Dear Omniture Customer,” with the subject line, “Omniture is now an Adobe company.”

It made me laugh. Nope, not a customer. And this is old news. These days, I’m so attuned to stories breaking on Twitter, the thought of sending an email like this out even a few days post-acquisition would be a little beside the point.

But maybe I was being too hard. I examined the email further to determine if there was a more substantive rationale for sending it. Does the Adobe communications team want to whet my appetite with some exciting news, development road maps, or visions of what joining forces with Omniture will mean to me?

Eh…you decide:

By combining Adobe’s content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture’s Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, the company will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content, platforms and devices.

I read further and noticed that tucked away into the body of the email was this gem:

To best serve our customers, we may choose to integrate Omniture’s contact database, including your information, into Adobe’s database in the future.

Adobe/Omniture just sent me an email announcing that I was officially being opted in from Omniture’s database to Adobe’s database. But without using those words.

Why not just come out and say it? I’m not going to bite.

Clarity of message is such a key part of tech PR. Can we let the buzzwords die once and for all and just talk to people?

In summary: wrong target audience (from a company that should be experts at parsing lists). Incoherent, misleading message. Pointless email.