Error Will Robinson!, Ep #21

ep21.png

Episode 21

With Benjamin Johnson & Matt Hussey

To err is to be human. Have you ever made a mistake that felt like a grave error? How as a team do you manage that failure? Is there a positive in the mess? Matt and Ben tell stories of failures and errors they have experienced and how they were able to handle them.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...

  • Gearing up for a great Sabbath Week at Frontier [1:23]

  • An important quality for great clients to have [9:24] They accept our rest. How clients respond to rest is important.

  • The time Ben accidentally killed someone (not literally) [10:18]

  • The time Matt accidentally gave someone a false diagnosis [12:42]

  • More of Ben’s best digital and print marketing mess ups [15:35]

  • Turning mistakes into opportunities [19:16]

  • The two things every marketing agency needs to do to mend mistakes with clients [21:55]


Lean into humanity

Making a mistake can be one of life’s most humbling experiences. Now imagine making a mistake that gets seen by 100,000 people. This is something that marketers are all too familiar with. In the charity world, the embarrassment takes on a whole new level when clients are literally trying to save lives and an agent manages to misspell a very simple word on a mass email. But Ben wants to encourage listeners not to be too hard on themselves. Sure, mistakes are not ideal, but they happen. The reality is that donors are far more gracious than anticipated. Sending a second email to correct misinformation should be viewed as just another touch point. Ben has even seen mistake emails lead to more donations! Mistakes are often opportunities to lean into the fact that we’re all human. 

Own the mess

Addressing mistakes with clients can be a terrifying moment for most marketers. Errors can often feel like violations of trust that are impossible to overcome. However, this is far from the truth. The first step to mending mistakes with clients is to tell them about it, quickly. Own the mess! No one wants a client to ask them about a mistake they’ve made and clients don’t want to feel like they need to hold an agency accountable. BE accountable. Agencies can actually gain the trust of their clients by how they handle their mistakes. Get ahead of the problem by being the first to address it.

Fix the mess

The second step to successfully navigating mistakes with clients is to come with solutions. Charities hire marketing agencies to help them acquire donors and donations. When the agency makes a mistake that inhibits that growth it’s not the clients job to figure out a solution. The agency is supposed to be the solution provider...PERIOD. There is however an opportunity to make the solution a collaborative experience. Even if the agency caused the problem, working together with the client to implement the solution is another opportunity to build trust and prove the agency’s value.


Resources & People Mentioned

Connect With Frontier



Follow Frontier.FM on
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts

Rosie Everett