Received really negative feedback from a client at work - help please

[soupsettttt]

I work in advertising and today I received a really horrible email from a client about a piece of work I produced. I'm quite junior (it's a graduate role) and have been working there for 6 months for context. My work is reviewed and signed off by two senior members of staff before it goes to the client.

I've never received negative feedback before from a client, even with clients known for being notoriously picky and critical. I'm used to receiving positive feedback.

This afternoon I received a long email in response to a piece of work I submitted saying how bad it was, far below the standard needed/expected, saying I must be a junior person to have produced something of this standard and questioning our internal review process that this quality of work got sent. They CC'd in several senior people at my company.

I was completely and utterly shocked by it. I then looked at their specific feedback on the piece of work and it was a reasonable amount of feedback, more than I'm used to getting from clients but an ok amount for a first draft. Some minor wording changes are needed but nothing too crazy. During our internal review process I had positive feedback with positive comments, so I thought I along the right lines so to get this kind of email felt totally out of the blue.

I feel so upset by it. I'm glad I was working from home today as I burst into tears when I read the email. I have a 1:1 with my manager tomorrow and I know she will bring it up but I don't really know how to discuss it in a professional way. At the moment it feels very raw and upsetting. Should I frame it as a learning experience? Acknowledge that this has been difficult to hear, but it's taught me to how to react to negative feedback and how to work as a team to rectify? Do I apologise to my manager? I just don't know what's the right thing to say

I feel so humiliated

I don't work in your industry but if I was your boss I'd be telling the client in no uncertain terms that they don't speak to my employees in that manner.

Some really good advice here.

If it helps, I work in a similar field and have had some very challenging clients over the years with their own particular approaches. With every piece of work I do now, I review one last time and ask myself 'What is x likely to say' and make the updates to fit their style. I've caught a few things that way.

Also the agency may be charging more senior rates and client might be more annoyed about that

Try not to take it too personally as the first time this happens sucks but then you kind of learn from it and get better

This client might just he one of those horrible people who gets a kick not of humiliating the new junior girl.

Don't take it to heart. Tell your manager that you take the criticisms on board, you're sorry you've not met the client's expectations and you're willing to do whatever they (your manager/seniors) think will help fix the situation, whether that's apologising to the client and redrafting the work, redrafting it and sending it to your manager to check, or stepping off this account entirely, you'll do it.

And sleeping on it tonight will help, it won't feel like such a disaster in the morning.

Chin up!

I agree with good advice given and also.....
some people are just unreasonable, having a bad day, took a dislike for some reason. It's really good to show willingness to learn and take feedback, just don't let it knock your confidence.

Just because one disgruntled client said negative things about you, it doesn't mean it is all true. It is only their opinion .

Whatever you do, don't cry in your 121

Try not to take it too personally, although I would have been the same at your seniority.
Unless there were ‘sloppy’ mistakes you don’t need to apologise.
Think of it as growing pains instead - you’re obviously being given autonomy and support of your senior leaders if they’re trusting you to send creatives.
I know it’s hard but get on the phone with the client in the morning and have them talk you through their feedback.
If it’s specially about the piece of work, then reassure them that internal processes are robust but your team may have understood the brief wrong and you’re happy to rework it with the client’s input. I often find the bluntest clients are much better on the phone.
They’re probably under a lot of pressure their side and will have concerns over how it affects their wider deliverables. It’s not about you (in a nice way!)
If they make it personal, try to hold strong and only talk about yourself in way of ‘the team’ - eg. ‘the team thought this was the right direction’
My recommendation for an agenda would be:

1. Acknowledge they don’t like it and you’re going to work with the team to rectify it
2. Clarify, does it need a total redo (from creative concept) or are there elements that could be reinterpreted or salvaged
3. What timelines are they working to because you understand their deadlines are important
4. Are there any internal assets that they do like or this work needs to match with

You can do this girl!

Aw, bless you. I've been there (and have also been the senior person who signed off on the work!) and it feels really shitty. Trust me, unless they have the thickest skin ever, the seniors who signed it off will be feeling much worse than you tonight.

If my agency had received such a personal attack in an email, everyone would immediately rally around and reassure you that this personal attack was not warranted. Have your managers said anything to you yet?

I second all the comments here that there may be something behind this, e.g. there may be history regarding the client being annoyed that they always get the junior team members, so may have looked you up on LinkedIn, seen you are new, so sent the email to 'prove' their point to your management. Or the client might just be a twat.!

You’ve got some good advice here but please don’t take it to heart. The shock of it is probably not something you’ll forget but ultimately it will make you a stronger operator. Your senior folks should have your back as they signed it off. I remember someone once laying into me about a deck I had put together under immense pressure immediately after the presentation. It was awful. But the changes I made to the deck for the Board presentation? The feedback and what it spurred me to do was actually worth its weight in gold. Channel your shock. Find your fire. Sharpen your edge. It will make you stronger.

nothing is eaten as hot as it's cooked.

have a cuppa. go for a run/walk/gym and switch off gor tonight.
tomorrow think about you upcoming meeting - lots of good advice on this thread!

It’s a long working life. Don’t take it personally. Some people are assholes. Discuss with your manager and forget this

Your client is a dick. Sounds like the feedback is fair game but the personal attack is not. Don't worry about people being copied on the email - I'm sure they will also think the client is a dick!

One thing I wish I'd learned earlier in my career is that when something upsetting or annoying happens at work, take a step back and think 'will I care about this in 5 weeks or 5 months or 5 years?'. On most occasions the answer is a hard no, and it helps to put things in perspective a bit.

Luckily I'm leaving this account soon as I'm joining a new account. I feel quite disappointed that someone would send that kind of email, I know it's a pressured work environment and they are paying for a deliverable but felt like a personal attack. I'm not sure if I have thick enough skin for this kind of industry if this is what it can be like

I think the issue is we didn't meet the brief, but the brief was quite unclear.

I did have a quick call with my manager about something else and they did quickly mention that they had signed off on it so not to worry, it's wasn't just my responsibility. The client was unhappy with another piece of work recently so think they are lumping the two projects together and I took the hit of it

I feel so embarrassed as I usually receive positive feedback from clients and I feel like this has tarnished me and it's really knocked my confidence. I had to send out another piece of work to the same client and I checked it so many times as I'm so scared of disappointing them again

If it's a new area and your seniors didn't know what was wanted then that probably why they signed it off. Although I work in a similar area and my boss gave a presentation yesterday that I had written still with a placeholder page highlighted in yellow saying Boss add your bit here 🤦‍♀️ . So it could also be that people don't always review things throughly even when you ask them to. If you are used to getting it right, then maybe you didn't call out any area of uncertainty.

I think next time your'll be fine. I do get a bit deflated by negative feedback but I certainly don't cry, because I have negative feedback all day long and it the end it's all correct and praised. The more senior people are often very ti the point. Clients and even coworkers aren't concise and don't know what they want until they see the wrong thing.

Big cuppa tea / hot chocolate and tomorrow is a new day.

It's ok to get things wrong. I wouldn't say to frame it as a learning opportunity - it genuinely is one. It's a chance to learn how to takes professional knocks and respond appropriately, to discuss critical feedback with management and to learn the delicate balance of keeping clients happy etc.

There is great advice here. I would also have taken over to protect you from a client who clearly isn’t a good one.

It’s much easier said than done but put it out of your mind. Remember this feedback is from one client on one day about one project. The great work you’ve had excellent feedback for hugely outweighs this one persons opinion.

That sounds extremely unprofessional on their part. Who do they think they are to speak to someone that way? Even if you'd made an almighty cock up it sounds like a massive overreaction.

You win some, you lose some, and this will happen again. Honestly, just let it go. No one on earth can please everyone all of the time. Just allow this to be a learning experience in dealing with criticism.

You were given a brief by your manager and produced work for review and signoff by senior staff. They signed off the work.
What is not acceptable is a client to engage in personalised abuse.

So you have 2 separate issues.
Firstly the professional elements which is a discussion on how you met/missed the brief and why the other senior staff signed off.
One thing you may need to look at is the way you communicated with the client.
Was is lacking professional polish which you can work on. Or did your title indicate that you are a more junior member of the team and it was a self-important client with a superiority complex? Ccing multiple senior staff in your co indicate a-hole with an agenda.

The second is how your firm will deal with the personalised abuse.
Although you are a junior team member have firm a boundary, nobody (staff, supplier or client) gets away with that type of unprofessional behaviour.
Dont feel humiliated be angry about that.

Even if the product totally failed to meet the brief there is a professional non personal way to give criticism or even call someone an "asshole" (< industry specific terms variations apply).

I would recomend that before the 1on1 you take the email and rewrite it without the personal then bullet point the solutions.

You should also ask to be included on the call as an observer rather than a participant.

In the kindest way, this is an experience to show you to develop a thicker skin and resilience when working a client role.

I've worked in client/account management, and clients can be pricks. The best advise I can give is you need to start developing a separation between your feelings and your work.

That being said, I'm very surprised you were tasked in sharing the creative with the client. Usually their client/account manager should manage this process, and feed through any changes to you.

In my prior role, I would never have shared the direct feedback from the client with my creative team - neither would I expect anyone in the creative team, especially the grad, to be communicating directly with the client.

Trust me, this will not damage your reputation, your seniors know the reality of clients.

Sounds like it's them and not you to be honest x

Op from the sounds of it you've not screwed up at all.

Firstly, the email the client sent was wildly unprofessional.

Second (I agree with a pp) when clients launch a bomb like this and resort of bullying tactics (especially of a jnr person), it's strategy to get away with paying less. I've seen it often. Experienced it a couple of times too and it's shit to be on the receiving end of.

As far as negotiations strategies go it's still unprofessional. But some clients are bullies and feel better for stomping and shouting and making others feel small. It's good that you won't be working on their account for much longer.

Don't take it to heart. And as pp said, don't apologise. Remember your good feedback, remember that others signed off on it and work with your manager to agree a constructive way forward.

As someone who has worked agency-side and client-side, I would say:

1. It is absolutely not your fault. There is no right or wrong way to do things, it's subjective, and if they don't like the result then either the brief was poorly explained or your entire team has misunderstood it. I would expect your manager to say this to you tomorrow.
2. There may well be something going on in the background with this client - ie they are coming down on you like a tonne of bricks because (for example) they've been told to be more assertive when managing agencies, they feel out of their depth and are trying to wrestle back control, they've been told to negotiate a reduced fee so are fabricating justification for this, the person who gave you the brief actually misunderstood it themselves or simply their own manager/HOD doesn't like the outcome and they're trying to pin the blame on you. Whatever that reason, you'll probably never know it, and you just have to accept that they have their own agenda and are being a wanker.

Seriously don't let it get you down. It's not personal and it's nothing your team mates and manager won't have seen before. All part and parcel of being agency-side I'm afraid! Part of advancing in your career and becoming more senior will be learning how to handle feedback like this so it's good to get some experience in now, even though it feels painful. Good luck tomorrow!

The senior staff have taken over and are going to respond and schedule a call to discuss it which I won't be attending it

This is a mistake. It sends the message that they want to distance you from the work. If I were your boss, I’d have you in the meeting and talk about the feedback, making it clear I felt the scathing email wasn’t warranted given the nature of the actual feedback.

This work had also been received by someone else in our client's company and they were happy with it with no comments

So, you know the work was of a decent standard and this client is just being a prick. You’ll come across them from time to time, people like to do this to women and/or juniors. I guarantee if you’d sent it out as a senior or as a man, it wouldn’t have been so bad. Shake it off and move on.

I don't know if I'm in trouble and need to apologise? Or whether this is just one of those things? Or what? I don't know how I'm supposed to act at work

Don’t apologise. You’ve done nothing wrong. In your 1:1, be factual, and positive. Say you’ve looked at the specific feedback and will re-draft based on those comments, you can see how it will help blah blah blah. You could even mention that you felt the email was overly harsh considering the nature of the actual feedback and see what they say. If anyone gives you a hard time about it, just brush it off. Let them know you’ve taken the specifics on board, as you would have in any other situation.

Head up, young person!