Building Relationships with Clients Is Part of Our Core Values
At Macarta, our team doesn’t just manage brands; we nurture relationships. In fact, it’s at the core of what we do. As our mission states,
“We are on a mission to revolutionize the retail industry and bring human connection into every aspect of our business.”
The brand-customer relationship is a guiding principle that each of our teams lives out every day. In today’s blog post, we catch up with a few members of our Brand Management Team to learn more about what they do, how they do it, and what it means to help our brand partners succeed in the world of retail media.
How Macarta’s Brand Management Team Grows Brands & Lives Out Our Company Values
This Q&A dives into how the team works to meticulously craft and elevate client experiences, drive success, and move beyond the conventional.
What is your approach/goal when working with your brand partners?
Ryan Hutchinson, Brand Specialist: My main goal when working with brand partners is to establish and maintain a solid relationship that’s built on trust, which is achieved through exceptional communication, proactivity, doing great work, and just being human!
Kim Presper, Brand Specialist: My goal is for each client to feel that their needs are being anticipated and that they are getting everything they need and more.
Trevor Dickie, Senior Brand Manager
My goal is to understand the Brand’s business as well as I can, to be an extension of their team, and to offer unique, exciting, and successful strategies and support to achieve their goals. Day-to-day, I focus on building strong relationships and trust with our Brand Partners’ teams.
What strategies do you employ to stay updated on your client’s evolving needs and preferences?
RH: I do my best to stay as informed as I can on both the brand itself and the industry they exist within. Identifying any industry changes, trends, or news can help us be proactive in adjusting strategy as we see fit.
How do you tailor your approach when working with clients of different sizes and industries?
TD: From my experience, the first step I try to take is to understand what our brand partners’ needs are, and how that fits into their overall position within the marketplace and their industry. The brands we work with have a clear idea of their competition and brand, so it is important that I immediately work to understand where they are coming from with that. Rather than making generalizations about size, catalog, or marketplace, if I can understand how a brand exists in its niche as well as they do, I can offer relevant and successful solutions and strategies.
What tools or processes do you use to establish realistic client goals and timelines?
KP: This is one of many very important things I learned from Maddie (thank god for her!!). Explaining to clients how each step of the process impacts the next, in turn impacting the overall deadline has proven to be extremely impactful for managing timelines. We are not the only thing on our clients’ minds so being clear about individual deadlines and why they are set (i.e we need assets by a certain date so that our team can start working) helps paint the bigger picture of the process. Since it is not as simple as “launch the campaign,” explaining to the client the impacts of missing deadlines (i.e. if we do not have the assets by that date our team won’t have enough time to finish before the campaign launch) helps manage expectations for hitting the final deadline.
What steps do you take to proactively address potential issues and concerns before they impact client satisfaction?
RH: When problems arise that could potentially impact client satisfaction, it’s crucial to 1. Communicate promptly & honestly with the client about the situation at hand, and 2. Let the client know the game plan and estimated timeline to resolve the issue. When selling on a marketplace such as Amazon, problems will inevitably arise. Prompt, thorough, and honest communication will go a long way with a client, and can even help to strengthen the relationship if handled properly.
How do you handle feedback from clients, both positive and negative, to continuously improve our services?
KP: I LOVE client feedback. As a team, we are always looking to grow and be better in our roles and supporting our clients, and client feedback is extremely important in doing so. Both positive and negative (constructively negative) feedback is very helpful. Everyone loves getting positive feedback, but this helps identify what a client likes so that we can continue to do so for them, and potentially try it for other clients. Negative feedback helps show us where we can improve or what not to do in the future. Since we are always looking to grow, feedback of any kind is helpful for us to remain forever students.
TD: I try to maintain the perspective that when clients offer feedback, it’s a bit of a sign of trust, they believe that we can support them better, help them achieve their goals, or adjust our processes to fit their needs. Rather than never receive feedback, I’d rather encourage our brands to share it, ensuring we are constantly aware of their hopes/dreams for the kind of service we can offer them.
Our Team of Experts Can Help Expand Your Business
From our Denver-based headquarters, and with offices around the world, Macarta is a global full-service marketplace agency specializing in retail media to drive growth and sustained success for our brand partners. If you’re ready to work with a team of talented, dedicated professionals motivated to help expand your business, reach out to us today to learn how we can help.