How to fix empty promises from agencies

If I wasn’t doing my own thing - I would be working for a travel company as a senior project manager. Thats the job I know and understand - especially project managing IT or web projects.

As a PM I have learnt how to sit on people until work is done….. normally though there aren’t any problems because having a web person as a PM means the web guys (and girls) are not asked to do the impossible. I also tend, as PM, to work client side which is much easier than working agency side. 

I remember doing a stint as a sub-contracted PM for a leading London based web design agency while delivering a new website for an airline. I was the “hired help” who actually knew what a travel website looked like. I still laugh at when I was sitting in a cross-team meeting (with airline, web design team, technology supplier and usability consultants) and I mentioned some obscure part of the GDS API that would help….. web design agencies weren’t meant to know that stuff!

Anyway, the point I am making is as follows. I am now working agency side for the second time in my career. My company is in effect agency side. Hells bells its hard. Not a day goes past that we get some “absolutely urgent” requirement that just has to be fixed instantly. Of course - that would be fine if it was just one company - but right at the moment I am sitting on a handful of emails that list numerous things that need sorting out. How the heck do you prioritise that!

One of my clients has got fed up with some dates for resolution that we gave them (and missed, twice). I know this used to really piss me off when I was working client side…. so it pains me that we missed them (Yep trying to recruit myself out of a hole…. but that isn’t easy either).

So I have come up with a radical solution - last week I said that if we commit to a date - and we miss it - we will send a cheque for £500 (1000 USD) to the client that we made a commitment to. Blimey - a bit radical - especially as that is pretty much 1 years profit margin (per customer)….. but it worked quite well. Last night , there I was, mid-week, 2 am, rolling out a release to fix a business requirement for a client we had said would be fixed by last night……

Which pretty much goes down as the longest “excuse post” for not writing anything on this blog for the last couple of days!

I know some SLAs have a “rebate” based on missing targets - but I have not ever seen an agency offer a rebate for a missed project delivery date. Anyone think I am mad?

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