Working to tight deadlines...


Although I am working towards being a professional at the digital side of marketing, there are a whole range of ways you can market to people.
Being a small agency with a range of clients, means that there are such a variety of tasks at hand; from booking advertisement with local magazines to getting products created for marketing purposes. Along with all the digital stuff like social media management and looking after a business’ review page. 

It was a typical Tuesday in the office, completing admin tasks and post scheduling for social media when a call came in.
The director answered it and I carried on with my work. Blissfully unaware that in a short few minutes I would have full responsibility of a task that needed to be completed in just 4 days.
The situation was that one of our clients was sponsoring an event that was taking place that Saturday and they needed a couple of feather flags to put up at the event. No big deal right?
Well, considering they didn’t have the flags already, not even a design for them. It was a pretty big deal - we had to go from nothing to 2 feather flags delivered to the client’s shop in just 4 days… and I was in charge of the whole operation!


After choosing a Sheffield based printer and acquiring their template from their website, I contacted our designer and got him working on a design straight away. Phone calls and emails were exchanged to make sure that the order was placed correctly. By the end of the day I had successfully placed the order and was assured that the flags would be printed first thing the next day.





One thing I would say about working in an agency is that you are just acting as a middle man between the client and the people doing the job. It’s not a problem, it just makes you feel a little helpless at times when there is nothing more you can do and have to leave the job in the hands of someone else.
A falling point for this particular job was that we, as an agency, had never used this printer before and although there were good reviews; you can never be too careful these days. Especially as I was giving them a two day window to get the flags produced and out for delivery.





It was a stretch to say the least, but after emailing back and forth throughout the process, I was told the order was out for delivery and would be with the client on Thursday. Perfect. I’d done it.
I breathed a sigh of relief and thought no more of it until we got a call from the client on Thursday that they were missing parts of their order.
Great.
Everything was not perfect and the job wasn’t completed properly. So back on the phone I went to talk to someone and after getting through those infamous automated phone systems, I was told that the other part of my order was left on the van and making it’s way back to the depot.
“Well this isn’t good enough, I’ve paid £50 for express delivery and it’s not been delivered!” I told them, god I hate being that person but honestly - when you’ve spent £50 of someone else’s money for a service that isn’t delivered (pun intended) you can’t not say something.

Despite the odds, the rest of the order got delivered on time and the flags were up flapping around on Saturday for the event.
Seeing as this was my first time having a job completely to myself, I’m proud of the outcome and am happy that it was a success.





Making phone calls and writing emails are small communication skills that are daunting at first (especially a phone call), but after doing it a bit more it becomes more natural - like anything really.

The success of the task shows that I can work with multiple people at one time to achieve a goal to a tight deadline.
Having a physical thing to look at as a result of the hard work I put in really added to the pride I felt when it all went well and the client got what they needed in the short space of time.

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