Wild Card Clients

In pretty much every text book about public relations, the authors discuss the relationship between the practitioner and their client. The two discuss the client's outreach goals, outline a game plan resulting in the achieving of the goals, and then establish a budget and timeline to make it all happen. Part of the plan involves actions to be taken by the client, including talking points they should follow when interacting with the public, including the media. As put forth in the texts, though complex, this process is pretty straightforward. The practitioner and client are in-sync, thus making the implementation of the ultimate plan a simple matter of execution.

But what happens if the client is not all that cooperative? What happens if they refuse to follow the advice of the public relations professional? The client says what they want and when they want to with little regard for what has been previously discussed and agreed upon? They are, in essence, a wild card. What does the public relations practitioner do then? What options does the practitioner have when their advice is ignored? What do they do if rather than being proactive in their planning and activities, the bulk of their time is spent cleaning up after the client, putting out one brush fire after another?

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to these questions. Even quitting is not an easy solution as such a step carries with it the possibility of hurting the reputation of the professional communicator. Short of that, the practitioner is left with the uphill challenge of continuing to give their client the best advice they can and content themselves with having to constantly connect with reporters and key members of the public to ensure how they report and/or interpret the client's remarks comes close to reflecting the talking points earlier agreed upon. There is also, of course, coming to grips that with wild card clients come late nights and gray hairs.