A client complaint from Citrus America surfaced a gap in how deliverables were being routed to client contacts. The issue was resolved, but it prompted a new standing policy for all client-facing work product.
Gilbert completed keyword research for Citrus America and sent it to Wade (a client contact), but did not send it to Mike (another client contact) or copy the Account Manager. Mike subsequently complained that the keyword research had never been done — unaware that it had already been delivered to his colleague.
The AM was also not looped in, meaning there was no visibility into what had been sent, to whom, or whether all relevant stakeholders had received it.
"I told him, you should never send anything to a client without sending it to you as well, or to the account manager as well, so that you at least know what's there. And you could see, for example, that he was sending it to Wade, but not Mike. And you could say, oh, I need to make sure Mike gets this."
— Mark Hope
All client-facing deliverables must be sent to the Account Manager for review before being delivered to the client — or CC'd to the AM at the time of delivery at minimum.
This applies to:
- Keyword research documents
- SEO audits and reports
- Ad copy, landing page drafts, and campaign assets
- Any other work product sent directly to a client contact
This issue arose during a broader discussion of Citrus America's SEO performance. Gilbert had also been working with Mark to analyze the account's low click-through rate despite strong impressions — a separate but related workstream. See [1] for full account context.
The keyword research itself was confirmed complete. The complaint from Mike was a routing and communication failure, not a work failure.