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Agencies: Hate Project Work? Act More Like an AOR.

Most agencies hate project work because it’s less predictable and harder to manage and staff. What’s more, agencies believe project work negatively impacts the agency-client dynamic, with agencies treated more like vendors than partners, and their contributions focused on tactics rather than strategy. The relationship can feel transactional and shorter-term.

Will COVID-19 Destroy Your Agency Culture or Reinvent It?

Culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that agencies have. After all, most agencies produce the same types of work the same way—and often with the same people (we all know it is a small industry). That is why an account, strategy, or creative person can move from one agency to another and immediately contribute. Culture is one of the most important differentiators—it makes one agency succeed and another fail.

Zurprise and Zelight: Surprising and Delighting Clients in a Zoom World

In the old days (about 12 weeks ago), agencies focused on surprising and delighting clients. They understood (the good ones, at least) that delivering work on time and on budget was the price of entry. Client retention and growth required a higher level of thinking, service, creativity, and connection.

Agencies Are Great at Creating Narratives. Now They Must Write Their Own. Carefully.

Agencies sometimes create aspirational ads and press releases as a tool to help clients envision a successful, alternate future. Now we can imagine headlines like, “M&M’s redefines retail in Times Square,” or “CVS takes a stand on health by eliminating cigarette sales.” But before these were realities, they were possibilities—and research suggests that seeing a possibility makes it easier to achieve.

To Have A Big Impact, Agencies Must Sweat the Small Stuff

Self-help experts have long instructed people not to sweat the small stuff. The basic philosophy is that by not focusing on life’s little annoyances, we can reduce stress and improve our lives. This might be true for individuals but not for agencies. For agencies to succeed, they must do the opposite: they must sweat the small stuff. Every client interaction—every phone call, email, invite, estimate, and meeting— must be as error-free and on point as possible. Why? Because the small stuff has a big impact on clients’ perceptions of the agency.

Let's Make Agency Meetings Great Again!

In the last few years, there has been a movement to reduce the number of agency meetings. Many internal meetings are considered a waste of time, energy, and money. The trend has also extended to client meetings, aided by the ability to meet online rather than in person.

I agree with the need to eliminate bad meetings—whether they are live or online, internal, or with the client. However, I think agencies are missing an opportunity—that is, to encourage great meetings.

Client Feedback: When No Response Is a Response

There is a saying that “no news is good news.” When it comes to client feedback, this is not true.

Many agencies send surveys regularly to get client input. Done right, these surveys can generate critical insights about the agency’s work and relationships. Done wrong, it is easy for the agency to misinterpret the data and focus its efforts in the wrong places.

Clients Are from Mars. Agencies Are from Venus

I am often asked to act as an intermediary between clients and agencies. It is the advertising equivalent of the old Ladies Home Journal column, “Can This Marriage be Saved?” I am usually called upon when the relationship is near its breaking point in a last-ditch effort to salvage it. Much like “Can This Marriage,” I start by speaking to the agency and the client separately to try to understand each one’s point of view and then bring them together to find common ground and a way forward.

What Your Email Style Communicates About Your Agency

I work with agencies to help them keep and grow business. My work requires a deep understanding of an agency's culture. I rely on all sorts of data to get to know an agency, including employee and client interviews, satisfaction studies, HR and financial data, and believe it or not, emails. Granted, email practices and patterns can be a bit more subjective, but I find them highly indicative of how an agency works.

Goldilocks and the Secret to Breakthrough Advertising

In psychology, the inverted U theory is used to explain achieving optimal performance. The theory states that there is a relationship between performance and pressure, and the ideal performance occurs when there is just the right amount of pressure—too much or too little can reduce performance. A similar theory is used in economics and sports. The axes are different, but the “just right” Goldilocks’ principle is the same. To create breakthrough work, agencies should consider the inverted U.

"Yes, and" or How to Say No and Make it Sound Like a Yes

An irate client called me from the floor of a convention. He hated the convention panel we had produced and said, “it looks like an impossible-to-read eye chart full of small type.” I promised to investigate and get back to him. I told him we would try to redo the panel, and also identify what went wrong so we would not do it again.

Psst! There Are No Client Secrets

Unhappily married couples often try to hide their marital issues from their children. They believe that if they spend lots of time together, or don’t argue in front of the kids, they will never know the marriage is troubled. If you talk to their children, most will say the secret was out. Some heard their parents fighting behind closed doors. Others noticed their parents only spoke to and through the kids and not each other.

Client Satisfaction Surveys: 5 Ways to Blow Them. And How to Ace Them

Client satisfaction surveys have become SOP for many businesses. Every call to my bank or stop at my Starbucks is followed up by an automated survey. (By the way - if a visit to Starbucks is the “best part of my day,” I consider it a pretty bad day).

Dear Client: I Am Not Your Partner

I have been in advertising for a long time. Somewhere along the way, clients and agencies started referring to each other as partners. I don’t remember the month or year, but I feel like the use of the phrase increased as the business became more transactional. I assume this was supposed to make the agency feel better about our changing relationship with clients—the equivalent of renaming second mortgages home equity loans to reduce the stigma of borrowing.

What the Bachelor Can Teach Us About Client-Agency Relationships

I admit it. I watch a lot of Reality TV. I cry at Say Yes to the Dress and restage half my house after each episode of The Property Brothers. However, I draw the line at The Bachelor. I am clearly in the minority, as the show has run for 23 top-rated seasons.

Will COVID-19 Destroy Your Agency Culture or Reinvent It?

A well-designed culture benefits staff, clients, and the agency itself. Companies with well-designed cultures have more engaged employees. High employee engagement is correlated with better employee health, happiness, productivity, and retention. In turn, high employee retention drives team continuity, deeper brand knowledge, and enduring relationships—all of which promote greater client satisfaction, revenue, loyalty, and growth. That impacts the bottom line. Companies included on Forbes’ “Best Places to Work” list significantly outperformed the S&P 500.

Unfortunately, many of the traditional ways to communicate agency culture are gone, at least for now.

Agencies typically relied on their physical office space and in-office rituals to short-hand their culture. Glass partitions signaled openness. Ping pong and foosball tables equaled fun. Dogs and new babies visiting the office meant family-friendly. Conference room names were signals, too. Some rooms were dedicated to great innovators—others were named for people who demonstrated the qualities the agency valued most. I know an office where teams sat at round tables to reinforce their commitment to a 360 approach and democratic leadership.

The sudden shift to working from home and Zoom has robbed agencies of many of these in-office cues. Given that agencies will likely be WFH for many months (and may never return to having all employees together in the office), agencies must reestablish their cultures for a remote environment.

To do this, agencies should answer three questions:

What are the agency’s values? Values are the shared beliefs that guide agency and employee decision-making. Agency values should be unchanged by COVID. However, it is probably a good time to check-in and review. The fewer and more specific the values, the better. Some agencies value “resisting the status quo” or “going all out.” Others highlight a “better together” community or encourage an “entrepreneurial mindset.” All are important attributes that can differentiate agencies, provided the values are clearly articulated, actionable, and demonstrated in agency behaviors big and small.
Do your agency behaviors still bring your values to life? “Going all out” can still be expressed by staff being on time, on camera, and professionally dressed (from the waist up) for all client Zoom calls. An agency that places high importance on the team might make extra efforts to ensure that all departments are included on calls, emails, and sign offs on critical documents. Team check-ins and activities can continue, only virtually. After all, culture is the sum of an agency’s actions.
Agency behaviors may need to be reexamined or communicated to reflect the “new normal.” When employees were on-site, norms were communicated through a combination of written agency policy and observation. Employees quickly figured out how things worked, from meeting etiquette to managing conflict. With everyone working from home, it’s essential to make sure norms are established and communicated. There may also be “new norms” necessitated by these clearly abnormal times: Are employees expected to work from 9 am to 5 pm? Can employees flex their hours to accommodate personal demands? Are expectations different for employees with children at home? Aging parents needing care? Isolated singles? There are no uniform or easy answers to these questions. Agencies should look toward their values for the appropriate response.
What are the agency’s rituals? Rituals and recognition encourage behaviors that bring the culture to life and strengthen relationships among staff. I worked at an agency that valued community and commitment. Every year on an employee’s work anniversary, they would receive flowers with one rose for every year of employment. The ritual was always the same. The call from reception (“We have something for you”), the proud walk back to your desk with your flowers, fellow staffers congratulating you on your milestone, and team members reminiscing about “memorable” colleagues and clients. The simple act of receiving anniversary roses set off a chain of connection and good feeling. So how to replicate that during COVID? Agencies must be very deliberate about deciding what rituals and recognition should be kept, updated, discontinued, or started. There are opportunities to be creative. One agency sent an employee celebrating their 10th anniversary a video of clips from teammates recalling their top ten list of special moments.

COVID has robbed us of a lot (seeing a movie on the big screen) and given us a lot (the joy of doing a puzzle). It does not have to rob us of agency culture. In fact, it can be the impetus for creating something more meaningful and enduring.

Stacey Singer is a client retention and growth specialist. She can be reached at stacey@staceysinger.com.

Stacey SingerJuly 31, 2020