An Agency client relationship is like a two-way street. There should be mutual honesty, trust, understanding, transparency, and respect. Unfortunately, today many business relations last only a few years if not less. Let's look into the evolution of the agency-client relationship; according to a Hubspot, the average business relationship that used to be 7.2 years and dropped to 5.3 years, whereas the recent research by R3 says that the average client and agency relationship lasts for only 3.2 years. In the study, 40 agency relationships have lasted for an average of 22 years.
Every agency's dream is to have an enduring relationship with its customer. Every customer wants a strong partnership with the agency. How would we be able to deal to make the agency customer relationship last more? Here are the five principles or elements that make the client-agency relationship more successful than ever before.
Relationship management is the essential element that determines the client-agency relation. The agency plays a crucial role for the clients as they are the lines of communication with the audience on behalf of the clients. So there should be a strong relationship between the client and the marketing company. The agency conveys forward the customer's vision to their targeted group. Sales and marketing entirely rely on the performance of the agencies' (multiple if they're using many). Hiring the right agency for your business will benefit you in the long run.
After the contract, the organization will make a complete study of your target audience and business goals. The agencies work hard to take your business to the end-user. Client success is the success of the marketing agency.
Agencies put all the efforts to keep the customer updated with the target audience. For that, agencies suggest the best and keep on updating their strategies according to the trends. They have to be more updated than the client's in terms of marketing trends and technology to achieve the client's business goal. Else whats the point?
Organizations will come up with different marketing and sales strategies for their customer, and together as a team, they will discuss all the pros and cons of each approach to meet the goal. The brand manager used to work day and night with the client to achieve the new results.
Transparency in strategies and out come is one of the cores of a successful relationship that leads to many benefits for both parties, a faster feedback loop in case the agency is going the wrong direction as well as a peek into the brains of the agency creatives that let the client feel at ease that the focus of the agency is on the right outcome.
Building relationships takes time for both the agency and the client, But it is essential for both.
These are the three significant benefits you will gain from the long term client and agency relation.
1. Loyalty
The nurturing of the relationship will expand loyalty or reliability to the two brands, and it also empowers trust, continued business, and more outstanding performance.
2. Reduced Cost of Marketing
In the aspect of a marketing agency, they don't need to invest and market more and often as they have a stable customer base.
At the point when customers have established long-lasting relations with the marketing agency, they don't need any preparation. The marketing agency will have most of the product or service information of the client. It will decrease the expense and time to dispatch each marketing campaign.
3. Networking and Testimonials
Each organization can turn into a brand advocate for the other. Long term relation will create more networking opportunities for both the concerns, along with valuable testimonials. For a sustainable and effective relationship, it requires transparent communications and collaboration on both sides.
1. Transparency And Honest Among Each Other
The best client-agency partnership should have complete transparency on both ends (Client & Agency). It plays a vital role in the success of the relationship. Both parties have to remember that transparency and trust will make a successful, long-lasting relation.
Be forthright about things like your organization's methodology and compensation agreements. At the same time, the client has to be candid about their budget, timeline, and business goal. Discussing upfront will prevent misunderstandings in the future days.
There should be openness and honesty among the client and agency side communication. For instance, the agency should not be scared to share difficulties or challenges in the concept or during execution. The customer should know the agency's challenges at the earlier stage, and at the same time, the client or customer has to be open to express the project results (happy or disappointing). Make the communication open for better project results.
2. Regular Communication
It is essential to have regular contact with clients. Communication is an integral part of the business-customer relationship.
For Example, keep your customer on the project loop to know the progress of the project. Involving them will create the opportunity for communication to track the objective and render early changes on the application instead of changing at the time of product /service delivery.
Make a plan for client communication at the initial stage itself (How frequent the call would be and the mode of communications). Schedule a weekly meeting or monthly meetings with the client to share the product development status or the sales or marketing results.
3. Understanding of Each Other's Business
Both the client and agency have to know about each other's operations so that it will not affect the project's result. As an agency, you have to be aware of the client's business; otherwise, it will end up in disappointment. Make the right questions with the clients and understand their business.
Before proving a solution to the client's problem, you have to understand how their industry works. Learn more about the industry to build a long-lasting client-agency relationship.
4. Fair Feedback on Both Ends
A trusted client-agency relation requires honest and regular feedback. Both the organization and the client have the opportunity to get insight into the product or service and have a chance for further improvements. Without honest feedback, there won't be an opportunity for progress. Companies can implement an annual customer feedback program or can offer regular client feedback.
From your client feedback, you will get a better understanding of the likes and dislikes of the product or service offering. It will help you to gain more satisfied clients. You can make the necessary fix from the feedback before the client leaves. According to statistics, 70% of the clients leave the agency if they feel poor service. True feedback will create clients happy, customer loyalty, and enduring relationships with clients.
5. Reliable Content Approval Process
The massive part of client and agency partnership is content approvals. Before starting the work of the client, the vital step is getting approval on the process. Using email and spreadsheet for the content approval and feedback will be more time-consuming, and it may impact a negative result. Making approval workflow with the automated tools will save time and can easily streamline the team workflow process. It proves more transparency, and the client and the team can easily view the updates and start working on the high-priority tasks.
Customer retention enhances your client's lifetime value and boosts your revenue. Organizations can boost 100% of their revenue, with even 5% of customer retention. It also helps to build excellent relationships with your clients. The client trusts you and spends their cash on the return you provide valuable service to them. Loyal customers will invest ten times more than their initial transaction. 65% more likely, the returning customer will invest than the first time clients.
Customer Feedback Loop is the strategy for constant product improvement. The improvements of the products are made based on user feedback. With Customer Feedback Loop, you will be ahead of the competition. A high-quality user experience will generate more revenues. The customer feedback with tools will help you to work on the real-time data. It also helps to handle a large number of user databases.
BugReporting is one of the best customer feedback tools that allow the clients to record and comment on the defect on the application or website, and it is directly shared with the development team. The feedback is streamlined without meetings. Once the issue is fixed, the follow-up email with the client is done by the software automatically. It shows that your business values the customer information (It provides the feel to the customer that you are listing to their voice)
Customer Feedback Loop is divided into three stages, and each stage is equally important.
The loop repeats. You can gather customer feedback from all the possible channels (Like the websites, apps, social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more).
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