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Client-Agency Relationship
News The Client-Agency Relationship: Who is the REAL Customer?
The Client or the Clients’ Customers?
When thinking about how to optimise the Client-Agency relationship, it’s all about communication. The idea is to commission the expertise and skills of an agency, to attract customers to buy from your business. For agencies to do a great job, we not only need to know your goals but also as much information about the people you are trying to attract: your target audience and intended customer.
In some ways the agency is like a middle man, bridging the gap between what the clients want to achieve and the customer wants to engage with. By having an objective and outside point of view, often the agency is able to transform everything going on with a client’s account into some awesome marketing.
But who is the real customer?
When working in an agency, the clients are the actual customers of the agency: paying in exchange for services offered and value delivered. The agency provides the services a client needs and wants by advising on the best strategy and delivering the specialist work to implement it. For those of us who work in a marketing agency, there is an innate drive to always do the absolute best for our clients.
What about the clients’ customers?
Yes, the clients are the agency’s customers, but what about the clients’ customers? Arguably, they are our REAL customers. This is the group we have to communicate with through the services we are providing. Ultimately we have to cater to their needs by creating content, designing websites, and optimising web pages in a way that appeals and is easy to use.
The best marketing happens when your customers easily come across your business and have the answers to their needs solved by your services or products. Your marketing is judged on the results it brings in regard to revenue generation. So, delivering marketing in a customer-centric way increases the chances that your customer will feel understood and then choose to engage with your brand.
What to do when there is a difference of opinion?
It can be challenging when there is a difference of opinion between clients and agencies. But if dealt with effectively it is ever-so rewarding! Sometimes pushing back on both sides is needed. The client knows their business inside out and has the most knowledge in this area, a great agency will listen to this and tap into all the data and information readily available.
Your agency will have its own expertise too: be that in digital, web development, creative design, branding. They bring an objective view to the table and years of specialist experience in their particular niche. When client and agency experience is combined in a synergistic way to focus on the customer, great results can be achieved.
The most important things to remember with a Client-Agency relationship:
Collaboration: Agencies do not know your business as you do and clients often don’t have as much technical marketing experience as agencies do. It’s about coming together, working together, and sharing what each other knows to achieve the desired outcome.
Honesty: Remaining transparent in every way is important. Explain what’s working well, what could be improved, and what you really think. After all, agencies are being paid for their expertise, and it wouldn’t be right not to share this. Likewise, clients will save time and progress projects quicker by being upfront and direct with feedback.
Forward-thinking: Coming together to think about the future with your agency will enable the relationship to be proactive and strategic. The more we know about your goals, the better we are placed to add value and come up with innovative ideas too.
Communication: Absolutely vital to a good Client-Agency relationship. Being responsive is very important on both sides to stop project slippage. Communicating any messages in a clear way so that everyone understands each other is important too. Jargon is rarely helpful and any specialist information should have context provided.
If you’d like to discuss how we work together with our clients at SO Marketing and how we maintain a great relationship with them, get in touch! Email us at [email protected]