What a Good Client-Agency Relationship Looks Like to Us

Everyone wants a PR agency with the right skills, creativity or experience.  But it’s probably the day-to-day relationship which matters even more.  After all, no one wants an agency that’s tricky to deal with.  No one will pick up the phone and really lean on an agency if they’re scared there’s a meter running, and every call will rack up an extra fee.

So, what does our brand of a good client-agency relationship look like?  We feel it boils down to four key words – honesty, trust, commitment and friendliness.

We can’t give clients the best advice or deliver standout, business-changing results if they aren’t prepared to be honest with us.  We need to know those business plans, goals and challenges.  We need to understand your barriers, your brand’s shortcomings, the competitors you are trying to outgun, your web traffic goals… you get the gist.

When we are fully armed with the honest, unvarnished facts, we can point the PR at things that will make a real difference.

By the same token, we’re prepared to be candid too – even if it costs us!  If we don’t think we’re the best solution for you, we’ll recommend who you should be working with.  And if your PR expectations are unrealistic, we’ll say, even if it means we won’t win your business.

Obviously, this level of honesty from our clients requires trust.  Buckets of it. Of course, we’ll sign all the NDAs you need – but for us trust runs much deeper than a piece of paper.

Our clients can trust us to put them and their interests first. Every time.  They can trust us to be honest with them, even if it’s a bit uncomfortable for us as we’re telling them something they don’t want to hear.

Clients can trust us not to work with two competing companies at the same time.  We don’t believe in Chinese walls. After all, in that scenario, how can two competing clients both get our A-team?

Clients can also trust us with their budgets.  We know they’re precious. That’s why we won’t mark up things we buy in for our clients – why should we if we’re not adding value to the thing?  Similarly, if we set a budget for a programme, we will stick to it.  There are no shocks or surprises.  If we’ve misjudged how long something is going to take and under budgeted, that’s our problem!

Of course, we deliver some amazing quick wins, especially when it comes to web traffic. But real brand building takes time. Good clients understand this and commit to working with us.  They don’t enter into a relationship with us expecting to turn PR on or off like a tap.

It’s not just being in it for the long term that matters, day to day our clients give us their time too. They prioritise PR.  They respect and value what we’re doing and therefore respond to the opportunities we create promptly.

This commitment often comes from the very top. In some of our best agency client relationships, the MD/CEO has shared with us their hopes and dreams for the business. They respect and trust us and, where they can, they give us their attention or time when we need it.

In return we really commit to our clients. Really commit.

Clients feel this in so many ways:

• At the pitch stage we’ll often invest weeks of time in proposals because we don’t want to come up with a solution which simply wins the pitch.  We want a solution that is carefully tailored to work for a business.
• Once a client is onboard, we carry on investing – spending way more of our time up front, than the client is paying for.
• Beyond this, we will think about their business and PR challenges 24/7 …even when we aren’t at work.
• We’ll often drop things when they urgently need us. And routinely provide all sorts of support and advice that our clients didn’t know they’d need when they first appointed us.

Honesty, trust and being committed are incredibly important, but perhaps sound a little dry! And we’re anything but.  For us, the final element in our relationships with clients is friendliness.  We think it’s really important to be warm, straightforward and pleasant to deal with.  We’re creative but that doesn’t give anyone a license to be temperamental. Why should it?  Instead, we’re sunny, positive, can-do people.  It’s not a put on, it’s a real part of our DNA.  In return, our best clients are pleasant and friendly too.

When we have a client-agency relationship that ticks all these boxes, real magic happens!

The trouble with a client-agency relationship is that it’s hard to tell what it will be like beforehand.  And once the agency is appointed, you’re committed.  But there are four hacks for judging whether an agency will be good to work with:

• Look at their Google reviews – if they don’t have any that’s a red flag
• Ask to speak to their clients – an agency that consistently has good client relationships will let you speak to any of their clients
• Ask for their average client duration – a good agency will work with clients for a long time (ours is 7 years by the way)!
• Check out their values – do they chime with you?

Looking for an agency that gets you? At Energy, we pride ourselves on our client relationships. Get in touch at susannah@energypr.co.uk to find out more.