Several recent industry reports have said that the average client-agency relationship is somewhere between 3-4 years. Considering it takes a year or so for a partnership to get off the ground, this is a relatively short period of time and the impact on both companies bottom line and can be dramatic.
When a client decides to put their business into review they have likely put a great deal of thought into the challenges the relationship is facing. Yet, we occasionally find that a review has been called because of an issue that could have been resolved if identified early enough. Sometimes the resolution of this issue is a simple fix that should have been discussed, but wasn’t, as the client organization did not have a process in place to appraise their agencies on a regular basis.
Transparent and regular feedback is at the heart of any trusted relationship — and it should be no different for clients and their agencies. To ensure that the feedback is based on actual, verified data and feedback, a regular agency appraisal should be a part of your agency relationship. Absent this type of analysis, both sides are left to wonder what the other is thinking. And history has shown that misperceptions are more common than you might expect.
At Flock Associates we have found that a semi-annual or annual appraisal is a great way to ensure that any and all issues facing the relationship are addressed. We have developed the Flock Agency Appraisal Tool, a proprietary platform that provides two-way feedback and identifies issues that need to be addressed. Both positive and negative. All Flock appraisals can be tailored to your needs with qualitative feedback supporting the quantitative scores.
In an environment where marketers have more data available to them than ever before, data on the performance of your agency is another way you can improve the overall performance of your company’s marketing efforts.
You can read about the Flock Agency Appraisal Tool here.