The Problem With Transactional Client Service

Do you spend more time fighting fires or building relationships?

Why Are Clients So Hard to Win and Easy to Lose?

Agency success hinges on strong client relationships. But just keeping clients happy and giving them what they say they want is missing the mark. Identifying, creating and communicating value from the moment a brief is agreed upon to after the work is delivered is at the core of lasting relationships, so when your team defaults to managing clients like a project, it's hard for the relationship or the business to flourish.

Having strong client relationships is one reason why average agencies with average products can become sticky and hard to displace. Their clients overlook their shortcomings for the sake of convenience, added value, and sometimes fun, too. Great agencies with great products can struggle if they don't pay attention to the experience of their clients. Chatbot-style account management is never a route to lasting success.

Why Does This Problem Exist?

People buy people. Agencies don't win and lose business; agency teams do, and the individuals making up those teams. In a crowded market, where AI is levelling the playing field and commoditising services, the value of the relationship to the client becomes a powerful differentiator.

When it comes to making decisions, like whether to hire or fire agencies, clients act on a spectrum of emotion versus reasoning. While agencies focus on facts like costs, deadlines and rounds of review, the abundance of capable agencies means clients focus on feelings. They look for rational reasons to justify emotional decisions about their agencies.

How Do You Know You've Got a Problem?

The first thing every client will notice going wrong is Client Service. Your clients may not be experts in judging the quality of what you do, but every client is an expert in judging whether their experience meets (or exceeds) their expectations, adds real value, and how it compares to others. And value is always defined by the client, not the agency.

Noticing how you spend your time can be a powerful way for agency leads to spot red flags with client service. For example:

• When you're spending more time fighting fires with unhappy clients than building relationships

• When winning new business means running to stand still

• When you're the only one able to spot organic growth opportunities and feel the business potential of existing clients is never realized

• When your team relies on your instincts rather than their own

How to Solve This Problem?

Success is when your client relationships go beyond the functional and truly flourish. Take the opportunity to rethink your agency’s approach to client service. Upskilling your team on the fundamentals of success through structured training, tailored coaching or mentoring means they can go beyond one-size-fits-all and work with your clients in a personalized and differentiated way that adds real value over the long term.