A couple of the key takeaways from some of the research we’ve recently done, where we talked to people who hire agencies: CMOs, directors of marketing, and other similar folks, is that when they are unhappy with us, they are often unhappy with us for one of two reasons.
Number one is that things take too long. Our systems and processes are bloated, and we can’t be as agile as they need us to be. And the second thing is that – of the research- from the time that they get aggravated with us until the time they decide to find another agency, it is less than a month. So, let’s talk a little about this irritation we create when our systems and processes are too complicated, and we can’t turn on a dime like they need us to.
This is a great time of year for you to look at inside your project management system. Pull together your team. Talk to your project managers. Depending on how you’re structured as an agency. The question is, are we being as efficient and effective as possible to get work in and out of the agency in as timely a fashion as we can at the quality level and the accuracy level that we need?
The second part of that question is: what’s in the way of us being more efficient, more effective, quicker to turn things around, and how do we solve those problems? So nobody wants to put out work, and that’s not good. That’s not well thought out. That’s not accurate. That is, you know, void of mistakes or errors. Of course, we’re not saying that.
But sometimes, our systems and processes actually slow things down. Or it might be that a person is a bottleneck and has a role inside the agency that everything has to flow through. Oftentimes, an owner slows the process down. So, take a little time to look at both the actual process of your work and the roles inside the process, and figure out if there are ways you could be even more effective and more efficient in turning things around quickly.
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Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from North Captiva Island in Florida.
You know, one of the – couple of the key takeaways in some of the research we've recently done where we talked to people who hire agencies: CMOs, director of marketing, that kind of the kind of folks is that when they are unhappy with us, they are often unhappy with us for one of two reasons. Number one is that things take too long. Our systems and processes are bloated, and we can't be as agile as they need us to be.
And the second thing is that – of the research is that from the time that they get aggravated with us until the time they decide to find another agency is less than a month. So let's talk a little bit about this irritation that we create when our systems and processes are too complicated and we can't turn on a dime like they need us to. This is a great time of year for you to look at inside your project management system. Pull together your team. Talk to your project managers. Depending on how you're structured as an agency. The question is, are we being as efficient and effective as possible to get work in and out of the agency in as timely a fashion as we can do at the quality level and the accuracy level that we need?
And the second part of that question is: what's in the way of us being more efficient, more effective, quicker to turn things around, and how do we solve those problems? So nobody wants to put out work that's not good. That's not well thought out. That's not accurate. That is, you know, void of mistakes or errors. Of course we're not saying that. But sometimes our systems and processes actually slow things down. Or it might be that a person is a bottleneck and that there's a role inside the agency that everything has to flow through.
Oftentimes that's an owner that slows the process down. So taking a little bit of time to look at both the actual process of your work and also the roles inside the process, and figuring out if there are ways that you could be even more effective and more efficient to turn things around quickly. Another thing to help clients understand is that every time they make a revision, there's a whole process that has to happen for us to accurately record the change, figure out what the change is going to cost and all of that.
So another way we can deal with that frustration with clients is helping them understand our process. And why, for example, it's super helpful for us to get all the changes from everybody on the team, on the client side at once, rather than to have them trickle in, and for us to sort of process each of them individually. So it's not always on our end, but they're the ones feeling the pinch. They're the ones trying to explain to a boss why something is taking so long, or they feel like we're not being as responsive, or maybe they're not as important to us as other clients.
So whatever, whatever that delay, whatever feelings that delay is triggering is problematic for us and for our relationship. So now's a good time to dig in, do some diagnosis, and see if you can tighten up some time frames and make clients happier with their turnaround.
