Agency/client relations are seldom easy. In the current climate, however, with PR budgets still tight and staffing levels reduced on both sides of the table, the issues that
make or break a marriage take on added resonance.
In this special issue of PR NEWS we get behind the issues related to agency/client relations. A veteran group of PR pros from corporations and PR agencies provide dispatches
from the trenches. They tackle the best ways to get the relationship off the ground, how to maintain and nurture the relationship and certain modifications each side might make to
preempt any problems, which are sometimes inevitable given the interests of both sides (read: money and reputation, depending on degree).
As Peter Morrissey, president of PR agency Morrissey & Company points out, both parties need to give more time to the "thinking part" of the agency/client relationship. Of
course, the idea is for PR agencies to solve the communication problems that now plague many corporations.
Following are a variety of solutions, including a special Point/Counterpoints package on pages 6-7.
We also feature an exclusive poll -- in concert with the PRSA -- homing in on some of the issues that are keeping PR pros up at night, as well as several tables from an
exhaustive study on generally accepted PR practices conducted by the Council of PR Firms and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center.
Matt Kucharski
VP, Padilla Speer Beardsley
612.455.1731
[email protected]
An agency adage says that you start losing the client on the day you win it. That's like saying the first day of your marriage is the day you start divorce proceedings.
Still, there's a grain of truth in it. Successful agency/client relationships require constant nurturing, as well as a willingness to share in successes and setbacks over the
long-term. Probably the most powerful - and misused - tool in the client/agency relationship is the satisfaction survey. Executed poorly, its result is an adversarial
confrontation. Executed properly, it lays the foundation for cooperative improvement and expectation management. Here are ways to make them work for you:
#1 Share them right away. Bring a copy of the survey to the "kickoff" meeting. Review it together, and agree on which elements are most important to the client and to the
agency.
#2 Get broad feedback. Allow product managers, marketing managers, and others within the company who work with the agency to weigh in. While they may not be the primary
contacts, they'll have feedback worth sharing.
#3 Discourage anonymity. While many surveys allow for anonymous feedback so respondents can give their "honest" views, it encourages passive-aggressive behavior and prevents
honest dialog about what's expected.
#4 Schedule a follow-up. Make sure that you schedule a time to go through the feedback in-person. This can seem daunting, but it's usually productive.
#5 Propose two-way evaluation. Partnerships require a two-way commitment, and you'll find the strongest where agency and client encourage feedback on each other. Combining
highly engaged, competent agency teams with clients who share both successes and failures usually results in an effective relationship.
Consider satisfaction surveys as "temperature checks" on the agency/client relationship, and use them as part of an overall client satisfaction process - one where there's a
shared commitment up front, a willingness to have open dialog throughout, a process for evaluating progress and results, and a path for continuous improvement.
Ken Makovsky
President, Makovsky & Co.
212.508.9601 [email protected]
Nobody likes to ask the tough questions. Nobody likes to answer them either. But if we in the agency business want to improve client retention, we need to ask those questions
of our clients and need to be prepared to hear answers that we may not like. For it is only through frank and honest dialogue that client/agency relationships thrive and are made
productive.
We at Makovsky & Co. have been asking our clients the tough questions for 15 years. We believe we pioneered the industry's Quality program. Each month, we select clients
for review and they receive an extensive questionnaire, which asks them to evaluate their Makovsky account team from a number of standpoints, including, "Giving your company its
money's worth;" "Promptness in meeting deadlines;" and "Ability to manage your budget." The questionnaire also calls for clients to evaluate the value of Makovsky's senior
management's involvement as well as our proficiency in obtaining media results. Our staff fills out a similar form and the results are compared and discussed at a monthly meeting
before the Makovsky Quality Committee, which consists of the firm's senior management and an outside consultant.
Recommendations are made as to how to address problem areas and progress is checked in follow-up meetings. Our Quality program has uncovered many things that we might not have
ordinarily learned about. For example, we thought one particular staffer was a "star;" however, the individual was "panned" by the client. We also learned about the value that a
young assistant account executive brought to a particular client. Our surveys have also helped clarify billing issues. Since the beginning, our retention rates have improved by
25% from the years before we instituted the program. Ask the tough questions. Learn from the answers and improve client retention rates.
Peter Morrissey
President & CEO, Morrissey & Company
617.523.4141
[email protected]
Client/agency relationships are built on trust. Today's challenge is "trickle down" - pressure clients face from management trickles down to agencies. Since water flows
downhill and gains momentum over time, it is very difficult to reverse this tide of tension and pressure to accomplish more, faster, for less money.
Technology has helped mitigate this by making 24/7 access a reality. But, there still needs to be some "thinking time" built in, to get the best ideas and solutions from an
agency. Certainly, transactional public relations can take place in a real-time environment. But, challenges that require research, group brainstorming and high-level thinking
require time. Both parties need to better communicate the thinking part of relationships. Clients need time to check with internal reports, and agencies need time to provide more
considered counsel. Certainly, there is value in execution, but innovation and brilliant ideas are where the true value of an agency lies. Great client/agency relationships are
partnerships where both sides help the other to focus. To paraphrase Harry Truman, great things can be accomplished when nobody worries about who takes the credit.
Cos Mallozzi
President & CEO, Gibbs & Soell, Inc.; 212.697.2600, x240
[email protected]
If you have an agency-client relationship without any differences, you really don't have much of a relationship. Differences are a natural part of teamwork, and working
through the natural differences in accomplishing a goal is what client-agency relationships are all about.
It's no secret that strong relationships begin -- and endure - with listening. Most clients (and some of ours go back more than a decade) want an agency that not only listens,
but also one that gets better with age. They don't want 'yes' execs, but team players who can absorb the intricacies of their business, contribute as partners, and even help lead
the thinking. You can't get that far without good listening skills and ongoing feedback. (Quarterly review meetings aren't enough.)
Skilled listening involves a responsibility for understanding. Experienced professionals make sure they fully comprehend, and readily probe to clarify areas that may seem
fuzzy. There is also vulnerability in listening since feedback can sometimes be emotionally charged. Mature PR professionals know they must acknowledge those emotions first,
without getting defensive, before they can begin to clarify the issue or suggest anything. Of course, when both parties genuinely respect each other, that always makes it a lot
easier to find solutions and move on.
Mike Paul
President, MGP & Associates PR
212.595.8500 [email protected]
The most tangible way to improve PR agency/client relations is for both to improve ethical decision-making and humility in their relationships. Large PR firms need to stop the
bait-and-switch business model they have used for more than a generation. All PR firms need to practice what they preach and realize truth in billing, man-hours and account teams
will greatly improve their relationships with their clients. Clients want senior executives to actually become senior counselors and not just rainmakers who spend little time
actually working on their accounts. Clients need to adjust their rhetoric regarding their products and services. Many know their products are not the best or No. 1 in the
market, but insist on positioning them as such. Honesty, humility, truth and accountability need to become more than token phrases on both sides and truly become reality.
Christine Perkett
President/Founder, PerkettPR, Inc
781.834.5852
[email protected]
Client/agency relationships have evolved back to the way it should be - agencies actually having to pitch to win business, show return on investment, add value and prove
strategic capabilities as well as tactics.
At PerkettPR our business model - focusing on affordable, results-oriented PR that ties into a client's overall business goals - has helped us to weather the economic downturn
and now, the "back to reality" economy. Clients want value for their money, not simply a monthly report on how many meetings they held with the agency. Four key points that we
believe can really strengthen a client/agency relationship and make PR more valuable, include:
Chemistry. During the capabilities or pitch meeting, pay attention to the chemistry of your team and the client's team. Is there a positive connection in personalities,
approach to PR, business values and beliefs? Good chemistry can make a client/agency relationship not only more productive and valuable, but genuinely fun and collaborative.
Measurement. One of the biggest controversies in PR is whether or not it can be measured. Agencies that say it can't aren't thinking out-of-the-box. There are several ways
to measure results for a client, without getting bogged down in endless paper work. Any agency worth its spin will be able to set realistic, valuable goals ahead of time to
measure against and show a client its worth - and not just in media clips.
Creativity. PR doesn't stand for press release. Even on small budgets, a good PR team can execute creative, valuable programs. Focus on the client's business and what will
really drive it, as well as what your team can realistically provide. Even in this economy, agencies shouldn't take on just any piece of new business unless it's a match to their
talents. Otherwise, you are simply headed for a bad experience for both parties.
Flexibility. From budgets to contracts, clients are looking for agencies that will be flexible and execute a PR program that will fit their budget and still return incredible
value. For example, at PerkettPR we've offered clients perks such as early bird discounts or a trial basis contract.
We're confident enough to do this because we know we will deliver results that keep clients coming back. And, the clients know we stand behind our work, so their comfort level
and faith is strong from the get-go.
Nancy Ruscheinski
President, Edelman, Chicago
312.240.2629
[email protected]
If there are any schisms between clients and agencies right now, it's because they are both faced with one overriding economic reality: clients want more, for less. Not
surprisingly, clients are also increasingly risk-averse, want more guarantees upfront, more proof of success on the backend and a more affordable price tag. How to deliver more
for less? Help clients solve business problems, vs. PR problems. Get more involved in a client's total business so that you're in a position to generate big, bold, business-
changing ideas - ideas with the potential to extend beyond traditional public relations. One such idea not only saved an account for us recently, it drove an entire brand
positioning shift and the creative for a subsequent ad campaign.
Identify synergies and facilitate introductions between clients. We recently brought clients KFC and Cranium together, with pretty extraordinary results. You'll soon see the
KFC Kids Laptop Pack featuring Cranium's Cadoo at a KFC near you, confirming our belief that one of the most valuable assets we have at Edelman is the company we keep.
We've also been more proactive about bringing in specialists from every part of our business to help tackle client challenges. By routinely serving up experts from outside the
day-to-day account team, we're adding value and ensuring that clients get a 360-degree point of view on pressing issues.
Finally, and perhaps most important in this climate, we've developed more meaningful program metrics tied more directly to business results. We're using a new Relationship
Index tool to help clients measure and improve the quality of their stakeholder relationships.
And we're getting ready to launch a new tool to measure and analyze media results, one that holds us more accountable by clearly identifying things like "missed opportunities
for coverage."
Jeanne Sowa
Sr. VP/Marketing and Corporate Relations, Easter Seals
312.551.7140
[email protected]
Non-profits need PR agencies to help us build our business and carry out our mission. Successful agencies understand our business. They translate the complexities of our
mission into cogent, concise, memorable messages. They create the hooks that catch media attention. But is that enough? No.
The best PR agencies do more. For example, securing individual donors and corporate partnerships is important for Easter Seals. We try to employ a high-engagement strategy
with our current corporate partners. The best PR agencies can identify the systemic problems that might be blocking our success. Have we failed to develop a dynamic profile in
the corporate community? Good agencies will help us solve that problem -- perhaps by helping with facilitated networking, or by showing us how to reinvigorate our current
engagements. These efforts can even build business for both of us.
I suggest these directives for PR agencies that want to work with non-profits: Be nimble; be proactive; help us be smarter. Allow us to effortlessly access and consult with
disciplines and expertise throughout the agency. My suggestion for us as clients is this: Learn what makes our accounts valuable and attractive to PR agencies. And learn what
diminishes our value.
Gerald S. Schwartz
President, G.S. Schwartz & Co Inc.
212.725.4500 [email protected]
"The more things change the more they stay the same" is a saying that is as accurate in agency/client relations as in other aspects of life. An old wise man once said to me,
"They hire you for your creativity and fire you for your lack of publicity."
It's still true. While the Web and other technologies have changed the way we do business, at the end of the day people are still people and their needs and wants are the
same. Clients need to boost sales, influence public opinion or increase stock prices and it is the job of the PR agency to do all it can to make these things happen.
Agency/client relations breakdown primarily when we fail to do what we were hired to do. The best of friendships cannot save a failing business situation - only prolong the
inevitable cancellation. The greatest difficulty in many agency/client situations, however, is finding the time to build long and strong relationships when fees require staff to
work on several different programs.
While I hate generalizations, a $15 million advertising campaign funds an awful lot of attention versus a $150,000 public relations program ("Let's go shoot that commercial in
Jamaica in January").
But it costs no more to be thoughtful, remember birthdays and anniversaries, thank-yous and see-yous. The little things still count, regardless of budget. In fact, databases
make it easier. Another wise old man said, "If you remember a client's birthday, he'll remember you, but if you remember his son's, he'll never forget you." A simple card, a
brief note, a sincere expression of interest is always good public relations.