Client retention is more valuable than acquisition. A Harvard study shows a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a company’s profits growing by as much as 95%. Keeping your current clients happy, therefore, can make the difference between a successful agency, and one that is continuously wasting resources seeking new customers.
When it’s time for your agency review and renewal, a client will want to know if they’ve got value for money, and thirty-eight percent will deem they haven’t. Worryingly, the top reason a client breaks an agency agreement is because they’re unhappy with the work they’ve paid for. Some even walk away before a first project has even concluded.
It’s important, therefore, to have an effective client retention strategy in place. The best way to stay on the side of your clients and deliver for them every time is to really get to know them. Client retention and customer intelligence are about understanding your audience, and for an agency, many client retention strategies start with knowing enough about a client to deliver what they want and keep them asking for more.
Benchmarking your clients against their competition, reporting back on what they can do better, and offering strategies on how they can do it all. All of it is important and can’t be skipped. So let’s take a look at nine handy strategies to keep clients coming back for more.
1. Create a strong onboarding experience
Research shows an agency can spend 25-40% of their time on a project, while it takes only 5-10% of a client’s time. That’s a lot of agency time and the reason why onboarding is so important. It sets the tone for what you’re actually going to do together and helps minimize wasted time.
So, be sure to listen to your client’s aspirations and needs, and ask key questions to determine how that translates to your team's work. Use all the client retention tools at hand – such as the Brandwatch suite – to figure out how you can meet them together. Be realistic about how quickly you’ll do that, and the process for delivering on time and on budget.
Strong onboarding sets the expectation for the all-important business reviews that come later, and whether they renew the contract. Make sure the people who make the decisions are accountable. Be mindful to lay out your reporting and feedback cycle, so everyone knows what’s going on, no matter how busy you all are.
Ways to incorporate a strong onboarding experience include:
- Schedule your communication – Factor in time to speak to your clients, book recurring meetings, and outline dates of delivery.
- Get feedback – Outline how your client can provide feedback, and schedule when they’ll need to check in on project progress.
- Share accounts – Make it easier to create work you can both access by sharing access to accounts for key tools like the Adobe Suite or project management systems that you’ll both be using.
2. Provide personalized customer experiences
Yes, it’s a no-brainer, but personalizing the customer experience is a way of boosting satisfaction and retention rates. Agencies can struggle with the perception that they’re inflexible with client needs, and if the customer doesn’t fit the built-in systems, then that’s their problem.
Imagine walking into a coffee shop and seeing your drink already prepared, hot and rich just how you like it. That barista’s not only given you what you want but knows what you want before you ask for it. Start operating with a client-first structure and you’ll see results.
This breaks down into understanding the actual people you’re working with, and understanding their business challenges. If they prefer emails to meetings, then stop putting things in their calendar. Does the business have too few people working on their marketing strategy? See how you can plug those gaps.
As an agency, you’re probably going to have project managers who can deliver the personalized touch. Giving your team the flexibility to put their own stamp on the agency-client relationship can make all the difference.
In fact, it’s best to avoid templating your way of working, even if it’s an agency standard. You can start with a template, but make sure you customize it so that you do what the client wants (within reason, of course).
Case Study: RF|Binder used the flexible Brandwatch tool to personalize their communications strategies for multiple clients across the United States. RF|Binder were able to launch new client products, brainstorm fresh content, and segment the customer journey to fit each individual client.
3. Perfect social proof
Agencies like to talk about their successful campaigns – and why wouldn’t they? If you do good work, people should know about it. But this isn’t just about talking yourself up. It’s about showing potential and current clients what they’d be missing out on if they left.
Get in the social proof mindset by creating reports and case studies on successful clients. Show other customers these collaborative successes as proof that your methods are working. Just make sure you don’t share confidential information!
Digital planner Sunsama has done just that. Their Love campaign showed prospective and current clients exactly what they can expect when using their services, by highlighting the positive outcomes enjoyed by other brands. They highlighted ‘Love Letters’ from customers to show off valuable ‘unsolicited’ feedback. Not only are Sunsama showing off their work, but they’re showing their other clients why they’re worth sticking with.
Tips for successful social proof campaigns include:
- Writing case studies of successful projects
- Showing clients how they can emulate other clients
- Linking clients up so they can share their own insights
- Using social media to shout about successes, linking to clients
Case Study: Skyscanner came to Brandwatch looking for better consumer insights to guide their go-to-market strategies. Not only did we work with them to improve their customer understanding, but we shouted about it too!
4. Bring visuals to your reporting
Reporting is an important factor for customer retention. But it needs to be done in the right way. After all, clients who are outsourcing projects are going to see countless reports on how the work is progressing, so making yours comprehensive and instantly understandable is a real value-add.
Using strong visuals can make the difference between a boring report no one reads, and an easily digestible assessment of the agency-client relationship. Emily Bennett, who runs That Hashtag Girl agency, uses Brandwatch’s ‘Measure’ feature to provide “quick, straightforward, and insightful” reports that look good and are easy to decipher.
These visual reports have helped That Hashtag Girl scale their business and keep clients coming back for more.
5. Share knowledge of their target audience
Whatever your client does, they have customers, and therefore they have an audience. Showing a client you’ve cracked the insights of their own audience even without them asking you to is going to work wonders for your chances of retaining their business. After all, if an agency can unearth data unknown to the client, why would you walk away from them?
Brandwatch is all about unveiling these insights, and the platform is versatile enough to meet numerous client expectations. A client might work with an agency because:
- They don’t know their audience: Perhaps they have been aiming at one type of customer but ended up with another.
- They know their audience but don’t know how to please them.
- They’ve upset their audience and need to rebuild trust and loyalty.
- They’ve not considered the value of targeting an audience.
Whatever the client needs, use a tool like Brandwatch to do the research and show them that you know their target audience, and can help them know it too.
Case study: Strategy consultancy Quantum needed help reporting back to clients in a quick and efficient manner. They used Brandwatch Reports to streamline their reporting and bring all their social listening responsibilities in-house. They were able to swiftly share their knowledge of a client’s target audience, and get working immediately on delivering projects.
6. Be personable
Personality goes a long way in building client relationships. It’s an intangible benefit for agencies to employ proactive, enthusiastic, and diligent workers who genuinely get on with customers. Handling conflicts with clients can be difficult, but you’re more likely to have success – and avoid conflict altogether – if you strike up a closer working relationship.
Reminding your agency employees to be more personable can save you a lot of time and stress, and keep clients coming back again and again. Here are some ways you can remain on good terms with your clients simply by being human:
- Maintain regular communication – All customers love to feel valued, especially if they’re dealing with an agency who might have hundreds of clients. Being in regular communication shows you’re taking this client/agency relationship seriously.
- Surprise them – Whether it’s reporting back on project successes, offering discounts for further work, or even sending over food to their offices, being able to surprise a client with positive news shows you’re thinking about them.
- Meet up – This is one of the oldest forms of client retention. Go for a drink or attend an event with your customers, and get to know the decision-makers on a more personal level. You might get an insight that helps you crack the relationship.
- Ask questions – You don’t have to ask your client how their kids are doing every time you chat, but being interested in them will certainly aid conversation and help establish trust. Agencies can sometimes feel like faceless entities, so make sure you’re the friendly face of your company. Get to know your clients on a personal level, and show them that you care about both their business and its success.
7. Offer unique services and deliver results
Obviously, you need to deliver good work. Do something memorable and your client’s loyalty will build. Uniqueness can make the difference between engaging with a client once and working with them for years. Make sure you’re not just another boring meeting the client has in their calendar.
Stand out from the pack by benchmarking your client’s previous results against their competitors, and bring something new to the discussion that makes your client’s work shine.
This is all part of being unique. What does your agency offer that no one else does? It might just be that you value efficiency, but put this into everything you do and it will shine through. Mention it, over and over again, and you’ll be known for it. Not just with your own customers but with everybody. Enter your work together for awards, and share in the joy that winning provides (then keep the awards somewhere people can see them).
8. Start a customer retention program
Agencies thrive on new business, but they survive on client retention. So maybe it’s time to formalize your customer retention with a program that rewards regular commissions.
The first step here is to provide value-added services in addition to what you already deliver. These are add-ons that will make them even more likely to stay with you, such as:
- Free consultations
- Discounts on future services
- Access to exclusive resources
And it’s not just about money. A successful client retention program needs diligent client managers. It’s their job to keep the customer happy and secure more work, to notify the client of extra bonuses, and talk through resources exclusive to them.
Use your CRM system to launch a retention program, track client progress, and notify them of when they’re due loyalty bonuses.
9. Work with other agencies
It sometimes feels as though agencies are always in direct competition with each other. While agencies will duke it out for the same clients and work hard on their pitches to “beat” rivals, there’s no harm in collaborating to deliver even better results.
One agency might be better at content creation, while another might excel in audience data tracking. Working together in a cross-agency collaboration can often provide above-expectations results.
And it’s these results – plus the proof that you can work professionally with one another – that will keep a customer coming back for more. It’s usually the client that will add an agency to its roster, but there’s no harm in suggesting working alongside another agency, if you think it can lead to results.
So long as you all have your defined KPIs and know how to work harmoniously, agency collaboration can be a beautiful thing.
Final thoughts
So there you have it. Retaining clients isn’t easy, but there are some straightforward steps an agency can follow to keep customers coming back for more. Setting up a strategy, being personable, benchmarking and reporting, and sharing the rewards of your work together will improve your relationship with clients. In doing so, you’re more likely to retain them, expand your projects, and deliver even better results.