In any relationship, if you don’t communicate openly about problems and issues, trouble is just around the corner.  Too often, clients dance around performance issues they have with their agencies, and vice versa.

This fact is confirmed by agency leaders themselves.  In a February 2009 survey of agency leaders (including 106 in Canada), agency respondents said that 61% of their clients do not “openly discuss their concerns about agency performance and make an effort to find solutions before the client ends the agency relationship.”   In fact, open feedback from clients is one of the few areas where Canadian agency leaders are more critical of their clients, in comparison with European and U.S agency leaders. Being too polite, human nature for most Canadians, can sometimes kill a relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

In February 2009, we asked marketing and communications agency leaders to share their perspectives on the role of clients in client-agency relationships. I guess you could call it a client quality report card conducted by agency CEOs.

AgencyLink conducted the survey in Canada as part of its strategic affiliation with SCAN International, author of the study, A Global Voice for Marketing Agency Leaders.  We believe this is the largest body of client-agency relationship research ever conducted to simultaneously compare Canada’s views with the US and Europe.  Historically, client-agency surveys have only focused on the client’s perspective, but today more clients recognize that they are equally accountable to the partnership. Read the rest of this entry »