Avoiding agency and client apathy in 2019 by harnessing people power to drive loyalty and growth.

It’s been an exciting year for LMC PR as my journey to inspire excellence in client relations extended into new sectors, new parts of the UK and to countries far and wide. From PR, to public affairs and to association management, from London to Leeds, Brussels, France, Germany and the US – all of these industries and parts of the world have one thing in common. Their desire to improve their client relationships, secure loyalty and identify growth opportunities for their business and their clients. 

There are so many common challenges that exist even across diverse businesses. 

• How to deal with challenging clients and their idiosyncrasies

• What do agencies do with the real and genuine challenge of over-service

• Fostering a consultative and partnership relationship where new ideas, innovation, creativity and thought leadership flourish

• Ensuring that clients are paying for the activity that surpasses their expectations

And with a year so dominated by the talk of disruptive agency models and focus on the puritan agenda of content first, channel agnostic creative discovery, consultancies across the land are asking how can they position themselves for the future without ignoring the glaringly obvious pursuit of the ‘ink’ and the always on desire for connections to influencers both social, cultural, political and business. 

It starts by understanding your strengths and weaknesses as an agency. Listening and learning from client feedback and turning this insight into action. And using client satisfaction as a true business development tool. Both the leadership team and every team member has a role in achieving the ambitions of the agency, but what must come first is a client centric approach to business development making it a win win for all parties involved. 

Whilst the battle rages on to discover what kind of consultancy you will become: whether you call yourself a PR, a content expert, a creative or digital guru one thing will remain a constant.  And that is that agencies are in the people business: we employ people, our clients are people and our contacts we connect them with are people. So having outstanding client relations is the bedrock for which everything evolves from. 

So as we all approach 2019, it’s not the issues that set us apart it's how you approach client service that will dictate how you will evolve. Don’t let it be a tick the box exercise, use client satisfaction as a real and genuine business development tool to ensure agency and client apathy is kept firmly at bay.  That way, you will help future proof your business for a successful and prosperous 2019 and beyond. 

Wishing all my agency partners a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2019.