By Toni Maloney

Advertising Age and Adweek would have you believe that the only criteria for agency success are hot creative and a new business streak. Yet the key to real profitability is long-established client relationships.

At odds with this is the agency competitive environment. Your most valuable clients are the ones you already have, and your competition wants them!

Many agencies are now beginning to look at client retention and loyalty in a more systematic way. After conducting nearly 250 CIGAR Survey™ interviews with major advertisers on behalf of their advertising agencies and other professional service firms, The Maloney Group has codified in one place, Nine Values That Most Affect Client Retention.

Agencies may win new clients based on creative, but they rarely lose clients because of it. What would cause you to lose your most valued clients? What can you do to increase client loyalty?

There are no secret codas. The values we've outlined may not come as earth-shattering news to you-they may simply validate what you already know. But because they come up time and again in our conversations with clients, we know some agencies are not spending the time to satisfy these basic needs of their clients.

The question may not be how do you register on this client-agency Richter Scale, but rather, what other issues lie below the surface, ready to disrupt your client loyalty?

An agency that really understands my industry.

Reported one client about their agency: "They really don't understand our business. I feel embarrassed to say I stay with them because I don't know who would be any better."

Let's face it, clients don't really want to train another agency. They really don't want to bring a whole new team up to speed.

Clients measure an agency's knowledge of their business not only by the suitability and scope of ideas, but also by the insight the agency demonstrates into the business issues of the client's industry.

Query: Do you have someone on your team who regularly monitors your client's industry market conditions? Do you convene formal brainstorming sessions to envision how market conditions will affect the way your client does business?

An agency that is accountable.

Is the goal to sell a client's product? Build awareness of a service? Increase reputation?

Too often clients feel that agencies excuse away missed objectives. "I deal with three agencies," said a consumer product executive. "Only one of them even remotely understands how I am measured, how my butt is on the line. I look to give that agency as many assignments as possible."

Moving the needle on the client's goals is not only critical, the client expects that the agency should ask how the program is working and adjust the strategy, not vice versa.

Query: Do you negotiate measurement criteria before a program's launch and make sure the client has communicated these criteria up the line inside her company?

An agency with people who are passionate about the relationship.

David Maister, the ex-Harvard professor who trains and writes on professional service firm management, says, "Clients don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." The very act of listening to the client tells him that you care.

One financial services company executive told us: "We're an institution at that agency. The account is too big to move, or believe me, I would. Because, although things happen like clockwork every year, and don't mistake me-that's a good thing-it's all sort of pro-forma. There's no spark, no joy."

Query: Are you treating your client relationship as an old friend that you take for granted, or as a new and exciting relationship?

An agency that acts as a consultant.

Clients want their agencies to think like advisors, not just implementers. This responsibility lies in the hands of the person at your agency who owns the client relationship, whether it's the account person, creative, or whomever.

"I know Dennis has other clients, but he makes me believe I'm the only one. He helps me solve problems where he and his agency won't even directly benefit, he even identifies the problems before I know they're on the horizon. If I ever did switch agencies, I'd insist the new guys hire him," gushed the marketing head of a newly-public technology company.

Query: Do you know whether your client views you as a vendor or a consultant? Are you missing out on the big business issues because they are calling in another service provider?

An agency that never surprises me with bad news.

Oops. Big sore point here. Even what the agency perceives to be a minor glitch can be extremely irritating to the client.

"I lose confidence when they aren't consistent, when they miss deadlines without giving me a heads up, when someone who was supposed to be on a conference call isn't," said a French multinational client.

During the CIGAR interviews, clients often bring up minor infractions, but they bring them up over and over: "The way we spell scalability is different from the industry. Why can't they tell their own proofreader that this is the way we do it?" asked a prominent IT marketer.

Query: Do you know your client's hot buttons? Are there agency procedures in place to avoid them?

An agency where the person I deal with is the one with the knowledge or who makes the decisions.

It's surprising how many times clients point out to us the frustrations of agreeing to something in a meeting, only to find out several weeks later that what's been agreed to is impossible.

"Why do we have to go over everything again? Who do they save the heavyweight decision makers for, if not for me?" complained the CEO of a small company in a high growth industry.

A decision-maker on the client side always wants to deal with a decision-maker on the agency side.

Query: Can your agency be restructured to empower client contact points?

A global agency.

Even a regionally bound company wants to be a global player.

You may not want to hear this, but clients want their agencies to have more than "alliance partners" overseas. They want the real thing, i.e., majority-owned full-service offices that serve both local and multinational accounts.

"We believe we have a bigger market outside the U.S. than west of the Mississippi, but I don't have enough time to deal with one agency, let alone a new one when we go to Europe next year," said a sports marketer.

Query: Is it time to renegotiate current agreements and evaluate your acquisition strategy?

An agency that always recommends what is in my best interest.

Clients want a business case made for every recommendation. Yet, they often complain that agencies sell on softer issues.

"I don't want to hear that this spot will win an aware. That we're using some new special effect. If you are going to make the case that the effect will get my shampoo off the shelf, then I'll buy it," said a top beauty company marketing decision-maker.

Clients also indicate that when creative is pitched to them, it can sometimes turn into an uncomfortable adversarial situation when the client is reluctant to take a risk.

Query: Does the manner in which you're presenting to your client make it clear that the creative has one ultimate purpose-selling their product and/or service?

An agency that is careful with my money.

Make the clients believe you worry about the pennies, and they'll have confidence you're spending the dollars wisely. Show your clients sound ideas and they'll spend the money.

Time and again, our CIGAR Surveys reveal that there is a perception that agencies are loose with client budgets.

"Do we really need five agency people at the focus groups in Savannah, just because everyone thinks we'll have a good time at night?" asked an angry marketer.

"They e-mail me the ads in Adobe Acrobat, then they follow it up with an early morning FedEx. What's the added value?" asked a computer-literate auto executive.

Query: Are there steps you can remove from agency processes to reduce costs and then make them visible to the client?

It takes courage to conduct a CIGAR Survey and uncover the issues that are eroding your client loyalty.

But can you really afford not to learn more about how a CIGAR Survey can increase your chances of retaining the clients you already have?

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© Toni Maloney / Through the Loop Consulting Ltd 1998-2000