Agencies: treat your people well; they may run a future agency review

By Steve Boehler

Agencies: treat your people well; they may run a future agency review

The agency business is a tough business. Clients expect a lot. Agency economics are strained. And staff often move around for promotions. It’s hard to run a successful agency.

In this tough environment, agencies that lose sight of one specific principle can doom themselves: this is a people business. The cost of an unhappy workforce is huge. And unhappy former employees can reemerge as clients.

This just happened during a Mercer Island Group agency review.

We had completed our client interviews and our clients approved the Needs Assessment. The next step was a discussion of our marketplace analysis of the “best fit” agencies with our client and the eventual selection of a manageable list of agencies for the next step in the process.

We had a detailed, thorough analysis and recommendation. After evaluating over 50 shops, a small group of agencies looked perfect on paper. These agencies each had the right size, capabilities, experience and track record. They each had strong technical reputations.

And, as it turns out, several members of our client team were alumni of this agency. This seemed perfect… until the client team unanimously rejected that agency.

It turns out the client team had a litany of bad memories from working for this agency. Their memories included a harsh work environment. Male dominated leadership. A rough place for a woman. A sweatshop. This agency was a non-starter for our client.

That was the end of the road for this agency’s candidacy.

The moral of the story is simple: it’s in the best interests of an agency to be a fantastic place to work. Agencies that are great places to work have a better, more engaged and successful team. Their clients will be happy. They attract more business.

And, by the way, those same employees may end up running future agency reviews.

ABOUT AUTHOR

teve Boehler, founder, and partner at Mercer Island Group has led consulting teams on behalf of clients as diverse as Ulta Beauty, Microsoft, UScellular, Nintendo, Kaiser Permanente, Holland America Line, Stop & Shop, Qualcomm, Brooks Running, and numerous others. He founded MIG after serving as a division president in a Fortune 100 when he was only 32. Earlier in his career, Steve Boehler cut his teeth with a decade in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, leading brands like Tide, Pringles, and Jif.