Jun 6, 2023

| Membership (fee-based) getty Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful agency-client relationship. As an agency leader, fostering clear and open lines of communication between your team and your agency’s clients is vital for delivering exceptional results and building long-term partnerships. Below, 20 Forbes Agency Council members share strategies their agencies have implemented to enhance team-client communication. By prioritizing effective, two-way sharing of ideas, insights and opinions, agency leaders can cultivate stronger connections, overcome challenges proactively and drive client satisfaction and retention. 1. Be Direct To Find The Right Solution If you feel there are communication breakdowns between your team and clients, take a step back to reset and ask yourself, “When we are speaking to each other, are we being direct and are we being clear?” Refrain from making assumptions or adding emotions to make communications messier. Being direct and working with a client and the team to find the right solution should be your focus; it’s the best path to move forward. - Taja Dockendorf , Pulp and Wire 2. Be Honest And Communicate On A Human Level There are two important things I always tell my team. First, open, honest communication is always the best way. Clients hire us for our expertise in public relations; it’s critical we support them by pushing back when a project doesn’t support their overall goals or meet reporter needs. Second, clients are human, like us. When we communicate on a more human level, they trust us and are more transparent in return. - Catherine Seeds , Ketner Group Communications 3. Understand Your Client’s Business And Operating Context Communication between clients and agency teams is a critical success factor. Understanding the client’s business and operating context enables effective dialogue. Channel selection is important—text, email and live conversations serve different purposes. Lastly, focusing on the brilliant basics of clarity, concision and confirming comprehension will improve your impact and influence. - Ray Lansigan , Publicis Groupe MORE FOR YOU 4. Leverage Different Communication Channels Since the pandemic, we have used a combination of Slack, Zoom, ClickUp and Loom to connect with our clients and keep our team in sync with each other. We have reorganized our internal communications channels to include four or fewer people to make sure everyone is working toward the same goals without any drop-off. We’ve also noticed more communication on projects happening through ClickUp now than in Slack. - Robby White , The Nine Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify? 5. Have Teams Meet New Clients Before Starting Work Before beginning work with a new client, we always hold a meeting where our team members and representatives from the client’s side can communicate. This allows us to get to know each other better and ensure that our business visions align. We continue to arrange such meetings regularly so that both sides have ongoing opportunities to pose questions to specific team members and express opinions. - Dmitrii Kustov , Regex SEO 6. Grant Clients Access To Shared Work Folders Misunderstandings between agencies and clients can arise from language barriers, especially when the client is not familiar with the jargon used by the service providers. Eliminate the gap and establish transparency in the work process by granting clients access to shared work folders. With this, clients can see the efforts being made by the agency, which increases trust. After all, seeing is believing. - Susan Thomas , 10Fold Communications 7. Set Clear Expectations And Establish Regular Check-Ins My experience as an agency leader has shown that setting clear expectations, establishing regular check-ins, encouraging open communication and utilizing project management tools will improve communication. Feedback channels and active listening foster strong relationships. - Robert Nikic , Why Unified 8. Streamline Communication Throughout Your Organization Streamlining communication throughout the entire organizational ecosystem is the way forward. With remote work on the rise, it’s becoming increasingly important to communicate clearly. What this means for our teams is that it’s about more than using the right dialogue; it’s about clarity of purpose and transparency of work, particularly around action points and deliverables. - Candice Georgiadis , Digital Day 9. Ensure Clients Know What’s Going On And Have Input We make sure our clients always know what is going on and can actively provide input on their own campaigns using whatever form of communication they prefer (be it via texts, emails or calls). We have tons of standard operating procedures to ensure our publicists and brand strategists ask all the questions they need to ask when they speak to clients. This ensures we are efficient and everyone stays inspired to serve at the highest level. - Victoria Kennedy , Victorious PR 10. Provide Feedback And Rewards To Reinforce Behavior In highly effective communication scenarios, feedback doesn’t flow one way. Rewarding good work is critical; just as leadership values feedback to make the organization better, our employees should also value the feedback that helps them learn and grow. This is why it’s important to celebrate achievements across the organization. I was able to improve communication by reinforcing this positive behavior. - Venkata Bhonagiri , Mindshare 11. Offer ‘Generous Assumptions’ One of the best ways to improve communication is to offer “generous assumptions.” This means we enter each conversation—spoken or written—with an open mind and do not assume we know the other person’s motives or emotions. By extending the most generous interpretation possible to the words, intentions and actions of others, we are able to listen to understand, not to respond. - Hannah McNaughton , Metric Marketing 12. Use A Combination Of Tools To Connect We use a combination of tools, such as Monday, Google Meet, Loom and sometimes WhatsApp, which have proven to be very useful for connecting our team with clients. This approach has helped us to work more efficiently, deliver projects on time and maintain a high level of client satisfaction. - Paula Celestino , SPRK Media Group Inc. 13. Let Clients Join Slack, And Have Regular Zoom Calls All of our clients, or at least the ones who choose to, are in our Slack, which allows us to communicate with them as much as needed. And, for more complicated tasks where we might need to share something, Loom has done an amazing job. Otherwise, it’s all about making sure you at least have some standing call to be able to speak face to face via Zoom. - Andrew Maffettone , BlueTuskr 14. Have Regular Strategy Calls And Clear Meeting Agendas During the remote work era, we’ve improved communication between our team and clients by encouraging regular strategy calls, using video conferencing for face-to-face interactions and setting clear meeting agendas. This approach promotes strategic alignment, strong relationships and seamless collaboration in a work-from-home setting. - Goran Paun , ArtVersion 15. Automate Notifications For Goal Updates We’ve automated notifications for small achievements or goal updates, streamlined communication between team members and clients, and fostered enhanced collaboration and engagement. This helped the team to proactively share updates on progress, promoting transparency and accountability. This efficient and timely communication mechanism strengthens relationships with clients and improves retention. - Ajay Prasad , GMR Web Team 16. Discuss The ‘Why’ Behind Your Work To Connect The Dots We do many smart tactical things, such as having weekly video calls and quarterly planning meetings. Most importantly, we ensure our time with clients is spent discussing the “why” behind our work. Not just block and tackle, but something bigger: What is our overall strategy, and how does it tie back to a client’s objectives? Don’t underestimate the value of a connect-the-dots call in relationship building. - Heather Kelly , Next PR 17. Align Metrics And Tactics With Strategies And Objectives Results are all about alignment. Are we clear on the goals, metrics and tactics that align with our strategies and objectives? We get those down on a single page and ensure that content is front and center with every business review. Is what we are doing today aligned with the outcomes we want in the future? This clarity minimizes clutter and forces important conversations along the way. - Reid Carr , Red Door Interactive 18. Replay Clients’ Briefs And Expectations For Them In Writing We ask clients to brief us, and then we replay the briefs back to them in writing. The worst communication comes from a lack of understanding or mismanagement of expectations. Clarifying from the outset what is expected, how to deliver it and how to measure success will result in clearer and more seamless communications. You can have all the tools in the world, but if you can’t get the basics right, it’s pointless. - Jules Herd , Five in a Boat 19. Establish Dedicated Project Owners We establish dedicated project owners to enhance collaboration between our team and our customers. Each customer has a dedicated project owner who acts as their point of contact, relays their demands to the team and ensures that they are kept up to date and satisfied at all times. We’ve additionally explored fostering casual conversations and using collaborative tools such as Slack and Basecamp. - Honza Borysek , advertia digital 20. Ensure All Team Members Participate In Client Meetings A best practice we employ is to have all team members attend a client meeting (virtual or in person), speak during the meeting in some capacity and not simply be passive participants. This demonstrates that everyone is actively engaged and allows all staff members to create a rapport with the client to build stronger working relationships. - Valerie Chan , Plat4orm PR Check out my  website .