Ask Kate: I’m tired of babysitting my agency
Client-agency relationship advice for healthcare marketers
Dear Kate,
I am the Director of Marketing at a local community hospital, but lately I’m considering changing my title to Babysitter. The agency I hired requires constant prodding and hand-holding to get anything done. Unanswered emails, lack of followthrough and spotty initiative have lead me to question my agency’s ability to deliver. How can I get things back on track?
-Frustrated in Phoenix
Dear Frustrated in Phoenix,
I understand your frustration. Working with an agency should help you increase your team’s capacity and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. An agency shouldn’t contribute to inefficiencies or create more work for you.
The best way to avoid this kind of predicament is to make sure that expectations on both sides are established in the very beginning. Did your agency set a precedent for how to communicate, how often and timelines for completion? If not, that’s a red flag. It’s important to be direct and upfront at the start of any project.
If that wasn’t established at the outset of your relationship, all is not lost. Start by engaging the agency in a discussion about expectations at the beginning of a new campaign or project. Consider how those parameters are followed throughout the course of the project and make sure to alert the agency if they have deviated from what was originally agreed upon.
Your agency should always be self-directed— it’s the agency’s responsibility to take an idea from inception through completion. If you’re spending more time babysitting your agency, and you don’t feel like they’re taking initiative and producing results, make sure you’re sharing your concerns with your Account Manager. If that doesn’t work, kick your complaint upstairs to the principle in charge. If nothing changes, its’s time to re-evaluate the relationship. Don’t settle, there’s a lot of fish in the sea!
Great creative doesn’t come at the expense of solid relationship with your agency.
-Kate