To be successful in this very competitive climate, a creative agency must tick many boxes to win, retain and grow client business. A great creative product designed for a client's exact communication requirements is a step in the right direction. It goes without saying that your creative product, whether this is a new brand, a website or a social media strategy, will need to be unique, fit for purpose, value for money as well as turn up the volume on your clients' business objectives.
But what is often overlooked is the actual 'service' journey that agencies take their clients on, from the initial credentials meeting right through to final delivery of the creative product – every step of this journey should always be seamless. This means your agency must always be highly focused and proactive and with good attention to detail, ensuring that your client is always serviced to the best of your collective ability.
Here, at Westgate, we have built a successful business on the premise that, as well as being a creative consultancy, we are also ultimately here to serve, to make our clients' businesses more successful and of course, more prosperous.
Ten years on and we continue to win new work, usually because incoming clients are not happy with the journeys they have travelled with other agencies. Unsuccessful agencies usually make big promises early on, lack attention to detail, offer no real follow through and or give poor response rates to client requests – ultimately, there is no real tender loving care from the agency to the client.
It is incredibly important that agencies, both big and small, remember that they are ultimately always a service business. If you went to a Hotel and all your requests were ignored and you were not given what you had asked for, you would get straight onto TripAdvisor to make your feelings heard. Delivering seamless service is just as important for a creative agency as it is for any other service business.
At Westgate, we are passionate about delivering the best possible journeys for our clients and we have worked tirelessly since our inception to provide the very best creative product, always delivered as efficiently as possible. This is a key part of our success – our average client retention rates are five years, unusually high within the agency world. In fact, we rarely pitch for work for free because the majority of our new work comes from referral – 'satisfied customers telling their friends'.
So, if you are looking for an agency who will add real creative and commercial value to your business or organisation, and will make your working life easier, please do not hesitate to get in touch with myself or one of the creative team here, for an initial discussion. shaun@westgatecomms.com