Most client-to-creative agency relationships only last a few years, but the most successful businesses build lasting connections spanning decades. You might wonder why that is.
In my experience, a strong, lasting relationship is all about flow. How well do you understand each other, and how smoothly do your projects go? When you’re on the same wavelength as your studio, everything tends to run just as you expect. Sure, you still have hiccups. Things come up, or something misses the mark. But it’s dealt with in a really positive, proactive way, and everyone is chuffed with the finished product.
As a partnership progresses, you get a sense of how your partners operate, think, what they value, what they expect from you, and what you expect from them. The longer you work together, the more in tune you get. After enough positive interaction, everything starts to flow.
For us, it’s important to choose to work with clients that we’re compatible with. With a few little tricks to jumpstart budding relationships, the alignment quickly follows.
Discovery is more than a brief
Before starting a project with your creative agency, there will be a discovery session. The biggest mistake you can make is to treat discovery as just a brief for your project.
A good discovery digs deeper into the story of the business and finds the message their dream client wants to hear. The original vision of your business is so critical to where your discovery goes that leaving out the owner or founder can set everything askew.
From our side of the table, listening with intent is the key to bringing your story out. And the bond you build around answering the really deep questions about where you’ve been and where you’re going is a great way to kickstart a proactive, collaborative relationship.
Give honest and direct feedback
It can be hard to break the news when something misses the mark, especially when it’s a long way off. You shouldn’t avoid the tough conversations, though.
The best outcomes we have on projects, and through those, the best relationships, always come from clients who are clear when something isn’t right. Critical feedback is the key to quickly narrowing the focus on a project, giving us more time to build towards what really works.
We try to cultivate relationships where critique is always valid and welcome because, as a creative studio, we want your website to really shine. And when clients are happy to tell us when something isn’t right, it saves them on time, scope, and revisions, leading to a better finished product.
It can be uncomfortable to feel like you’re taking your creative partners to task on a colour choice or design direction, but crossing that bridge is essential to building a lasting relationship.
Have upfront, frank conversations about budget
Speaking of uncomfortable, budget can be a prickly issue for new client-studio relationships. You may find a whole lot of unspoken questions popping up. Like, is it too much? What am I paying for? Can we afford it? Is it worth it? Are other agencies going to charge me less for the same outcome?
These questions are often answered without ever actually being asked, with assumptions left and right. This can lead to misunderstandings and conflict, with bad experiences for both parties.
The best way to forge a great relationship between a client and their creative studio partners is to be really upfront and frank about pricing and budgets. Clarity and honesty are the best ways to wade through the uncomfortable waters of a budget conversation and lead to the best partnerships.
With long-term clients, we have already built a great basis of trust, and budget conversations are much more comfortable without those nagging questions people really hate to ask. Be brave early, face the uncomfortable, and you’ll see down the track that it was the right decision
Take the time to celebrate the wins
The design process has many opportunities to build on a solid foundation for lasting relationships, but don’t stop when the project is done!
The keystone to great relationships is celebrating the successes. So launch parties with champagne and platters get a big yes. Check-in with your creative partners later down the line to give feedback: where it went right, what you’d like to see more of, less of, and how the experience was.
We always love feedback from our clients, it helps us align our practices for their future needs, and it also helps us learn. Creative studios, like any business, are always trying to grow and improve. And being a part of that is a great way to make sure that your future projects come out even better.
If you’re obsessed with collaborating like we are, we’d love to hear from you. If you have any tips or stories of your own, we’d love to hear all about them.
Who knows, maybe you’ll make a lifelong friend.
