Don’t Let Client-ey Clients Spook You! Agency-Approved Tips for Getting “The Client” in Your Life from Mayhem to Well-Managed

If you work in an agency you know that clients are going to client. From last-minute changes, to out-of-scope asks and impossible deadlines, client relationships can be a lot for agency leaders to manage, all while trying to keep your team happy and your business profitable too.  

Although client demands are nothing new, what can you do when they begin to intensify? In our interviews with over 500 agency owners and leaders across the US and UK in The State of Agency Operations, increasing client demands was highlighted as one of the top external challenges facing agencies today. Fortunately, there are ways you can manage those growing expectations.

Here are the top four tips agency owners shared for managing chaotic clients:

Squash time tracking woes by automating it

Time tracking is the beating heart of agencies. You likely ask your team to do it, but how many people on your team are tracking it, and tracking it accurately too? Ineffective time tracking can make many client-related issues worse – leading to inefficiencies, inaccurate budgeting, and resource allocation. Accurate time tracking on the other hand, can help you improve all of those areas, and please clients in the process. Surprisingly, it’s not your team’s love-hate relationship with tracking time that’s the biggest blocker either. Almost 60% of agency leaders feel that the tools they’re using to track time just aren’t effective. 

Don’t make time tracking any more painful than it needs to be. Automate it. Without a tool that provides automated time tracking, billing can be such a headache with a whole lot of your team “guesstimating” time spent after a long day jumping from task to task. Plus, it’s harder to back up your value to clients without being able to provide real-time data you’re confident in. When your client asks: “Why does this cost so much?” You’ll have the answer.

Don’t let client comms come back to haunt you

We’ve all seen it before, client communication breakdowns can derail even the most promising projects. It’s also one of the primary reasons for overservicing. What are some of the other top causes for communication gaps? You might not be shocked to learn that it’s waiting for client feedback (42%), and the fact that clients use different tools and processes than the agencies they work with (40%). When you and your clients are working in and using different tools, this can often lead to more misunderstandings and delays. Maybe the client left tagged feedback or changed a deadline in a spreadsheet and you missed it in your stacked inbox. Sound familiar?

A project management tool built specifically for those who work with clients and one that allows you to bring clients into the platform too (while customizing their access) can help. This is a game changer for streamlining feedback and approvals. It’s also a great way to share accountability, and build transparency and trust by letting clients into your work, tasks and deadlines. 

Grim and bare scope creep no more 

Fear can fuel many things that negatively impact your agency. For starters, agency owners often overservice clients because of the fear of losing them if they don’t. Nearly 31% of agencies are caught in the overservice cycle! There’s also fear of the unknown when it comes to setting expectations, and how clients will react. Twenty-seven percent of agency leaders struggle because they fail to set clear expectations. You’ve got to have project scopes with clients upfront, and regularly review them. Be sure to acknowledge that tasks outside of scope can be added at an additional cost. You can compile a list of these items as they come up and review them with your client at check-ins and confirm any extras they’d like to add on.

Despite all your best efforts, if you find that there’s repeated and constant overservicing, perhaps it’s time to reassess. Knowing when to cut ties with clients that aren’t profitable is key to preserving your team’s well being and ensuring long-term growth for your agency too.

See into the future with capacity planning 

Does not knowing your team’s capacity keep you up at night? If you don’t know your team’s capacity, how can you expect to keep up with client demands or manage idle team members? While most agencies (42%) regularly look at their team’s capacity, the struggle actually lies more with forecasting and accurately quoting clients for projects. And no, you don’t need to stare into a crystal ball, and hope for an answer to appear. You can turn to technology to help. Even with clients moving the goalposts and messing with your team’s capacity, you’ll know your next move – and have the data to back you up too. 

Using a project management tool with operations management features such as capacity planning and built-in time tracking can help you forecast resources for projects months, quarters or years in advance, and better staff projects. Stick to regularly scheduled meetings (monthly is recommended) to assess your team’s capacity and look to real-time data to guide you, keeping your team’s workload in check, and your clients happy. 

If you’re spooked by increasing client demands, know that there are plenty of agency owners and leaders who have been in your shoes and survived to tell the tale. By tapping into the right tools and processes when it comes to time tracking, client communication, overservicing, and capacity planning, you too can see it’s possible to run an efficient and profitable agency, even with a client-ey client… or two.