choosing an agency of record

i apologize for the absence of the blog on here. it has been a crazy couple of months for us at FGI. new business, new companies, new partnerships and new employees, growth is good but it brings changes and new process.
i wanted to address the question of when is it time to change your agency of record, what questions to ask yourself and then how to research and address a new agency to fulfill your needs. i will start with your current agency and questions to ask yourself.

is your current agency working?

mostly a hypothetical question, but one that can invoke some positive or negative comments about the company that is currently doing your strategic, creative and marketing work. ask that question to the people that deal directly with the company and see what kind of responses and "˜looks' you receive.

what is response time like for communication? project updates? new project requests?

are you confident in the response time of the current agency and the communication that is provided when the response is given? this is usually one indication that a company has outgrown its agency or the agency has outgrown its client. constant, effective communication is key to a working, functional relationship between client and agency.

are new ideas being generated by your team or the agency you hired?

this question is harder to address and make take some time to filter through. when you last completed a project, say a website design, was the company you hired the one responsible for most of the ideas or did you and your team generate them? of course, i am not advocating that your company does not generate ideas but a creative agency should be feeding you ideas to refine and fit into your desired vision.

results. results. results?

in the end, a fancy website design or new business collateral are nice, but what sort of return on your investment did you receive. this results driven business is the responsibility of both the client and agency. the agency is responsible for putting the mechanisms in place and the client is responsible for acting on them.

okay, so you feel the agency may or may not be working according to plan. when searching for a new agency of record, what questions should you ask?

1. how long have you been in business? incorporated in your state of business?
2. what is the size of the agency staff? what personnel will be working on your project?
3. what are the on-going payment terms?
4. who are some references you can contact to verify their past work and business practices?
5. what are their strengths? what are their weaknesses?

all of these questions should be centered around what the agency can do for you in the future. i notice several companies want to place importance on past work and the abilities of an agency months ago. a company's first objective should be to find an agency that has systems, staff and processes in place to serve them for the future. does the direction of the new agency fit within what the company is trying to achieve. contact references and ask pointed, detailed questions.