The true cost of a cheap agency
Choosing the cheapest agency is a grave mistake, argues Joel Trethowan, the CEO and co-founder of Alchemy One.
It baffles me that in 2018 I still find myself trying to convince potential clients why the entire customer experience is imperative for a brand to truly win in market. We’re often briefed with the job of driving strong acquisition targets across a defined period, no surprise there.
Joel Trethowan: “What does the entire customer experience look like?”
Where the conversation hits a brick-wall is when I start probing questions about the owned channel strategy, beyond the paid investment. Will we be driving this? If not, who and what does the entire customer experience look like?
The client response is often a head turn, a deflection or a push that the core focus here is acquisition. At this point my eyes wander, I scratch my ear and begin losing interest as I internally sigh that I am again faced with a brand that doesn’t inherently understand the complete customer experience.
if i remember correctly, customer experience sits as part of one of the (dead) 4P’s – the product?
@RIP Your comment highlights exactly the point I’m making about the opportunities that are being missed.
Joel needs a better ironing board cover…
I fell off my chair laughing at this comment! We’ve all been there.
But I still totally would.
Seriously Mumbrella, how did this get published?
It would not have happened if the author the piece was a female.
Good piece Joel. I had a terrible experience with Telstra two weeks ago. Despite all the telco’s expensive and lavish advertising – and their grand promises of a great experience – I spent 3 days with our IT team dealing with a crap call centre in the Philippines trying to sort out what should have been a simple customer solution. The experience with Telstra left me frustrated, annoyed and completely let down. The gap between promise and delivery continues to widen when it should be closing. Telstra’s Andy Penn is MIA.
I feel I’ve got similar experience with cheap agencies. Tried to save money one time and it cost me additional double price of the services and the result was much less than I expected and that we planned with the agency.
Is this story about cost, channels, conversion or connection? I’m confused. Seems like a mixture of frustrations all rolled into one piece without any clear point, besides having a go at clients – which is never a great strategy for a consultancy.
@confused sorry you couldn’t keep up.
I agree with what you’re saying Joel and support you in this but do tend to understand where confused is coming from in the above. Sadly your response to a real customer experience of your own brand hasn’t helped your story.
+1
If they had given their real name I would have given a response they deserved. Hiding behind a name ‘confused’ and trolling the article doesn’t really warrant a response. Shoot through your name and number @confused and I’ll be happy to talk you through it. 🙂
Most agencies can drive some sort of traffic and many clients automatically believe their offering is what customers want. Reality is what you speak of: The customer experience rarely matches the marketing hype. We work hard with clients on this but it’s an uphill battle!
Great article , could’nt agree more. As an emerging agency search start up one of our greatest challenges has been settling on defining the agencies we select to list on our register beyond noting their specialist competencies. Honest , innovative , frank , passionate and dedicated to their vision with a customer experience driven ethos pretty much sums up the values that smart marketers need more than ever today. Cheers Joel.
Since when is LinkedIn – a platform that millions of Aussies actively use – a ghost town? I hope you don’t have any recruitment clients!
Joel,
Advice from someone who has been there. If you want to promote your agency, best to tout what you well, not what others do badly.
Great advice
learn from the best at failure – Hillary Clinton
And don’t be so defensive.
LinkedIn is our best performing channel MoM and completely underrated. Not sure where you’re looking.
Good article, there are the other 3Ps to make 7Ps reflecting services: People, Process and Physical evidence (of service delivery).
Further, 4C’s for services and presumably digital marketing:
‘The 4Cs (Customer/consumer value, Cost, Convenience, and Communication) enables you to think in terms of your customers’ interests more than your own. From being business-oriented, you’ll become customer-centric.’
Personally, I prefer to talk of marketing ‘system’ versus ‘strategy’, the former suggests dynamic, live, ongoing analytics (or MIS) and customer centred versus latter of one off, built in redundancy and delineated with start and finish.
Kotler has come out with ‘Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital’, well schooled in ‘old school’, observes how they can be integrated, or not.
Koala don’t have an agency – they rock. Their product is faultless, as is their service.
Amazing product is key. The old school had to gloss up their offering using 3rd party creatives. No need if you have a great product and a finger on the social pulse these days. Sh1t product = spray and pray and hope for the best.
How long until the major media agencies are no more? 5 years?
“Clients choosing their agency based on the cheapest rate, is still a sad reality. Cheap is cheap for a reason, either junior staff, offshore talent, opaque transparency or not delivering on the hours committed.”
This is very familiar to me. I work in the web hosting space, which is a piece of the digital puzzle and yet many people opt for the cheapest option.
We are based in Melbourne, gotta some great tech in Port Melbourne and local support (who are absolute rock stars). Our customers love us.
But we are up against big, global Co.s that can stay top of mind thanks to the $$$ they throw at every channel, 24/7.
That said, we have a better product and can be creative with our marketing (as Koala are), and win the battle 🙂
One thing, Joel – you guys are hosting with GoDaddy. You’ve opted for the cheapest rate 😉