The final type of agency/client relationship I’ve identified is the imbalanced relationship. The following are examples of things that can create an imbalance of power between the agency and the client:
- The client is given too much power over internal agency decisions, e.g. resourcing and hiring.
- The client’s business accounts for too large a percentage of the agency’s business.
- The agency has locked the client in to a contract (as may be the case with large global accounts) and sets the job budgets and timing plans unchecked.
Which of the five relationship types (adversarial, partnership, confused, integrated and imbalanced) do you have? If you want to improve your relationship, try to get a sense of the root cause and it may help you to shift to a new, more positive way of working together.
Feel free to leave a comment or send an e-mail if you have experienced an agency/client relationship that doesn’t fit into one of these categories. Also get in touch if you need advice on how to improve your agency/client relationship.
