Client Surveys: The Secret Ingredient for any Successful Agency Partnership


Client satisfaction is an essential ingredient for a successful partnership between a marketing agency and the businesses they serve. Whether it’s creating a website or driving your lead generation and brand awareness campaigns, marketing agencies exist to help your business achieve more than you could on your own. At Green Apple, we firmly believe that if our clients aren’t benefiting from our partnership, we want to know. This is where client surveys have become an essential tool for creating successful partnerships with clients.

Over the years, we’ve helped our clients to build customer surveys that produce the highest return on investment. Recently, we’ve decided to integrate that approach into our own workflow. In this post, we wanted to outline a few specific ways that client surveys align with our values as an agency and why we see them as an opportunity to continually learn, grow, and improve to serve others more effectively. 

4 Ways Client Surveys Help Marketing Agencies Improve 

Here are a few specific ways that client surveys help marketing agencies in the work we do each day: 

  • Client surveys provide insights that help assess client needs and identify effective solutions. It’s difficult to know what’s working and what’s not without qualitative and quantitative feedback. We believe in the value of making data-driven decisions based on campaign results. We also value the qualitative feedback of our clients. Client surveys are a way for us to assess client needs and identify solutions. To formulate our approach, we combine what the survey metrics are showing with what clients express through the surveys.
  • Client surveys provide perspectives on how to better serve and engage clients. Client surveys provide a valuable opportunity to assess how we’re working with our clients, in addition to evaluating the work we’re doing for them. Ultimately, they allow us to assess everything from internal processes that support the work we do to the dozens of interactions we have with clients in a given month.
  • Client surveys give direction for change and improvement. We believe that our clients’ opinions and feedback are two of the most important factors that validate the decisions we make for our business. For example, a few years ago, a significant number of our clients needed more sales-enablement resources than general branding materials. This allowed us to find creative ways to change directions in our service offerings to invest more in sales-enablement strategies that benefited our clients’ needs.
  • Client surveys capture a big picture perspective & track change over time. We’ve had the benefit of working with several clients for numerous years. Client surveys allow us to uncover seasonal trends or see how any recent changes have affected our client experience throughout our partnership together.

Why We Invest in Client Surveys to Enhance Partnership with Clients

Here are a few more specific reasons we’ve decided to invest in client surveys to enhance the partnership we have with clients. 

  • We want to live out our values in every aspect of our business. One of our core values at Green Apple is to put the client first in every aspect of our process — that is our bottom line. We believe client surveys are one of the best ways to do that. Assessing client experiences allows us to listen to clients, hear their feedback, and work with them to help them face their specific challenges.
  • We want to continually look for ways to create strong partnerships with our clients. Partnering with an agency that has a general philosophy and approach to business that is similar to yours is key for effective partnership. Client surveys provide a way for us to make sure we’re in sync with how our clients want to achieve their goals. 
  • We believe that open and honest feedback is key to a successful relationship. Effective agency partnerships are based on achieving results and effective communication. Client surveys provide a way to create stronger partnerships with our clients by providing an anonymous way for them to clearly share their thoughts. 
  • We want to continually learn, grow, and improve how we serve clients. Continual learning and growth are essential in the marketing world. This is just as true in how we serve clients as it is how we keep track of the latest marketing trends. We believe client surveys are a way for us to continue to add value to our clients’ strategies because they provide a way for us to continually learn and improve. 

If you’re curious about Green Apple’s approach to partnership and how we work with brands, check out our services page or portfolio of projects to learn more.

The 3 Biggest Factors for a Successful Business/Agency Relationship

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In today’s world, it’s not uncommon for a business to partner with a marketing agency, even if they have a full-time, in-house marketing team. Whether it’s a specific project or ongoing partnership, many businesses realize they simply don’t have enough time and resources internally to accomplish everything that needs to be done from a marketing perspective. However, marketing agencies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; each has its own unique philosophy, approach, style, and strengths. Some are better fits for your business than others…and vice versa. While many businesses choose an agency because of their impressive creative portfolio or industry experience, the truth is that there’s a lot more that goes into a successful business/agency relationship. In many ways, it’s the intangible factors that make the biggest difference on both sides of the relationship. The 3 Biggest Factors for a Successful Client/Agency Relationship So, how can businesses and marketing agencies work together to form a relationship where everyone wins? Here are three key factors:
  1. Chemistry Across the Entire Team
When you hire a marketing agency, you’re ultimately hiring the people who work at that agency. As with all relationships, chemistry matters. Part of determining a good fit comes down to selecting an agency that can operate as an extension of your team and roll up their sleeves to work with you, not just for you. That includes the leadership level and those responsible for executing the day-to-day project management tasks.
  1. A Common Approach to Business
Do you tend to take more risks or play it safe when it comes to growing your business? Are you looking for new and innovative ways to achieve your goals, or are you looking for someone to help execute tried-and-true principles? Answering these questions is essential for choosing the right agency partner. Partnering with an agency that has a general philosophy and approach to business is different for use will only cause frustration for both parties.
  1. Sweet Spots that Align with Your Greatest Needs
Although most agencies consider themselves to be full-service, each has a “sweet spot” where they tend to excel. It might be web design, content creation, sales support, or public relations. Determining your greatest marketing need, even if you’re looking for a long-term partnership, is critical for finding the best possible fit. As someone who’s worked in the agency business for over a decade, I’ve seen my fair share of unhealthy client/agency relationships. No one starts working with an agency hoping it becomes a burden. Taking the time to evaluate these qualitative factors (in addition to their portfolio or experience) will help you identify the right agency for your business and ensure everyone benefits from a successful partnership.