ServiceCrowd

A seamless client experience doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s the result of intentional alignment across every team and function in your agency—from sales to service delivery to account management. Our latest blog dives into the steps agencies can take to build a unified client experience, including: Breaking down silos between teams Creating a shared language and goals for all departments Ensuring every client touchpoint reflects your agency's values Curious about how your agency can achieve this level of cohesion? Check out the full post on our site, and let’s start a conversation about who you really want to be to your clients and how you can show up that way. Read it here 👉 https://bit.ly/4fgovmK

How you manage your agency should depend on the client experience you want to create. When you think about optimizing your agency's profitability 📈 -it can’t just be about minimizing inputs ↘ and maximizing bill rates ↗ Consider your agency’s pricing and positioning, service offering and team structure -all of these aspects impact the client experience, and changes to them must support your agency’s ideal client experience. When agency leadership has a shared vision for the type of client relationship the agency should support, it becomes easier to identify areas for improvement, misalignment issues and even over-investment. 💡 The correct decisions become more obvious. Learn more about why alignment matters and the types of client relationships, check out my latest post on the ServiceCrowd blog. 🔗 in comments

We've have been having some great conversations lately about the real challenges agency owners and operators face—and the ones we believe we can uniquely help with. The agency service provider space is crowded, and that makes sense—everyone’s coming at it from different angles and with their own perspectives. Some vendors are bookkeepers and operations execution teams. Some vendors are coaches and strategists. Some vendors are M&A specialists. So where does ServiceCrowd fit these days? We’ve boiled it down to a common pain point we keep hearing from marketing agency owners: “I know where I want to go, but I’m not sure how to get there.” We love working with marketing agency owners and execs who have a clear vision but need help building the roadmap to get there—especially when it comes to aligning business operations, service delivery, and client management to support that growth. If you’re looking to grow sustainably while staying true to the vision you have for your agency, reach out! Link to our contact page is in the comments.

Agencies: Are you focused on the right results? Spoiler alert—your clients don’t just want deliverables; they want impact. Every agency sells on solving a specific problem. Whether clients come with an outcome in mind (“I need 20 new customers by December”) or a tactical ask (“My paid social manager quit—help!”), the key is uncovering what they really need to feel successful. Shifting from “How do we fulfill our contract?” to “How can we maximize impact on the client’s KPIs?”—with the right expectations and the right team—will drive growth within your accounts. Want to dive deeper into outcomes vs. outputs? Read on here: https://bit.ly/4fbMVxr

How should you calculate the "actuals" on your contractor and FTE costs? Here's one perspective for you in the video below. We like to ensure we're taking into consideration the true burdened cost of any resource - which means thinking about the time and cost of managing that resource. Everyone you hire will have some management cost associated with them, so it's important to understand that as you think about their hourly rate. That can go into the decisions you make as your agency grows. Full time resource or contractor? Higher cost/more senior contractor or lower-cost one? It all depends. The right mix of resources for your agency at the stage of growth you're in is unique to you! But here's a framework to start thinking about who your next hire could be. Don't want to watch the video 🔗 to the transcript in the comments.

Heyyyyy. I'll be at #CMWorld here in San Diego on Wednesday if anyone will be in town. I'm excited to get to attend, it was a last minute thing!

Account managers: Should their salaries be placed in operating expenses or in cost of service? Well, it depends. We’ve laid out a straightforward guide to help you make sense of it, with some practical insights into why a 75/25 split might be a good starting point. Check out our latest post ( 🔗 in comments) to see how a simple shift in categorizing these costs can provide a clearer picture of profitability.

Want to know how you should be looking at your operational and financial metrics as a small-to-medium sized agency each month? Check out this video that Kristin Anne Carideo put together about ServiceCrowd's operations model and how we like to do this reporting for our clients. Questions? Drop em 🔽

The original draft of this post by Nathan Smitha ended with the phrase "If you disagree, tell us why in the comments or challenge us to a duel." That's because it was sparked by a, uh, spirited conversation Kristin Anne Carideo had with another agency operations professional. The controversial phrase? "Don't expose utilization targets to your frontline employees and force them to be held accountable to them." In our view, that's management's job, not service team employees. So pistols at dawn, we don't have comments open on our blog. 😤 https://bit.ly/4eIg4jW

Here's a little video I filmed for a landing page we made about how ServiceCrowd helps with agency profitability. Want to chat more about how we can help you grow in a sustainable and sane way? Let me know :)