Citizen Agency

The reason I dislike the term ‘users’ or ‘consumers’ is that both terms denote an adversarial relationship with one’s community. As in, “I produce and you consume” or as in “I give and you use”. I much prefer the use of the term community member or even a customer. Neither feel adversarial. Instead, it feels more peerlike and friendly.
The same goes for the way we approach our clients. We don’t view our clients as consumers of our services. We work with our clients in an open an honest way. Sometimes we are harsh, but only because we want to see each and every one of them succeed. We are honest with each one of them as to how we are communicating what they do. We won’t sugar coat it.
I had a discussion with someone the other day about old fashioned client/agency relationships. I remember the head of a former ad agency I worked at saying during a meeting, “I’d like to tell those people that every time I even think about them and their stupid product…even if I’m in the bathroom…I’m charging for my time.”

I remember thinking how unhealthy that is. That we are all business owners who want to succeed. Was the agency I worked for built on commoditizing our time instead of working together to mutually succeed?

We know that our reputation in the years to come is going to depend on word of mouth. We certainly don’t want to build walls between us and our clients. Teamwork is what our goal is. We took on every one of our clients because we care about them as people and want to see them succeed and/or we think what they are offering as a product is important. We don’t care if they are the ‘next big thing’ (although we’re rooting for every one of them). We certainly want to help them build their business to be as successful as possible.

We don’t charge ‘by the hour’ partially for this reason. We estimate, with our clients, the amount of time we collectively think they’ll need from us each week and then, based on an hourly calculation (which comes from both a consultancy standard in the area as well as a cost of business calculation), come up with a retainer. Based on business thus far, it’s been pretty bang-on and nobody has felt ripped off…although we’d hope that it would be addressed instantly if it ever came up.

We want our clients to feel they are providing and getting value out of the relationship and we want to feel like we are providing and getting value out of the relationship. You want more time? Let’s talk. You don’t think you need as much help? Sure, let’s adjust that retainer.

We’ll be talking openly over the next while about how we are working with specific clients…who are good with this approach. We work with smart people, with tonnes of passion and loads of heart. We are proud of what they are achieving and how we can help them.

And we are committed to the bottom line belief that: If we don’t think we are offering you any value, we will be the first to end the relationship. Like a friendship, we base our client relationships on trust and mutual respect. And we expect the same between our clients and their community.

There are no adversaries here. No us vs. them. There may be misunderstandings, disagreements, even all-out yelling matches. But in the end, we trust that our approach will build stronger, long term relationships and much more successful outcomes for both sides.