MRS 2007 Paper

Whole Conference Devoted to Client Agency Relationships

Customer Insight Solutions, as leaders of the Customer Insight Forum, were invited to run a whole session at the 2007 Conference on the Client-Agency Relationship, to present views led by the 25 members of the Forum. The session was as a result of a 6 month project conducted by the Forum on the topic.

The paper (available here ) faces up to the very real conflicts that exist within many current relationships - namely that clients seem to feel let down by many of their agencies in delivering high value thinking, but the agencies feel "battered" by clients demanding everything quicker and cheaper and therefore preventing them from delivering the value they would certainly like to provide.

The paper makes it clear that many of the problems would be alleviated if clients were clearer in specifying their needs. Too often, research projects are specified in terms of their data gathering and analysis requirements, but not in terms of the higher value thinking and consultative skills required. For that reason, many procurement departments have tended towards "buying research by the yard". But clearer specifications will make it easier for agencies to make proper allowance for higher level thinking without fears of then being undercut by "data factories".

But the paper also looks at the prospects for major agencies, and examines the way in which globalisation, and plc ownership, have driven many towards factory style structures that actually make it very difficult to provide consultative services. It therefore suggests that there may well be a split between these types of services in the future.