The client-agency relationship can be great. It can be inspiring, it can be one of mutual respect, collaboration, and creativity; or it can be not one of those things. Turbulent relationships often get off on the wrong foot where one or both parties don’t have the same expectations. Speaking from the agency side of things, and looking at ourselves in an attempt to grow and become a better agency, one of the biggest problems is trust. Many agencies, ourselves included, expect new clients to come to the table with a great deal of respect and admiration for the work that we have done. And while most of them do, the problem is that the client doesn’t want the work that we’ve already done; they want something new.

You see, as an agency, we live by our portfolio. We gain new business and work on great projects based off the work that we have done, word of mouth, the awards we have won, the acclaim that we have gained. Thus, we have a certain level of expectations that new clients should trust our judgements and opinions above all else based on our previous experience. If history repeats itself, this makes sense; at least to us.

However, the client’s experience with us has only just begun. Yes, they love the work we’ve done and the design flair we bring to the table. They like our ideas, our passion, and our skill sets. But to gain their trust, we must prove ourselves each and every time, with each and every new client.

So if we shift our mindset from one that expects trust to be their from the onset to one that knows trust is earned, things will go smoother. Rather than shooting down ideas from clients who may not have the same level of expertise that we have, we have to find ways of taking their ideas, incorporating them, working with them, and making them better. If you get the client involved, give them a voice, AND produce high quality work, then you have created a receipt for success, and you have just earned their trust. From this point forward, your opinions will probably hold more weight than they did before and the process will likely go faster and be much smoother, which makes everyone happy and hopefully results in the best possible product.

We’re not perfect and this is an ongoing lesson for us. Each client brings new opportunities and new challenges. But it’s important to us as an agency to adapt, grow, and be flexible enough to change. If you work on the Web like we do, you know that things change incredibly fast. So must we