Firing an agency that's been working with you for some time:
- It is difficult because of all the residual knowledge & relationships built over time. And hence it needs to be critical and objective
- What is critical? You must be sure that not changing the agency would hamper your brand prospects and you would not be able to get to your intended destination
- What is objective? You must be sure that -
A) Something has changed that is leading to this decision. This something could be at agency or client side and we'll discuss this further
B) The current agency can definitely not cope with this change. We'll discuss how one can be sure about "definitely not"
C) You have an agency partner that delivers very well on your objective criteria of evaluation, apart from the capabilities needed to deliver on the brand
- What is "something has changed"? - Either the agency has dropped standards & client has raised theirs. There could be many reasons for both these eventualities. Examples can be discussed. Learning for both parties - continuous improvement or positive dissatisfaction
- How do you become sure that the agency can "definitely not" cope with this change? -
A) Discuss openly with agency leadership. Understand their perspective and proposal
B) Give them a chance to disprove you
C) Look for alternatives only when you start becoming reasonably sure, even if it delays your process
- Why is all of this important? Why can't we just change? - Ofcourse we can, but we should think about 2 aspects - First, this crisis is also an opportunity to improve ourselves & to understand if we are able to use objectivity and second, what message does this send to other agencies that work with us?
- Will this lead to heart burns? - Yes it will for sure. But as long as you are objective, all parties involved will understand. And if you are really objective, you might still consider the older agency for some parts of your mandate wherever you think they might still perform
- So did you use the older agency? - No, because it went in a completely different tangent and we couldn't salvage our relationship