• by Eduardo Braniff , June 28, 2011

As agencies, one of our responsibilities to our clients is to understand, if not lead, how to maintain our clients' relationships with their customers. But, how are we doing the same to maintain our relationship with our clients? How are we handling our Client Relationship Management? Think added value, membership and rewards.

Retained agency relationships are going the way of the 30-second spots these relationships were set up to create. Clients, and the brands they represent, are opting to remain as fleet-footed as their consumers as they switch from status updating to branded content sharing to geo-locating and checking-in. As the consumer goes so does the client in pursuit of new means for, and partners in, communicating. And, that consumer is moving pretty damned fast.

As the client chases its consumer, and we chase our client, herein are some ideas for our own CRM, or as we should view it MRH, Membership Relationship Hosting:

Community: If we think of our agencies as clubs, and our clients as members, then we should go out of our way to create a community among our members. Because of our vantage point on our various client members' businesses, we have the opportunity to forge connections among people and companies towards creating new collaborations or even new enterprises.

Connections: Stepping beyond "the members' circle," how are we leveraging the communities of each of our agency principals and employees towards providing our clients with exposure to relevant or compelling individuals? How are we hiring people not only for the work they have done but for the networks they belong to?

Content: Going beyond the deliverables of any given contract, agencies are in the best position to create and filter content relevant to their client and their consumers. And, more importantly, we are able to provide our clients with a point of view on why that content is relevant, both to their business and to them as individuals.

Experiences: Key to being an "intelligent RSS" feed is in how, when and where the content is presented. Experiential CRM, as applied to our clients, necessitates that we deliver physical and digital experiences for our clients that put them in their consumers' shoes and screens, behind the desks and desktops of their competition, within our war rooms and brainstorms... outside of a given brief or campaign.

Creativity: Retainer or no, our client relationships are fundamentally down to the on-going creativity with which we refine a client's business objectives, understand their consumers' behaviors, craft compelling experiences and sustain meaningful conversations.

While some of the above expands (or reduces, depending on your point of view) our role as communications consultants to concierges, curators and yentas, the reality is that the technology behind CRM already has, whether or not we've applied it to our client relationships.

But, because our client relationships have transcended retainers and campaigns, we have to adopt MRH practices. Our members need to find and take pride in the place, camaraderie, networks and opportunities that our agency "club houses" have to offer. Because, as the speed of media, messaging and experience accelerates, commoditizing these as fast as it creates them, the only asset we will have to trade on is our ability to host exceptional membership experiences ensuring they overstay their welcome.