I haven’t always worked at Heart Internet. Before washing up here I spent 12 years running a digital agency based in London.

It was a business I started back in 2000, when ‘digital’ was more frequently associated with ‘watches’ than ‘The Internet’.

By the time I moved on, we weren’t the biggest agency around. Some had launched later and grown much faster. They were picking up business from some of the UK’s largest brands.

One of the reasons for our slow growth was lack of sales and marketing. Definitely a case of “the cobbler’s children have no shoes”.

But whilst our growth wasn’t stratospheric, our retention was. Most agencies retain clients for less than 3 years, but we’d hung on to pretty much all ours throughout. As those of you agency side will know, that’s rare.

So whilst the growth wasn’t stratospheric, the stability was unparalleled. And as someone driven by loss aversion, the payoff was worth it.

So how did we retain all those clients? Ultimately it comes down to building and maintaining relationships.

It wasn’t about being mates with our clients. It was about offering them a value they couldn’t afford to lose.

Here are some of the ways we did that.

1. We didn’t waste time describing. We explained why.

Whether you’re designing, developing, or doing marketing for your clients, there’s a constant need to keep them informed.

From email updates and excel reports; to full-blown presentations and review meetings, you have an obligation to keep the information flowing.

By necessity you need to send them data, numbers, and detail about what’s happening. And there’s a place for copy too.

The important thing we found was: to not waste copy space describing what the report showed. Words were reserved for the ‘why’.

If a report clearly showed that ‘traffic went up from 300 to 400 visitors last week’ we didn’t bore our clients with that in the text. They could see that for themselves in the report.

Where we added value was in telling them why.

So my advice is: whenever you communicate, read through what you’ve written and make sure you’ve told them why the numbers are what they are.

That’s where you add value. That’s why they pay you.

2. We gave our clients bad news

Your client relationships are a precious. You’ll do anything to keep them from harm.

You feel like wrapping them in cotton wool, zipped tight in a bulletproof vest. The last thing you want is for anything to damage this precious thing.

So when things go wrong – and they always will – your first thought is how to keep that from damaging this prized possession.

But just because they are valuable, it doesn’t mean they’re fragile. And in fact a bumpy journey can help build a relationship. I believe in the idea that if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger.

When there was bad news to tell we’d put it front and centre. We didn’t leave it out. We didn’t try to hide it in a flurry of good news.

Yes, bad news caused short-term harm. But the conversation quickly turned from ‘what have you done’ to ‘what are we going to do about it’. And that’s when we gained their trust.

Our customers had complete confidence that they’re seeing the unvarnished truth.

By contrast, when clients discovered bad news – stuff we’d tried to skate over – they forever mistrusted what we had to say. They’d be thinking: ‘what else haven’t you told me?’

In avoiding some short-term hassle a long term mistrust festers. And that is only going to end one way.

3. We didn’t automatically say yes

This one follows the same theme. Working in an agency, in your desire to make customers happy, you agree to things you can’t possibly deliver.

“Can you get me those designs by Wednesday?” they ask, in the midst of your new client ‘honeymoon period’.

“Of course, not a problem” you reply, as your inner voice shouts ‘why on earth did you agree to that.”

The problem with saying yes is that it eventually leads to broken promises. Although you might sometimes pull out all the stops to do what you said you would, the rest of the time you’ll fall short

A classic case of over-promising and under-delivering.

We found it far better to say no. We won trust because we built a reputation of being true to our word.

Saying ‘no’ brings reality to the table, demonstrating that the request isn’t reasonable. And when you do say yes, your client has complete confidence that you’ll come through with the goods.

4. We kept them connected with the ‘action’

In the early days of our agency, client contact was ad hoc. We’d have a meeting and a flurry of calls, and then nothing for a week more.

That didn’t work. Clients were impressed by the intensity in the busy times. But when they didn’t hear from you they’d start to get the impression that you weren’t doing anything.

Even though those were the times that the actual “work” was getting done.

So we introduced a regular reporting and contact formula. A weekly written report, followed the next day by a call to discuss, and then an email of action points.

The action points would then be a list to work through during the next call. More importantly, it gave us a chance to control the agenda, be the party who was driving things forward.

Clients felt fully informed. They felt in control. And they felt close to the action.

It also reduced the unplanned emails, small requests that would bog down the day. Everything was saved up for the weekly call and action plan.

On top we gave each client a project timeline so they knew what we were up to, and when. It helped to set expectations and build confidence that ‘stuff was happening’.

5. We evolved our service

There are lots of parallels between capitalism and the natural world. Just as species evolve, so do businesses.

If you find that you’re still doing the same things you were a couple years ago, in the same way, you’ve got a problem.

Whilst you’re standing still, someone else will bethinking how to do it better, faster, or for less.

Working on ‘The Internet’ means there’s a natural evolution to push you along. Thanks in part to Moore’s law there are new ideas, platforms and applications.

We found that we couldn’t rely on this technological evolution, adapting what we did. We needed to consistently ask ourselves: could we do this better?

Can we improve our service? Do it faster? Achieve a higher target?

There was always a way, although it would come at a cost. The cost of staying still was always much higher.

6. We made our contacts look good

What you might not realize when you start working for a client is that the person who hands you the contract has gone out on a limb.

You desperately hope that this is the start of something beautiful. Ad so do they.

By choosing you, they’ve staked their reputation on your performance. Let them down and they look foolish.

This carries responsibility, but it’s also an opportunity. If you do well, they look good to their business. It’s a demonstration that they know good suppliers.

And if they come to rely on you for that service, it’s a potential goldmine. Not only will you have a rock solid contract, they will recommend you to others. If they move on they will likely try to introduce you to their new employer.

Knowing this, we made all our efforts aligned to make our contacts look good.

And the way we achieved this was through our use of language and reporting. We knew that every email, report and project we delivered was forwarded to others in their business.

So we structured our language to allow our contact to report our success as their own. We talked about the good decisions they made along the way. We demonstrated our knowledge of how our work fitted in with other demands on the business.

By considering the wider audience beyond your day-to-day contact you will ensure that positive outcomes strengthen the overall relationship.

7. We didn’t buy our client’s lunch.

If you get a B2B sales person on the phone, and the potential contract is sizeable, they’re hell bent on securing a face-to-face meeting.

When you resist they might well say ‘let’s meet for coffee’ or ‘can I buy you lunch?’

I don’t get that.

I mean, I get it in the sense that they’re trying to start a relationship. They’re trying to do you a favour, to create a situation where you might feel that you owe them.

But what I don’t get is how the value of a coffee, a meal, or even a ticket to something makes your perception of their services any better.

I think that these indulgences are out of context. The basis of you buying their service should be because it’s the best / cheapest / fastest / easiest.

So any favours should add value to what they do. They should be relevant.

Far better that they might help you out with a problem you’re facing. Give you a free report that helps you understand something. Give you access to their product to try out.

That’s why we never bought our client’s lunch. We’d treat them, but only to add value to our service. If we were going to splash £100 on improving our relationship, far better to put that into some UX testing that we gave them for free, than a ticket to the football.

They still got a treat. But it was in the form of a piece of work that raised their perception of our services.

That’s all

Running an agency isn’t easy. Every day there are new challenges to overcome.

We managed to achieve sustainable growth not by making sales, or raising margins. Success depended on retaining great client relationships that could weather a storm.

We tackled bad news head on, were clear in our communication, and focused on adding value to our service.

Do you have any tips on how to keep clients loyal, which might help others here? Leave us a comment below.