Overall, most clients (82%) are happy with the services provided by their PR agencies, although this represents a small drop in client satisfaction ratings compared with last year, according to a recent survey conducted by research agency Question and Retain (Q&R).

Key findings
Agencies may be disappointed that less than half of clients (40%) are really happy with their agencies, again a figure that has dropped slightly from last year. Better news is that two-thirds of clients (63%) are really happy with their account team, though yet again, this is a slight decrease from last year’s figure. Two-thirds of clients are likely to recommend their agencies to others, which represents a slight increase on last year. The three top performing agencies were (in no particular order) CCgroup, Cirkle and PHA Media.

Agency failings
The best way for agencies to improve is to learn from their mistakes, and some clients were more than happy to explain what these are. Here are three complaints that voiced in the research:

• “Lots of insights/data but not sure it translates into campaign strategies".
• "Teams need to be more buttoned up on turnaround times and basic grammar/proof-reading skills. I’m rarely blown away by the quality of the work”.
• “More creativity would help – ultimately that`s what clients seek from an agency, otherwise they would retain work in-house".

Future plans
Agencies appreciate that they must constantly re-evaluate their services in order to improve. Richard Fogg, CEO of PR agency CCgroup, says: “We are able to pinpoint where we need to get better and lock that into our objectives. As a result, we’re constantly improving”.

One way to help service clients better is to listen to them properly. Caroline Kinsey, founder of PR agency Cirkle, says: “Client satisfaction is at the core of our business.  We constantly listen to and evolve around our clients’ needs and ever-changing influencer landscape”.

In summary, most agencies have happy clients, but if they want even happier ones they must make sure they appreciate where they are failing – whether it is by making stupid errors such as typos, or not coming up with big enough ideas.

Methodology
Question and Retain (Q&R) surveyed around 2,000 clients of UK-based PR agencies.