Got a Transactional Drag problem? 4 ways to help you fix it

Now you know what Transactional Drag is and why it’s important, and you’ve identified at least one of the three most important warnings signs that Transactional Drag may be an issue, the next step is to go about fixing it.

At CRC we have many solutions to the problem, crafted by our relationship experts through their many years of experience, so you can get all the support you need to get your organisation in a better place.

To help you get started along that path to improvement and better and more sustainable business growth, here’s a few simple things you can start thinking about - and acting upon – to mitigate the negative impacts Transactional Drag can have.

Fix 1: Assess the root cause

Take a minute, stand back and review the relationship with your client. Is the client’s organisational culture the cause of the Transactional Drag you’re experiencing? Is the treatment of your agency the same as their approach to others – that you’re a supplier and nothing more? And, if this is your role, does it have to remain that way? What can we do to better foster more of a partnership?

Ask yourself some honest questions, too. How might the actions of your team and your organisation be contributing to these issues?

By delving into the problems and meeting them head on, you get a clearer picture of some changes you can affect immediately that may help.

Fix 2: Rebuild connections by investing in face-to-face

It’s certainly true that the growth of remote working during, and since, the Covid-19 pandemic has improved the working lives of many people for the extra flexibility it’s created.

However, it has also fundamentally changed how businesses maintain relationships with each other because it’s naturally pushed many to be more transactional.

The easy way to begin getting past this is by moving your client relationships away from on-screen and on the phone to in-person and face-to-face. Not only will this help to mitigate - and ultimately transform - the status-driven agendas you’ve been dealing with before, but you’ll begin to understand your clients at a deeper level when you meet them and speak to them in a more personal way.

And yes, you’ll find some clients are naturally resistant to this but you can find ways to motivate them too – in-person meetings aren’t an indulgence, they’re an investment in efficiency and effectiveness.

Fix 3: Leverage empathy

You’re probably reading this one and thinking, “Ok – how do I start with this?!” Well, at CRC, we find empathy maps can be a really powerful tool. They help you better understand your clients, what it is they need and what they want from their business relationship with you.

If you’re not familiar with an empathy map, it’s a detailed one-pager filled with everything you know that contributes to your client relationship – their goals and motivations, the things they say and do, and what they hear from you.

This lays out everything clearly, simply and directly and helps build your understanding of your client, focusing your collective agency mind on them.

Once your whole team is clear on the bigger picture, you can use insights from the empathy maps you’ve drawn up to inform how you do business with them. Maybe you need to be more sympathetic towards a particular issue they’re having around productivity? Or perhaps they feel greater pressure than most from the people they report into?

Use all the information at your disposal to create a great experience and become a more efficient, effective and empathetic agency towards them.

Fix 4: Write a relationship to-do list

We’re all familiar with to-do lists but, by their very nature, they also tend to be transactional and task-based in themselves.

However, relationship to-do lists are grounded in how you want your client to feel about working with you and set out different things you can do, or do more of, to improve your relationship with each other.

Relationship to-do lists are especially important when your client is experiencing a situation of high stress, and your list can help you to focus on exactly what you need to do to help them rather than just simply delivering projects.

For example, perhaps one of your clients is going through a restructure and you know they need to feel understood and supported so they can better cope with the uncertainty and state of flux they’re experiencing? Or maybe your client’s business is not evolving in the way they would like. They need you to be a force for change and push the agenda they want, because they feel powerless to act themselves.

These actions, and responses to your client’s issues, can be laid out in a clear and ordered relationship to-do list to help you help them.

Transactional Drag can be identified – and fixed

In this Transactional Drag article series, we’ve looked at what Transactional Drag is and why it matters, how you can identify it and, in this third and final article, how you might start to mitigate the issue - or even fix it altogether.

At CRC, a vast number of the agencies we’ve helped have successfully moved from a transactional relationship to a partnership with their clients – and have gone on to reap the benefits of this.

Transactional Drag is a common problem in the agency world but one that often goes unnoticed or undiagnosed, because while you’re busy focusing on delivering you may be unintentionally under leveraging one of the most powerful commercial levers of all, the relationship itself.  

Clients who feel invested in their agencies, who have genuinely warm and positive relationships with them, will actively seek to involve them more. This not only helps build your business but it’s also more rewarding for everyone involved - including the client themselves.

Don’t let Transactional Drag get you down - set out on a path to fix it, starting today.

CRC, the Client Relationship Consultancy, has been working across the entire marketing services spectrum from advertising and PR to digital and media since 2004. Today we work with 1,230 agency offices in 92 countries, from large global networks to boutique independents, to help them maintain, grow and improve their client relationships through our international family of consultants, data and insights experts. We’re committed to putting positive, long-term working relationships back at the heart of your business.

Emma Kelly
The Client Relationship Consultancy