The Happy Clients Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Client Retention for Agencies: The Secret to Long-Term Growth

Insights from Tiffany, Senior Department Manager at DOT & Co.

If you’ve ever wondered how to grow your agency without constantly chasing new clients, the answer might be simpler than you think: client retention. On this week’s episode of The Happy Clients Podcast, Taylor sat down with Tiffany, Senior Department Manager at DOT & Co., to talk about why client retention for agencies is the ultimate game-changer.

Retention isn’t just about keeping clients happy. It’s about creating advocates who stick around, refer your services, and ultimately fuel your agency’s growth. In Tiffany’s words, “Client retention for agencies isn’t a side task—it’s the foundation for scaling sustainably.”

Why Client Retention Matters for Agencies

Tiffany shared an eye-opening stat during our conversation: a mere 5% increase in client retention can drive profits up by as much as 95%. Let that sink in. By focusing on retention, your agency isn’t just retaining clients—it’s amplifying profits, reputation, and stability.

Here’s how you can start improving client retention in your agency today:

1. Celebrate More Than Results

Retention starts with showing clients you value the journey, not just the destination. Celebrate creative milestones and process wins, not just final results. This creates a sense of partnership and keeps clients engaged.

2. Ask the Right Questions

Deep client connections don’t happen by accident. By asking thoughtful, open-ended questions, you’ll build trust and uncover opportunities to serve your clients better.

3. Set the Stage with Onboarding

First impressions are everything. A seamless onboarding experience helps set expectations and establishes trust—key elements in retaining clients for the long haul.

4. Monitor Client Happiness

Tiffany’s go-to tool for retention? “Traffic light boards.” These simple dashboards let your team visualize client satisfaction at a glance and act before issues arise.

5. Stay Proactive with Communication

Retention thrives on trust, and trust thrives on proactive communication. Tiffany recommends using “read receipts” to reassure clients you’ve received their messages and are taking action.

The Impact of Client Retention on Agencies

Retention doesn’t just benefit account managers. It weaves through every corner of your agency, from operations to sales. Agencies that prioritize retention grow faster, scale smarter, and create lasting client relationships that are invaluable.

Ready to transform your agency through retention?

Check out our comprehensive Retention Guide (linked below) for actionable strategies to boost client retention in your agency. And if you need help getting started, our team is always here to help.

GRAB IT HERE!

[HELPFUL LINKS] Onboarding Checklist: Grab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onboarding checklist here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST] Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

🎙️ The Happy Clients Podcast is back with a bang! In this episode, Taylor welcomes back Joe, the mastermind behind Smart Pricing Table, to tackle a pain point every agency owner knows too well—proposal anxiety. If you’re juggling client demands, tight deadlines, and the quest for clarity in your sales process, this one’s for you.

Joe breaks down why being the first to respond can seal the deal, how vague proposals lead to scope creep nightmares and the psychology behind upselling. This episode is packed with gems to help you streamline your sales process.

[HELPFUL LINKS] Onboarding Checklist: Grab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onboarding checklist here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST] Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

Hey, hey, friends! Grab your favourite cup of coffee and get cozy, because today's episode of The Happy Clients Podcast is an absolute treat. Taylor welcomes Greg Hickman, a seasoned agency pro who's been shaking things up since 2014.

They dive into the nitty-gritty of how the agency world has evolved over the years and why the traditional full-service agency model is becoming less relevant. Greg explains his 🔥hot take🔥 on how productizing your services doesn't kill creativity; it actually requires you to be more creative in delivering consistent, high-quality results.

[HELPFUL LINKS] Onboarding Checklist: Grab⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onboarding checklist here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST] Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

We all want to know the "secret to agency success", but seeing the grind is equally as important.

Introducing Bryan Starck from 100 Celsius.

A year ago he hired a Client Account Manager from DOT & Co. to help with his growing agency. What we didn't realize was how crucial this role was to his agency's success!

In this episode, you'll learn:

1. Their new "north star" benchmark at 100 Celsius when we approach decisions re: clients = "How can we help our clients love their business more?"

2. The #1 reason clients stay with you (or leave). Communication is actually much more important to retention than results in Byran's opinion.

3. Similarities between how to surprise and delight clients happy with special moments & how to surprise and delight B2C customers via channels like email & SMS. This is part of our methodology for CRM marketing called "Dynamic Moments".

We know you'll love this episode!

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

We wanted to give the spotlight to agencies of ALL different backgrounds here on our podcast so that YOU can see behind the scenes.

We've launched our first-ever ✨Agency Spotlight✨ series.

Grab a cup of coffee, your comfiest WFH attire, and peek behind the curtain of FIVE different agencies.

You're gonna love it.

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

ClickUp is quickly becoming the rage here in the agency space and we wanted to learn from the best... so we invited Gray from ZenPilot on the podcast to give you the inside scoop!

Gray and his team at ZenPilot work with agencies to help them deliver better client services without the chaos. With the help of ZenPilot, agencies follow a proven playbook to fix their systems, processes, and project management so they can scale their agency. They've worked directly with over 2,300+ agencies, and you get the chance to see inside the work they do.

In this episode of The Happy Clients Podcast, we cover:

1. Why ClickUp for Agencies?
2. Why did you choose agency/consulting vs. going back to the SAAS route?
3. Where do you see the biggest gaps in mid-sized agencies when it comes to operations?
4. A walkthrough of an example client onboarding process inside ClickUp

If you're an agency looking to move over to ClickUp, or you simply just want an inside look into a client management system, check out this episode!

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

If you're in the agency space, you've most likely heard of GoHighLevel. And we (not so secretly) wanted to learn more in-depth the ins, outs, benefits, features of this amazing platform to see if it's a fit for our agency clients.

On today's episode, we're interviewing the FOUNDER of GoHighLevel, Shaun Clark, to share the inside scoop of all things GHL.

Listen in if you've been curious about using this platform inside your agency!

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

Handing-Off Long-term Client Relations To An Account Manager... How To Do It?

The most asked question from an agency that's looking for support with account management: how many accounts can an Account Manager handle. Second most asked question? How do I hand over my long-term clients to an Account Manager?

In this episode, we run through how we coach our agency clients, and our client account managers, on transitioning your clients over! We want to ensure this is a client-centric approach, while also prioritizing removing you (the agency owner) from the day-to-day.

If you've been held up on this question yourself, don't miss today's episode!

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

We wanted to give the spotlight to agencies of ALL different backgrounds here on our podcast so that YOU can see behind the scenes.

We've launched our first-ever ✨Agency Spotlight✨ series.

Grab a cup of coffee, your comfiest WFH attire, and peek behind the curtain of FIVE different agencies.

You're gonna love it.

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!

Hannah Nieves Consulting is a Marketing, Branding and Public Relations consulting firm, based out of New York. They work with lifestyle entrepreneurs and brands, through their trio: marketing, branding and PR. Hannah believes that "you can build a profitable brand that's anchored with your purpose and values all while designing a life you truly desire".

On this episode of The Happy Clients Podcast, we talk all things Public Relations.

Your questions answered:

1. What is Public Relations?
2. The HOT trends are happening in 2022 (that are not just pitching to Forbes or Entrepreneur)
3. Things you MUST consider when pitching your brand!

You're going to love this episode.

[HELPFUL LINKS]

Onboarding Checklist: Grab our onboarding checklist here. 

[ABOUT THIS PODCAST]

Welcome to the Happy Clients Podcast, brought to you by DOT and Company-- the world's best and only team of client account managers for digital marketing agencies. Whether you're a virtual assistant, an agency owner, or a client-facing account manager, we all deal with clients. Lucky for you. client management is what we do best. On the happy client's podcast, we won't shy away from the ups and downs of managing clients in the agency world, but we'll be right there alongside you to learn together and share the real juicy stuff we'll undoubtedly face when it comes to client management. Now, let's dig in, chat CAM life and have some fun along the way.

Cheers, to happy clients!