Working with vendors and agencies can be incredibly fruitful for all types of organizations. Getting experts in the field, and a team of them at that, for what it would cost you to hire someone with limited experience can quickly show you results. But there are inherent obstacles in having someone that is not sitting in your office managing and executing functions that are vital to your organizations success. These obstacles, when not handled properly, and proactively by your vendor/agency, can prove to be fatal from the beginning.
Many of our prospective clients ask us how we ensure that the work is getting done and how do we provide them with detailed information on what is being done. It’s a great question and one that we should all be asking when dealing with an agency. Who wants to consult a crystal ball to see if the football was moved down the field this week? I don’t, and we don’t make our clients do that either.
I’ve outlined below some, but not all, of the things we provide and execute for and with our clients to ensure that they always know exactly what is being done with their affiliate program, how we are managing their affiliate program, and where their program stands in relation to their goals:
- Communication: Communication is not only at the core of how we keep our clients up to date, but it’s also at the core of what we do – affiliate marketing management. Weekly calls provide the main structure of that communication. Each of our meetings start off with a detailed agenda that our clients have access to hours before our meeting and can adjust as they see fit. Each call is then followed up with a call recap as well as updates on any of the tasks/initiatives outlined on the call. It’s sounds simple, and it is. Providing great service and great communication isn’t complex, it just takes dedication to provide it consistently and at a high level, like we do at JEB.
- Chloe CRM/Reporting: We have spent over two years developing our own CRM and Reporting system that allows us to keep track of each and every conversation we have with affiliate partners on our clients behalf. Combined with automatic reporting, integrated with all the top affiliate networks, it provides the core of our information distribution to our clients. We also track each and every task our teams complete for each program as well as an amazing list manager where we keep track of the progress of relationships with affiliate partners individually and as groups. Our clients are able to see every conversation, quickly gain insight into where the relationship with an individual partner is and see just what our teams are doing on a daily basis. It’s an amazing amount of information and allows JEB to work together with our clients as a very solid team.
I’ve worked with vendors/agencies that worked within a “black box” and shared very little. It’s not only simply a bad way to do business, but you lose so many gains by leveraging the entire team working on the account, including the client. The more transparency, going both ways of course, the better the results. That’s our philosophy and its a huge reason our clients see the success they do. If you’d like to hear more, just comment below or contact me at jamieATjebcommerceDOTcom.
