Agency productivity killers.

Forget punishing work schedules. Real productivity is about working smarter. Agency productivity is often at risk of dropping below what you and your clients would expect because of time snatching activities and processes that simply need to be banished.

Meetings that work

Like them or loathe them, meetings can be an aid to agency productivity, or they can hinder it. A meeting without a clear agenda and objectives, for instance, won’t be productive – especially if it’s called simply to decide what that agenda and those objectives should be.

On the other hand there’s no question that some meetings are absolutely necessary for sharing important or useful information with people who really need to know, rather than having people in just to make up the numbers.

As a manager, ask your staff to be honest about how useful they find team meetings and determine how you can restructure your meetings and communications. One common practice is having a no-shame walk out policy. If a meeting runs over or if someone isn’t getting what they want from it, allow them the freedom to walk out and move on to more important tasks.

Account overload

Too many clients for an account manager to handle effectively isn’t good for the agency or the clients because it means the account manager has to spread their attention too thinly, and the clients aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Rather than increasing productivity, the result is more likely to be a lower quality of service. Account managers and digital marketers will find themselves stuck in the cycle of doing and not have the time to think more strategically or come up with brave campaigns that will make the difference for their clients. The obvious solution is fewer clients per account manager but try to upsell more services to those clients.

Easy on the emails

Why swap half a dozen emails with a client trying to pick your way through a problem, when one short phone call could compress those half dozen time consuming emails into a few far more productive minutes?

A phone call can be more efficient than an email when discussing complex subjects because you can share questions and answers in real time. And a phone call is often the best way to get an immediate answer. 

Context switching

Context switching? We probably all do it without realising. It’s a form of multi-tasking that involves hopping between lots of different tasks, apps or projects.

But spending so much time switching between software platforms, logging in and out of communication apps, project management software and whatever saps productivity, besides making us more stressed.

One solution is to group short tasks like administrative work or email together. Create a designated block of time to address a chunk of outstanding quick tasks. By grouping these tasks together, you prevent them from polluting the rest of the day.

Work life balance

So much technology in our working lives makes it easy to overlook the fact that we’re not just part of the machinery. Saying that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ‘unplug and disconnect’ aptly makes that point.

Poor work-life balance can lead to stress, anxiety and staff burnout, making a realistic work-life balance an important goal for staff. Flexible working hours, the opportunity to work from home when needed, adequate annual leave and efficient handover processes can all help contribute to staff well-being – and a happier level of productivity.

Not investing in the right tech

Some project management software can help your agency increase productivity immeasurably. But there’s also a lot of tools out there that offer limited solutions, and simply move time heavy tasks from one platform to another. While being able to plan and manage time effectively is important, it doesn’t do anything to help your clients.

That’s where you need a customer engagement platform like co.agency. The platform provides your clients with all the tools they need to transfer files, log tickets, review analytics and stay up to date with the latest news, and reports. This keeps your clients off the phone and out of your inbox for minor queries and approvals, giving your team more time to think and work on on what really matters.

Start your 30 day free trial of the platform and use code INTRO100 to get £100 off every month for a whole year.