The Rules of Client Service That Agencies Forget

Agencies love to chase the new. New clients. New platforms. New tools. But in the scramble to grow, many forget the simplest truth about the business: growth depends on keeping the clients you already have.

In my agency years, I saw too many good relationships fail not because of poor work, but because the basics of client service were forgotten. As Ogilvy warned, the revolving door starts spinning when attention drifts. The truth is, churn is rarely inevitable and, it's usually avoidable.

The revolving door still spins today, often because agencies forget the timeless rules of client service. Let's bring them back into focus.

Rule 1: Protect the Present, Don't Chase the Next

Pitching is addictive. The thrill of a win is real. But the cost of chasing the next client at the expense of your current ones is brutal. Acquisition is always more expensive than retention, and replacing a client you've lost drains time, energy, and morale.

Retention, by contrast, compounds. A long-term client gives you space to learn their business deeply, spot new opportunities, and generate referrals. It's where true profitability lies.

Ogilvy's advice was simple: keep your best focus on existing clients. It's not glamorous, but it's what keeps the doors open.

We advise agencies to define an Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and stick to it. Chasing every shiny prospect spreads teams too thin. Protecting the present means investing your best brains in the clients who already trust you.

Rule 2: Become the Category Expert

The best agency owners and freelancers keep asking questions. They become experts in a certain field, and people come to them on that.

Clients don't just want execution, they want expertise. They want to know you understand their world as well as they do, sometimes better, sometimes guiding them because they can't really on a big team, it's sometimes just them, and increasingly… you.

For example: an SEO agency working with a law firm can't stop at keyword research. To be valuable, they need to know how people search for legal help differently after new regulations, what terms carry compliance risk, and how competitors are positioning themselves in the same space. They need to know how AI search is developing and what strategies should be in place to futureproof the business.

Category expertise is retention insurance. When you're the one translating industry shifts into proactive recommendations, the client stops thinking of you as replaceable.

Rule 3: Think Like Family

Ogilvy made it personal:

"I have tried to sit on the same side of the table as my clients, to see problems through their eyes. I buy shares in their company, so that I can think like a member of their family… I always use my client's products. This is not todayism, but elementary good manners."

This principle holds true today. Great agency owners immerse themselves in the client's world. They read the trade press. They test the product. They walk the shop floor. They even buy the product, not because they have to but because it builds empathy.

The closer you are to living the client's reality, the more natural it becomes to give advice that resonates.

Rule 4: Boundaries Build Trust

Another forgotten rule: keep clients apart. Don't share confidential results from one with another, even casually.

Agencies sometimes slip here, especially in new business pitches. Case studies get recycled, results get blurred, "client X achieved Y" stories get re-used one too many times. Clients notice. And once they start questioning confidentiality, trust erodes fast and percentages in slide decks get questioned.

Respecting boundaries is more than good manners. It's part of what makes an agency feel safe to work with.

Rule 5: Wire In Beyond the Single Point of Failure

One of Ogilvy's sharpest warnings was against relying on a single personal tie:

"The most dangerous thing that can happen to an agency is to depend on a single personal tie with a client company… Only when the agency is wired in at every level can you hope for tenure."

This means agencies shouldn't silo contact through one contact. If you have the team, bring in your strategists, creatives, SEO specialists, analysts. Let them build direct relationships with the client's counterparts.

When only one thread ties you to a client, the account is fragile. When multiple people are invested on both sides, the relationship becomes resilient.

Foweather takes it further: retention is a shared responsibility. Agencies that share feedback openly and involve different teams in client solutions build stronger ties and reduce churn.

Rule 6: Execution + Ideas = Loyalty

Robert Solomon captured it best in The Art of Client Service:

"Everything begins and ends with what clients want, and what they want is relatively straightforward: consistent execution partnered with solid ideas, driven by people who understand and care deeply about their business."

Consistency is table stakes. Clients expect you to deliver on time, on budget, every time. But consistency alone doesn't win loyalty. Pair it with ideas that stretch their thinking, new formats, creative angles, smarter SEO and AI SEO strategies, and you become irreplaceable.

Think of it as a formula:

• Execution = trust (they know you'll deliver).
• Ideas = value (you help them grow).
• Together, they equal long-term loyalty.

Rule 7: Honesty Is a Retention Strategy

Ogilvy again: "In the end, clients are grateful to advertising agents who tell them the truth."

It's tempting to hide bad results or overstate wins. But clients are too savvy. They see through inflated numbers or jargon-heavy reports.

Agencies that last are the ones that show the messy truth and then pair it with a clear plan to fix or improve. Honesty isn't just an ethical choice; it's a competitive advantage.

Foweather supports this with a practical step: close the loop with feedback. When you ask how clients feel and act on what you hear you show you're serious about honesty and improvement.

Why Agencies Forget These Rules

Why do agencies neglect these basics? Often it's structural:

• Chasing growth targets pushes focus to new business.
• High turnover inside agencies erodes continuity.
• The allure of awards shifts attention from clients to peers.

But the cost is always the same: churn. Clients leave not because of bad campaigns, but because of neglect, misalignment, or lack of care. That's why using Hike and Kit our AI SEO Expert can help.

Bringing It Back to SEO

These rules aren't just general agency wisdom they apply directly to selling and servicing SEO.

• Protect the present: Show current clients how SEO compounds over time; don't distract your best team with chasing new accounts.
• Become the expert: Understand search behaviours in their industry, not just generic SEO tactics. But what the future looks like with AI and LLMs like ChatGPT.
• Think like family: If you were running their business, how would you want to show up in search? How would you want them to show up for business online?
• Execution + ideas: Deliver consistent ranking improvements, but also bring new ideas (voice search, AI-driven optimisation, content strategy).
• Honesty: Set realistic timelines and own setbacks. SEO is long-term, and clients respect agencies that acknowledge that.

Conclusion

Churn isn't inevitable. It's often the result of forgetting what client service really means.

From 12 years running agency teams, the lesson is simple: client retention isn't about dazzling once, it's about showing up consistently. Agencies that recommit to the fundamentals, great comms, expert and frictionless execution, ideas, honesty, and care don't just keep accounts longer, they grow them.

With tools like Hike SEO, agencies can double down on those fundamentals, giving clients the transparency, consistency, and results they need. That's how you show up HOW it matters, even under peak season pressure.

Because every agency can run ads. Every freelancer can optimise keywords. But only the ones who truly care for their clients' businesses, as if they were their own, get to keep them.