Nick Pan: Is shoddy monthly reporting eroding your client relationships?

By Nick Pan, Chief Commerce and Strategy Officer, VMLY&R Asia.

 

It’s a tale as old as (agency) time, but I continue to see the same thing again and again, agency teams and their clients going through the motions when it comes to reporting, requesting and creating lengthy, dull and arduous reports that no one ever actually reads in detail, let alone uses… and why? Lack of strategy could be one reason, and lack of inspiration could be another.

These kinds of reports can often feel overwhelming, filled with data that is incomprehensible, which despite the often-enormous investment of time it’s taken to produce, fails to be either insightful or actionable.

The truth is, more often than not, reporting is a dreaded task that is often passed down from the most senior to the least senior players, who let’s face it, just need to turn something around and push it out of the door. This is the worst possible approach, and one that could be eroding your relationship with your clients and undermining the credibility of the work you do – while also demoralising your team who feel the burden of having to pull together something that ultimately seems pointless.

This issue is an agency epidemic that affects all of us… So how do we break out of this slump and turn this around? In short, it will require a change in mindset and a change in the anatomy of your reporting.

The mindset
Reporting is an unavoidable fact of life in the work that we do. It’s the way we analyse activities, quantify outcomes and ultimately measure the success of our marketing efforts – which is what we are all gunning for after all. But it’s more than this. Reporting is an opportunity to underline our strategy, refine it and provide insightful recommendations of how best to move forward based on what the data and insights are telling us.

So, what is the perfect reporting template I hear you ask? What is the anatomy of a good report? People ask me this all the time, and drumroll…shocker… there isn’t one!

Ultimately, the most important thing to understand here is that there is no one-size-fits all, however, by following the below guidelines, you should be able to create one that makes sense for your client and your team; cutting out the noise to deliver the most important points in a concise and meaningful way that is neither a strain on your resources or your concentration span.

1. Ask yourself: What is the purpose of the report?
Sounds like a pretty basic question right? But so often I see agencies and clients rely on legacy reports created by goodness knows who? “It’s the way we have always done this”, is often the justification. Unfortunately, such reports – whether they come from the client side or the agency side, usually cover way too much, way too briefly, are unfocused, hugely time intensive, not profitable for the agency, and produce nothing but headaches for the client, who would need to wade through hundreds of pages to dig out anything relevant or meaningful.

Don’t dread it. Cut the crap!
I’ve experienced this too many times – the client passes us their preferred reporting template at the start of the contract – and surprisingly (or not should I say), six months in – it’s providing very little value to either our team or the client. In these instances, we would normally turn this on its head – holding an internal workshop to understand and define what matters most to the client in the report; who the report was going to be shared with on their side (c-suite / investors / other stakeholders)? This way, we are able to crystalize what form the report needed to take; what information should be included and in what order, and how it should ‘speak’ to the designated audience for best effect. It seems simple enough right? And it is, and the results speak for themselves when you have a report which is short, sweet, to the point and in the exact format that allows the client to cut and paste, screen shot and whatever else they need to do at their end to show the powers that be that things are moving in the right direction, plus what we have learned in the process.

The lesson here is simple – be clever and break the template. Be agile and don’t be afraid to change your tact based on the situation. But moreover, don’t create something you’re going to dread revisiting month in month out. Aim to simplify, create clarity and therefore confidence in your reporting. The client will thank you for it.

2. Who’s working on the report?
A good report needs to be put together by a team that wears many hats, bringing in data analysis, marketing expertise, business acumen and most importantly, a good understanding of the client brand and its brand vision.

This might be easier said than done, as the reality is that the people who hold that client relationship may not have the time and resources to be heavily involved in the reporting aspect, and the team tasked with leading the report may be more junior in their level of experience. And while we would always hope that teams would be inspired and have a passion to want to uncover the ‘truth’ for the client in these reports, quite often they are stretched too thin to have the ability to give it the attention it deserves. So, what can we do?

Invest in your reporting
Whatever strategy you decide upon when it comes to reporting, it is always going to be an investment in time, and not just billable but quite often unbillable hours. Inspiring your team starts with educating them, both on the client, and also on best practice when it comes to reporting, data analysis and applying marketing strategy based on the findings. As mentioned, working with them on the creation of a simple and straightforward template customised to the client is the first step, but helping them to refine their processes and tactics in putting together the rest is the next. Pulling together a diverse team with different skillsets can make for a good foundation for an insightful and intelligent report – playing to different people’s strengths and allowing different perspectives to shape the outcome for the client. Invest the time, invest in training if needs be, but ultimately, empower and grow their confidence in producing a high-quality document they can be proud of. It might take a little refining over time, but once you have established a reporting recipe that works, they will get faster, more efficient, and the client will be happier and the investment worthwhile and profitable.

3. The nitty gritty – What’s actually in your report?
It’s not rocket science, the contents of reports tend to fall into three main camps – data, insights and recommendations. The trouble, due to the time intensive nature of data collection and analysis, the lion share of the team’s time often gets chewed up in the data part. And as essential as data is, it only allows us to know what happened, when and where, but often doesn’t provide the texture of the ‘why.’

Insights, on the other hand covers this part – and should ideally take in outside context to get there – including news, deep dives into online communities and social media and more – which can offer valuable insight into social and cultural factors at play and ways of understanding the brand’s target audiences.

The real value however comes from the recommendations section, which unfortunately can often fall short when the skill sets / understanding of the data and insights is not the team’s strong suit. Ultimately though, the insights and recommendations are precisely why the client pays you the big bucks, as it’s the part that can make the most impact to their business, and the bit they are going to be most interested in discussing.

Rejig where you’re spending your time
In order to create something truly valuable therefore, the way we prioritise these sections needs some rejigging. Teams should ideally only be spending 10-20% of their time on the data part, which can be made more efficient via the use of automation tools and dashboards which pull out and present the most important metrics in a way that is clear, concise and immediately fit for purpose. Taking the labour out of this part will free up the team to hanker down on what’s most important– what it all means for the client. This means, more time to investigate and derive real insights into the ‘why’, before working together as a team to discuss and formulate recommendations of ‘next steps’ in line with the clients’ overall strategy and business objectives.

Lastly, time is a major challenge for both agencies and clients alike, so ensuring you have the topline highlights front and centre, is going to ensure you can really drive home the messages you are putting forward for the client – no matter who is reading. This should come in the form of an executive summary (key areas of interest to the report) along with the all-important highlights section – which is basically the cliff notes-style summary of the insights and opportunities that have arisen from the report.

To summarise, it should look something like this:
1. Executive Summary – Summary of the key areas of interest in the report.
2. Highlights – Points of interest including new insights or opportunities that can lead to new strategic recommendations.
3. Score Card – Key metrics that need to be used regularly to uncover trends.
4. Data – Automated and exported data from tools or dashboards that highlight the key metrics that are needed to be recorded based on specific areas of interest.
5. Insights – The investigative section that uncovers why things happen with the intention of uncovering new insights and opportunities to tap into.
6. Recommendations – Strategic expert recommendations for meeting key business objectives.

To conclude:
It may seem simple, but it’s amazing how many teams and clients get this wrong – failing to extract real value from their monthly reports. By following these basic guidelines, your reports will be insightful, actionable and easy to understand, making them valuable assets for your clients and a lively document that not just drives business objectives, but also cements relationships.