The agency metric we're forgetting to monitor

In PR, we measure almost everything. Billable hours, utilisation, KPIs, coverage, impressions - the list goes on. However, there’s one metric that rarely makes it onto the dashboard: agency energy.

Perhaps because it’s harder to quantify or because there’s a feeling that as long as you get results, how you get there does not matter. I’d argue it matters enormously. In fact, it might be the most important thing we’re not measuring.

Our clients aren’t just buying a strategy or set of deliverables. They’re buying our judgement, our ideas and our momentum. They’re buying a group of smart people who walk into a room and make them think: Yep, these are the people I want in our corner.

Walk into a room with a team that’s excited about the problem and the energy changes. Ideas bounce around, people challenge each other, clients get excited and the chemistry is obvious. A team that believes in the work creates confidence, and that tends to rub off on the client.

The reverse is equally true. Walk into a room with a team that’s simply going through the motions and you can feel it immediately. No amount of impressive credentials or beautifully presented strategy can disguise it.

There’s a danger in making efficiency the goal above everything else. You can improve utilisation and scrutinise timesheets and inadvertently squeeze the life out of the team. You can end up with an efficient agency that nobody particularly wants to work with (or work at for that matter).

So let’s stop treating chemistry as a nice extra, when it’s a huge part of what clients are buying. Agencies are people businesses and people businesses are powered by people who give a sh*t.

Yet we are often exceptionally good at measuring what is easy to count, while overlooking what makes the business feel alive. We can tell you exactly how many hours were billed last month, but can we tell you whether our people still feel excited about the work?

So perhaps we need a new agency KPI. Something much simpler: How does the team feel? Are they laughing? Are they challenging each other? Are they excited to show the client the work? Are they still hungry?

Because if the answer is yes, chances are your clients can feel it too. Otherwise, no amount of share of voice is going to hide it.

The smartest agencies will find ways to protect the things numbers don’t capture. They’ll recognise that these aren’t fluffy extras. That sometimes, the best ideas actually come over a beer at the pub, even if that means an hour away from the desk.

Why not take your whole agency away every year, distract people with music and dogs in the office, and even offer your team free tattoos, if that’s what they want? (Yes, real tattoos.)

Clients don’t experience our utilisation rates, they experience the people in the room. And, in an increasingly competitive market, why wouldn’t they choose the teams that feel the most alive.

Maybe that’s the metric worth protecting.

As featured in PRWeek.