6 Tips To Run Agency Operations Smoothly

Running an agency can be rewarding but can also come with challenges. For example, getting all employees on the same page regarding processes or how to do things can take a lot of work. This lack of cohesion can lead to inefficiencies and poor performance. Agency operations can help alleviate these issues and create a more efficient and effective agency. This guide will focus on improving your agency operations with the best agency management software. Specifically, we'll look at how this software can help you grow productized services to achieve your goals faster.

One way to grow your productized service is to use Orchestra's solution for agencies. This all-in-one toolkit can boost your operations, streamline processes, create better-quality work, and deliver faster for your clients.

What Are Agency Operations?

Agency operations refer to the totality of an agency's day-to-day management processes. An agency operations manager will usually take on the brunt of this multi-faceted and challenging duty, supported by operations management software that can provide streamlined resource management, including financial, human, and project management.

This is challenging enough, but with the ever-changing landscape of today’s business industry, making sure your agency is ahead of the race can feel impossible. The key to operational excellence is, first and foremost, ensuring that your business's foundations are stable enough to weather whatever change is coming its way. This is why we’ll target these basics of agency operations management in our guide today.

What Are the Key Components of Effective Agency Operations? 

The fundamental components of operations are projects, clients, and resources. We can also include workstreams, as workstreams in project management include the basic activities that comprise more significant business initiatives — for example, specific tasks within a milestone or multiple milestones within more extensive project phases.

The path to success is ensuring that these four components work seamlessly together. Discuss these essential agency processes in more detail, with data and examples of good practices that can streamline managing each separately and in conjunction with others.

Project Management: How Can You Streamline This Process? 

The end-to-end project phases usually include project initiation, project planning, project execution, and project sign-off. The main things to watch for during project initiation and planning are establishing reasonable client expectations and setting achievable goals. For this to work, the project manager must have an accurate overview of the agency’s capabilities for the individual project and overall business processes. Here, historical data from previous project management processes can help keep a detailed schedule of your resource availability.

Some scope creep might occur regardless, as a PMI report shows that 34% of projects globally experienced scope creep in 2021. However, you can mitigate the worst effects by keeping a close grasp on the status of your agency resources. Other frequently identified reasons for project failure are poor alignment between project stakeholders, inadequate planning, lack of resources, and unclear client expectations (PMI). For all of the mentioned, agency project management software can prove invaluable.

Data shows that 77% of companies with high-performing projects use project management software (PwC). During project execution, such tools can help make data-driven decisions efficiently and help clients stay in the loop by sharing project reports or progress updates directly from the platform. Finally, gathering essential insights and conducting a retrospective review is much easier during project sign-off with a tool that collects all your data into a single source.

Client Relationship Management: Why Is This Process So Critical? 

The two main discussion points regarding client relationship management are acquisition and retention. Although there is no retention without acquisition, studies point to retention as the more essential of the two. Depending on your industry, acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an old one (Forbes).

However, retention could be better. Data from the XM Institute shows that, on average, more than 40% of clients cut their spending after having a bad experience with a company. How can you ensure you meet client expectations and provide them with a quality experience?

Resource Capacity Management: What Is It and Why Does It Matter? 

Resource management, also known as resource planning, is the process of identifying, allocating, and managing agency resources, usually undertaken by a resource manager or a more generalized project manager. In the agency sphere, a resource manager's most important resources are human resources or your project teams and their hours. Most managers must manage multiple projects simultaneously, so resource management is frequently a delicate balancing act: Ensuring that all projects have the right balance of resources to stay on budget and schedule while being aligned with other projects, overarching agency goals, and client needs.

Resource managers report the following frequent resource management issues: poor capacity planning, inadequate risk assessment, lack of skilled resources, unoptimized and inconsistent resource allocation, unrealistic deadlines and schedules, and poorly documented resource utilization (Chimera Technologies).

Resource management software, such as Orchestra, can quickly address these. It can provide a streamlined and reactive overview of your company resources. If any changes occur, whether mandated by internal or client requests, your scheduling will immediately be updated with the impact of the new resource allocation on your budgeting and schedules.

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6 Tips To Run Agency Operations Smoothly

1. Use Orchestra to Streamline Your Agency Operations

Orchestra provides agencies with the tools to launch and quickly grow productized services. This all-in-one growth toolkit helps you start your next project with a branded client portal to onboard customers, task management features to organize your internal processes, and real-time analytics to track performance.

You don’t have to worry about coding or complex setup procedures with Orchestra. Instead, setting up your Stripe account is all it takes to get started. Once you’re up and running, you can customize your workflows to fit your needs and deliver a seamless experience for your clients. Try Orchestra for free today and see how it can help you grow your productized services.

2. Get a Clear Picture of Your Current Agency Operations

Understanding how your agency operates is essential before implementing any changes. As your team grows, project managers and team members will begin creating their processes to get through day-to-day tasks. These practices might not be the same as what you’ve established as an agency leader, so getting a clear picture of how things function is critical.

Agency operations encompass various aspects of your business, so take a holistic approach and assess the big picture. Instead of narrowing in on one specific element of your agency operations, like managing projects or capacity planning, try to get a complete view of how your processes, tools, and systems work together to form your overall agency operations.

3. Gather Feedback from Your Team and Clients

With a holistic view of your agency’s operations, it’s time to gather feedback from your team members and clients. This will help shed light on the bottlenecks, pain points, and inefficiencies people are running into, impacting their ability to be productive or achieve their goals. While your team members will offer valuable insights about your internal marketing agency operations, your clients will help you understand how your operations impact their experience.

4. Identify Solutions to Operational Inefficiencies

Analyze the feedback you’ve collected to identify trends and common grievances. Where are your agency operations failing or leading to frustrations? Remember that achieving operational excellence takes time, and you won’t be able to solve all your problems simultaneously. So, do some analysis to pinpoint the most impactful changes and start there. Evaluating impact, effort, and planning scenarios are good ways to prioritize your to-do list.

5. Standardize and Automate Your Agency Operations 

Effective automations will help streamline everything from your project management to strategic resource planning, reporting, and client relationship management. Before you automate, it’s good to create consistency through standardization. Set up standard workflows, processes, and procedures for successful project delivery, contract management, and other critical areas of your agency operations. Once that’s done, seek out opportunities to automate tasks with technology.

6. Launch and Maintain Your New Agency Operations

One of the most essential parts of successful agency operations management is regularly reviewing the systems, tools, and practices in place. Your agency operations aren’t a ‘set it and forget it’ type. You must run tests, track their success, and adjust when needed. If you have an agency operations manager or chief operating officer on staff, they will own this process, which will be their primary responsibility.

10 Best Tools To Run Agency Operations Smoothly

1. Orchestra: Seamless Service Launches

Orchestra is a toolkit built to help agencies launch and scale productized services. It’s packed with features to get your service off the ground quickly so you can start earning revenue. Key features include a white-labeled client portal, real-time analytics, task management, and no-code integrations. You can also customize your setup with tools like Slack to streamline communications and help deliver a branded experience to your clients. If you want to grow your service, try Orchestra for free today.

2. Monday.com: Top Visual Project Management Tool

Some of the biggest companies in the world, like Hulu and NBC, use Monday.com, and there’s no reason why your agency shouldn’t give it a whirl, either. Monday streamlines workflows and task visualizations. It’s an excellent agency management system tool. You can create boards or visual tables to sync items and updates in real-time.

Status buttons and other presentable options include Gantt charts, maps, forms, Timelines, Calendars, Kanbans, and more. Available on Android and iOS, this highly responsive agency management software tool allows you to manage and collaborate with remote teams easily. You can assign owners for different tasks and let their AI bots focus on mundane matters, reducing the chances of human errors.

Pros

• Forever free plan available for up to two seats

• Modern, intuitive, and visual dashboard

• Highly customizable

• 200-plus templates for creating boards and automations

Cons

• Confusing pricing plans because of per-seat (user) pricing

• Minimum team size of three for paid plans

• The free trial is only 14 days, whereas most project management platforms give 30

3. Productive: Well-Rounded Agency Management Software

Productive is a well-rounded agency management software with robust functionality that gives you the tools and data you need to keep an agency running smoothly. The tool was built by a team with a decade of experience in founding, managing, and scaling a software development shop, so it's especially well-suited to digital agencies. The tool's features fully satisfy my criteria for agency management tools.

You'll find client and prospect management in the Sales Pipeline (manage deal flow, get sales organized). The Resource Planning feature, time tracker, and task collaboration tools fit the resource and project management criteria I look for in an agency tool or platform. Billing and invoicing can also be managed straight from the tool, along with valuable reports on profitability and costs to help with finance management.

The reporting feature goes beyond that, with real-time reports on margins, utilization, and much more—including reports on individual employees' or contractors' history with the company, salary reports, etc. Productive's integrations include Zapier and Jira, Open API, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Exact.

Pros

• Customizable Dashboards: Enhanced customization allows users to tailor their workspace to their needs, providing a more personalized and efficient management experience.

• Integrated Financial Management: This feature integrates financial tracking with project management, offering a seamless experience for budget and expense oversight.

• Client Portal: Including a client portal sets Productive.io apart, enhancing client engagement and transparency.

Cons

• Learning Curve: New users may find the platform slightly complex, requiring time to understand and fully utilize all its features.

• Customization Constraints: While customizable, some users might need more customization options for their specific needs.

4. Teamwork: Manage Client Work from Start to Finish

Teamwork is a project management platform built to help agencies manage the entire lifecycle of their client work in one place. Teamwork provides all the features you’d expect, as well as integrated time tracking, financial management, robust reporting, and free access for clients to ensure your projects are delivered on time and within budget. Forget crossed wires, unread Slacks, and endless emails. Collaborate in real-time with your team and clients to get your questions answered.

Keep clients, teammates, and leadership on the same page. Centralize your work, communicate easily with your team, and reduce the complexity of collaboration so your team is free to focus on what they do best. Keep your team members and clients in the loop with Teamwork. Communicate with colleagues and clients without having to switch platforms. Update the team, ask for input, and get feedback in context. Working as a team has always been challenging.

Pros

• Free forever plan and low-cost paid plans starting at $5.99 per month

• Deep level of customization

• Easy-to-use automations

• Agency-oriented nomenclature and features

• Built-in time tracking

Cons

• A minimum of three users for the low-priced paid plan

• Slower run time once more work gets added

• Most features are only unlocked with the Deliver plan or above

5. Accelo: Integrated CRM and Agency Management Tool

Thanks to its CRM and management features, Accelo can be a good choice for agencies interested in supporting their entire project lifecycle, from client acquisition to project delivery. However, Accelo’s entry price is less affordable than comparable solutions on the market, such as Productive, which similarly offers integrated sales and management features. Additionally, some users have noted that the tool can be somewhat inflexible.

Pros

• Easy to learn to use.

• Feature-rich.

• Billing and expenses management capability.

• Quality and responsive customer support.

Cons

• Expensive compared to its competitors.

• Core and Professional plans lack ticket and retainer management features.

• Limited integrations.

6. Workable: The Best Recruitment Agency Software 

Workable is excellent for recruitment agencies. It makes hiring easier with job postings, candidate tracking, and team collaboration. Plus, it uses AI to help you find the right candidates faster.

Pros

• Comprehensive candidate evaluations: Workable provides all the necessary data for reporting, visualizations, and understanding the basics of hiring strategy and recruiting metrics, enabling a more thorough assessment of candidates

• Swift and straightforward onboarding: The onboarding process with Workable is quick and easy, making it less time-consuming for new users to get started

• User-friendly interface: Workable, intuitive, and easy to use, reducing the need for extensive training for new employees

• Unlimited collaborative options: The software allows for real-time updates and comments from team members, fostering a collaborative hiring process

• Cost-effective: Compared to other options, Workable is more affordable, making it a financially sound choice for businesses.

Cons

• Incompatibility with virtual conferencing services: Workable does not integrate with Zoom or other virtual conferencing services, making it difficult to schedule interviews

• Email syncing issues: Emails from users' inboxes do not automatically sync or appear immediately on Workable, causing delays in communication

7. FunctionFox: Time Tracking and Project Management Software

FunctionFox offers three plans with features ranging from basic time tracking and estimating to project scheduling and Gantt charts to customized project intake forms. FunctionFox can support teams with five or five hundred members.

FunctionFox is entirely web-based and compatible with all up-to-date browsers, so users on both Mac and PC can work together seamlessly. It allows team collaboration through project scheduling, allocating specific tasks through action assignments and to-do lists, and communication through the project blog.

Another great feature is the availability tool, which project managers can use to monitor team capacity and effectively utilize everyone’s time. FunctionFox is easy to use and made even easier with the tutorials and support provided. They offer dedicated onboarding, and all customer support is unlimited, ongoing, and included in the subscription cost. Their website also includes a help center; the software includes detailed help files.

Pros

• Comprehensive project management features

• Ideal for creatives and well-suited for freelancers

• Provides analytics and reporting in real-time

• Teams can collaborate from a single message portal

Cons

• Some users have concerns about slow customer support response

• The software loads slowly at times

8. ClickUp: Highly Customizable Project Management Tool

ClickUp can be a good solution for agencies looking for an intuitive project management tool that offers a wide range of features to help teams collaborate, manage tasks, and track progress. Its flexibility and ease of use make it a popular choice for businesses of all sizes, however, some users also noted that this can be a downside.

Due to a lack of a more rigid structure, project managers might end up setting up their projects inefficiently, which can lead to significant money and time sinks in the future. Additionally, ClickUp doesn’t offer any financial management features. You can check out our ClickUp vs Wrike comparison to learn more.

Pros

• 11+ ways to view project progress and data

• Helpful "Chat" view for collaboration

• Team view for organizing tasks by team member

• Cheaper than monday.com & Wrike

• Agile project management features

• Vast number of features, even on cheap plans

Cons

• Customizability can be overwhelming to new users

• Not great at compiling project feedback

• Comparatively clunky automation builder

• Slow to load on our tests

• No 24/7 live support

• Fewer integrations than competitors

9. Workamajig: Comprehensive Project Management Software for Creatives

Workamajig is a fair project and agency management tool that integrates essential financial tracking and support with project management features. However, the most notable downside of Workamajig is the somewhat outdated user interface and occasionally poor platform performance, as reported by multiple reviewers. This can make some features more complicated than they initially seem.

Pros

• Comprehensive project management features

• Ideal for creatives and well-suited for freelancers

• Provides analytics and reporting in real-time

• Teams can collaborate from a single message portal

Cons

• Some users have concerns about slow customer support response

• The software loads slowly at times

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Benefits of Using Agency Management Tools

Mastering Project Portfolio Management

Statistics reveal that over half of project managers manage between two and five projects simultaneously. A comprehensive project management tool can help managers efficiently navigate this balance. For starters, it can help manage cross-functional teams, keep track of multiple projects, and accurately assess their value at all stages of the project lifecycle. Some features that enable this are progress visualizations, data consolidation, and real-time overviews.

Streamlining Workload Management 

One of the most valuable resources for service-providing businesses like agencies is its employees. To help increase employee satisfaction and performance, it’s necessary to have a complete picture of agency projects and resources. For seamless workload management, including resource planning, scheduling, and allocation, software that automates resource plans and lets you create bookings to view team utilization can significantly simplify this process.

Improving Change Management

Change management consists of managing project change and team members to ensure that change is implemented. In a 2020 survey by KPMG, change management was indicated as one of the weakest points of project delivery performance. Project management tools can promote efficient change management by improving team communication and collaboration, forecasting results, and providing adaptive analytics.

Simplifying Financial Management

As essential as sound financial management is for a healthy business, reports show that surprisingly few agencies track key agency metrics: 43% know their forecasted revenue, 35% track actual billable utilization, 33% track project gross margin, and 17% track the project budget burn rate. Project budget management tools simplify the collating and updating of financial reports by automating this process, helping agencies keep a finger on the pulse of their finances at all times.

Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today

Orchestra is an all-in-one toolkit designed to help you launch your productized service. Suppose you want to streamline your agency operations and organize before onboarding clients. Try Orchestra. This platform is built for creatives, like designers, developers, and writers, ready to scale their businesses and improve service delivery.

It has everything you need to run your productized service, including a white-labeled client portal to help you organize and automate your service. With Orchestra, you can manage tasks, track progress with real-time analytics, and easily collaborate with clients. The best part? You don’t need to know how to code to get started. Just connect your Stripe account, and you’re on your way to launching your productized service with Orchestra.

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