Never used an internal comms agency before? Here’s what to ask.

You’ve decided you need some external support to help you deliver your internal comms goals. Maybe your company is undergoing a significant reorganisation or you’ve identified that employee engagement is a problem, but you don’t have the bandwidth to tackle it alone. You’ve heard rumblings, though, that agencies are expensive, that you’ll spend hours holding someone’s hand, teaching them the way of the business.  We get it, we really do. 

There are a lot of positives to working with an agency (okay, we might be a tiny bit biased here), but we also understand that if you get it wrong it can feel like an expensive mistake. That’s why we’ve come up with a list of questions to ask any agency you’re thinking of working with. We hope it’ll help you feel more confident making your decision. 

So, here are our top questions to ask any potential new external partner:   

·       How do you operate? How can we be sure you’ll bring us the skills we need?

Okay, two questions in one there. But the main point to take from them is that the way agencies work can differ dramatically, so before you start whittling down your shortlist you should’ve thought about what best suits your needs. Some agencies are more consultants – one-man bands who are experts in their field, perfect if there’s one specific thing you need sorting, but perhaps not ideal if you’ll need a wide range of skills. Others are huge businesses, able to draw on in-house experts for whatever you might need. Be aware though that you might find yourself wowed by the head of the agency at the pitch, only to never see them again once the deal has been done and they hand over the job to their junior staff.

Others, like us, sit somewhere between. We’re smaller, deliberately so. You’ll deal with one, possibly two internal comms experts, who have a large and varied skillset from years of working on different projects, and we bring in our own consultants – graphic designers or photographers for example – as and when we need them. We’re more a collective than an agency. It keeps our overheads down and we believe it’s the most efficient way to work. 

·       Do you have experience of our sector or type of business?

In internal comms, knowledge of the specific sector is less important than it is in PR, for example, where a tech company would want to hire someone who does tech PR because of their specialist media contacts. The main thing you want to know is if an internal comms agency has experience of working with a company of similar size or life cycle stage to you. Believe it or not, your internal comms problems are unlikely to be unique. Choosing a company with the right experience means we’ll almost certainly have encountered and dealt with your issue before. We learn quickly from you, about your business and the way it works, but it works both ways: we bring what we’ve learned to you, telling you, with authority, what will and won’t work, so you’re not reinventing the wheel. 

·       What ideas can you bring to the table?

As long as you get your briefing right, this is where you can sit back and let the creative ideas flood in. You’re looking for an agency that’s really listened to you and thought about the problem you need solving, one which can bring creativity and imagination to it. A good agency or external partner will have an overview of changing trends and technologies as well as bags of ideas they’ve seen working in other companies. It’s not just fresh ideas though, it’s a fresh perspective. They should be objective, unbiased, and happy to challenge the thinking within the business.

·       Why you in particular when there are so many others out there?

Yep, there are a lot of agencies competing for your business, so you want to know what makes them special. It may be that they have a key piece of experience or knowledge which makes them a great fit for your company, but it can also be about their company ethos. Every agency should have a story that speaks to how and why they started the firm and what drives them today.  You’re looking for people who are passionate about their agency, their work and what they can do for you. 

·       Do you like them?

Not so much a question to ask, but a feeling in your gut. It’s a big one for us here at Cosy Meerkat, because we like to think of ourselves as an extension of your team. However, you’re not just looking for personalities you can work with, you’re looking for someone who can challenge without getting people’s backs up – a diplomat who can navigate their way through internal politics with ease. 

·       What’s your working process?  

You want to understand their strategy and how they will go about achieving results. You also want to know what they think success looks like and how they will measure and evaluate the results of the work they do for you.

·       Can you provide references?

You wouldn’t employ someone you didn’t know without references – it’s the same with an agency. Follow them up, check whether they really did deliver and what they were like to deal with. 

·       What’s your payment structure?

You need an open, honest conversation about this at the beginning so you can factor it into your budget. The last thing anyone wants is for money issues to sour a potentially beautiful new relationship!

Finding the right external partner is a process. You may find yourself speaking to some great consultants and agencies but coming away feeling they’re not a good fit for your business. Go with your heart as well as your head and we believe you’ll make the right choice. We guarantee it’ll be money well spent!