The challenge
When I joined Minerva Marketing, I inherited an account management team responsible for relationships with brand clients and influencer partners. The agency was delivering marketing campaigns, but had limited structured visibility into the ongoing service experience.
Account managers often became less involved between major campaign milestones, then re-engaged when a contract approached renewal. The result was a reactive relationship model rather than a proactive one.
Make the problem visible
I introduced quarterly satisfaction questionnaires for both brand clients and the influencers we partnered with. The first round revealed overall satisfaction of just 40%.
The feedback pointed to a consistent concern: communication was infrequent, and account managers were not sufficiently involved between renewals. Improving creative output alone would not solve this. We needed to improve the quality and consistency of our relationships.
Rebuild the team and the service model
I led the restructuring and recruitment of a new account management team, personally coaching its members remotely through video calls. Alongside the team changes, I introduced clearer accountability and a more proactive approach to ongoing relationship management.
The initial standard was a biweekly client call. This created predictable opportunities to review progress, identify concerns and address issues before they became significant problems.
As satisfaction improved, we moved to a more sustainable monthly communication schedule. Quarterly questionnaires remained our consistent way to evaluate progress and adjust the approach.
- 01 / MeasureIntroduce quarterly feedback
- 02 / IdentifyFind the communication gaps
- 03 / RebuildRestructure and recruit the team
- 04 / CoachEstablish expectations through personal coaching
- 05 / ImproveReview results and adjust the service model
From renewal-driven to proactive
Overall satisfaction increased from 40% to 78%, a gain of 38 percentage points and a 95% relative increase.
Beyond the survey result, we moved away from a largely renewal-driven relationship model toward proactive client service. The work combined direct feedback, organizational leadership, personal coaching and measurable operational improvement.
What this taught me about leadership
This was an organizational problem to solve. Introducing a measurement system helped me uncover an issue that campaign performance alone did not reveal.
The solution required rebuilding a team, establishing new expectations, coaching people through the transition and adjusting the approach based on the results.
It reinforced a principle in my leadership approach: sustainable performance improvements start with understanding the problem, not simply increasing activity.
Related work
Squarespace: connecting audience insight with creator strategy →
CPA Atlantic: leading communications through operational change →
