Insights From the State of Agency Operations Survey
Kantata and Salesforce partnered with Canam Research to better understand the top challenges agencies face, and their priorities in pivoting business strategies to address these challenges.
The Economic Downturn has Increased Pressure on Agency Businesses
74% of agencies have made or intend to make changes to their business strategy because of economic factors.
Get the reportTop Responses to Changes in Business Conditions
50% increased focus on customer retention
46% expanded product/services portfolio
30% revised proposal process
30% revised proposal process
As New Client Acquisition Becomes Harder, Agencies Are Prioritizing the Client Experience
The top challenge agency leaders say they face today is new client acquisition. To combat this, agency leaders are prioritizing client retention and improving the client experience.
#1 PRIORITY IN NEXT 6-12 MONTHS
Client Experience
#1 CHALLENGE
New Client Acquisition
#1 RESPONSE TO BUSINESS CONDITIONS
Increased Focus on Customer Retention
#1 PRIORITY IN NEXT 6-12 MONTHS
Client Experience
#1 CHALLENGE
New Client Acquisition
Agencies Struggle To Manage Their Most Valuable Asset — Their People
Clients aren’t the only group keeping agency leaders up at night: employee retention and productivity is also a major area of need. Agencies lack confidence in the resource management processes that ensure the workforce they have is optimally utilized on revenue-generating work.
Resource Management Effectiveness
41%
resource capacity planning is difficult
39%
resource allocation/staffing is difficult
28%
not consistently able to leverage their workforce on revenue-generating work in a profitable/balanced way
#2 CHALLENGE
Employee Retention
#1 PRIORITY IN NEXT 6-12 MONTHS
Employee Experience / Learning & Development
Resource Management Effectiveness
41%
resource capacity planning is difficult
39%
resource allocation/staffing is difficult
28%
not consistently able to leverage their workforce on revenue-generating work in a profitable/balanced way
#2 CHALLENGE
Employee Retention
Agencies Are Looking for Software That Streamlines Operations
Learn more about KantataNearly ¾ of agencies said they could not be successful without the use of spreadsheets.
That overreliance on spreadsheets, paired with stated challenges like technology integration and data silos, is driving investment in software solutions like Kantata that are purpose-built to streamline agency operations.
Top Tech Stack Challenges
35%
Integration
33%
Too much manual effort (spreadsheets)
30%
Workflow management
26%
Data silos
24%
Complexity
#2 Priority in Next 6-12 Months
46%
Software to improve/streamline agency operations
"There was a huge need for Kantata. Kantata gave us a deeper understanding of our needs and the ability to improve our scopes of work, our client relationships, our projects, and how we run our business."
Rachel Stantliff
Director of Operations
State of Agency Operations Survey