“Client love isn’t about doing what you’re paid to do—it’s about being indispensable by owning their goals, delivering outcomes, and showing up like a true partner every single day.”
In agencies and client services, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that delivering what you were paid for is enough. But if you aim for long-term success, client loyalty, and real impact, you must go deeper. You must “show the love”—not with chocolates, dinners or sports tickets, but with commitment, connection, and consistent value creation. Epiphany 8 reminds us that real client love isn’t transactional—it’s transformational.
Showing the Love Is Not a Deliverable—It’s a Mindset
Too often, agencies confuse client appreciation with token gestures. However, genuine appreciation for their business comes from treating the client like a partner. It means consistently delivering on promises, adapting to their evolving needs, and—most importantly—ensuring their success.
Showing the love starts with a mindset shift: Their KPIs are yours. Their goals are your goals. Their success is your priority. At my former agency, this concept was summed up as “Showing the Love.”
The Cost of Not Caring
Working with dozens of agencies and small companies as an advisor over the years, a worrying trend emerged: client churn. Some companies didn’t even know their retention rates. Others were proud of the numbers showing that they only retained 13% of clients post-contract. That’s not a retention strategy—it’s a revolving door with 77% walking out, forcing you to find a replacement client.
When you dig deeper, the root cause is often the same as in any relationship: clients didn’t feel the love. They didn’t feel seen, heard, or supported beyond the minimum deliverables.
Humanize the Relationship (Connection)
One of the most impactful shifts you can make is turning “the client” into actual people—Steve, Sally, Nancy, and Bob. When you meet over dinner, hike a trail together, or share a laugh during a non-work conversation, you build trust and empathy. You stop being “the agency” and join the team.
Being part of a team of people starts with using words like we and our when referring to goals, actions, and the project. We found our embedded strategist model worked well to help with integration. They were onsite and participated in meetings and over time because they were part of the team.
At GSI, we made it a point to connect the two teams. We would invite them to our offices, or our team would go to them. Having the wider team get face time with the clients was critical. The connective power of sharing a meal without business talk cannot be emphasized enough. Our Bend, Oregon office allowed us to host adventure weekends like golf trips, hikes, or rafting after a few days of strategizing. These weren’t just fun getaways—they were strategic relationship builders that created emotional connections and loyalty that no pitch deck or video conference ever could.
Delivering Economic Value— (Value Creation)
One of the strongest forms of client love is measurable impact. Show them the economic value you delivered via revenue you helped recover, the market share you protected, or the efficiencies you unlocked.
Our results protected our position even when new internal stakeholders wanted to bring in their preferred vendors. Why? Economic value speaks louder than internal politics. Our client tenure ranged from 5 years to 17 with an average of 10 years and most growing year over year because of the results delivered.
This is why results must always be visible. Share the performance wins. Show how you’re helping them move the needle. Make it impossible for someone to question your value.
Listen. Pivot. Repeat.
Being a great partner means being adaptable. When KPIs shift, your strategy should, too. When priorities change, you don’t spend three months reworking a plan—you pivot quickly to keep pace. We always made it a point to align early and often: Are these still your KPIs? Are we helping you hit them? What can we do differently to support your changing needs?
Love is agile. Rigidity kills relationships, especially if you have an overly bureaucratic process. I cannot count the number of new projects we won. We were agile because we could quickly reallocate budgets or deliver a quote faster than others with more complex processes. Because we focused on outcomes, our entire process mandated agility.
I will note that this was harder to do post-acquisition because of the bureaucratic requirements of staff and revenue planning, along with contracts and change orders managed by headquarters. We found ways to maintain agility, mainly by keeping a flat organization where we could more easily interchange people.
Feedback Loops Are Your Lifeline
Don’t wait until renewal time to find out the client isn’t happy. Build passive and active feedback loops. Are senior leaders showing up to meetings? Are they forwarding your reports or asking questions? Are they looping you in on future initiatives? If not, it’s a red flag.
And then there’s the hard part: just ask. Ask them directly—how are we doing? Are we meeting your expectations? What can we do better? If you don’t know how your client feels, you’re flying blind.
The Client Satisfaction Questions
- Why at the current level? Using our Search Marketing Lifecycle model, designed to help clients grow and become more mature search organisations. If clients were not growing or maturing, were they unwilling or unable to grow, or were we not enabling growth?
- What is their current CSAT level? What was their level of satisfaction with our efforts? Why is it at that level? This entire post is about understanding how satisfied they are with our efforts. If they are not happy, why is that?
- What are their expectations, and are they realistic? Do we understand what is expected of us? Did/do we agree, and is it realistic and achievable?
- Is the client’s executive sponsor aware of value? Does anyone who approves our fees and makes decisions on our future know about what we are doing?
- Is the customer aware of all services? Simple question, do they know all the things we can do? Are they aware of our Keyword Intelligence solution, analytics support, etc? Are we listening for opportunities?
- Do they use these services elsewhere? If they are using these services, where are they getting them and why are they not using us? This relates to Co-Optimization, where we did SEO, and another agency paid. yes why?
- Willing to renegotiate new value proposition? If we have exceeded our targets, are they willing to change them and similarly,y if later goals are not attainable due to internal barriers and delays, can we alter them?
Make Satisfaction Measurable (Commitment)
Client satisfaction isn’t just the account manager’s job—it’s a team sport. Everyone, from the analyst to the strategist, should feel connected to the client’s success. Let the analyst present their findings. Bring your junior strategist, who is doing the bulk of the work, to the client dinner. Give your team client swag to foster a sense of shared identity as if they were employees. These are little reminders that they are part of the team.
When the team feels part of the client’s mission and knows the person is a human with passions and a family, their work becomes more purposeful. And clients feel the difference.
At GSI, we created internal metrics tied to client satisfaction. If clients said, they weren’t “feeling the love,” that impacted performance evaluations. This wasn’t punitive—it was a way to signal how seriously we took client connection.
Of course, not every client is easy, and sometimes external constraints affect results. However, the effort to make them feel valued must always be present.
Final Thoughts: Love Is a Force Multiplier
When clients feel the love and know you’re deeply invested in their success, they stay longer, spend more, and become your biggest advocates. You don’t need to advertise when your clients do it for you.
So don’t just do the work. Show the love.
Make their KPIs yours. Build real relationships. Show impact. Stay curious. Be humble. And always ask how you can be better.
Because in the end, that’s what turns a vendor into a partner—and a contract into a legacy.