# How do I give feedback to my agency?

**Short answer.** In one voice, in writing, and against the briefing rather than against your taste. Collected feedback from five people who contradict each other is not feedback, it is a problem you are passing on.

In one voice, in writing, and against the briefing rather than against your taste. Those three rules solve most of it, and they cost nothing.

## One voice

Collect your colleagues' views and turn them into one document in which the contradictions are already resolved. Five people each emailing the agency separately is not feedback but a problem you are passing on: the agency then has to decide who is right, and it cannot.

That also means: one person sends the feedback. Who that is may change per project, but not per round.

## In writing

Verbal feedback lands differently with three people and cannot be found a week later. Write it down, even if you discuss it afterwards. Half a page is enough.

## Against the briefing

The usable form is: "the briefing asked for X, this proposal does Y". The unusable form is: "I do not like it". The second is a feeling with no handle, and the agency can only respond by guessing.

If something feels wrong but you cannot say why, say exactly that, and look for it together. That is more honest than inventing a reason that then gets fixed while the feeling stays.

## Four practical rules

- **Give feedback per round, not piece by piece.** Everything you send today belongs to the same round.
- **Do not change direction without saying so.** If you do, name it explicitly: "we are going somewhere else, and that is new."
- **Say what is good.** Not out of politeness: without it the agency does not know what to keep in the next round.
- **Attach a decision.** Feedback without a decision produces a next round that asks for a decision again.

## And ask the reverse question too

"What do you need from us to deliver better work?" That question is almost never asked. In IKAg's measurements, brands score lowest with their agency on exactly the things they themselves control: briefing on time, steering and deciding.

Feedback against the briefing only works when that briefing is sharp itself. IKAg's [briefing analysis](https://www.ikag.be/briefing) walks through it free of charge.

See also: [why the collaboration is grinding](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/waarom-loopt-de-samenwerking-stroef) and [how to write a good briefing](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-schrijf-ik-een-briefing).

## Related questions

- [Why is the collaboration grinding?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/waarom-loopt-de-samenwerking-stroef): Usually over something small nobody said out loud: too many decision makers, briefings that start verbally, or feedback that changes direction every round. Agencies score lowest on using data and on steering timing.
- [How do I evaluate my agency?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-evalueer-ik-mijn-bureau): On three axes that move independently: expertise, process and attitude. Have both sides answer the same questions, because the gap between those answers is what the conversation should be about.
- [How do I write a good briefing?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoe-schrijf-ik-een-briefing): Write down what has to change and how you will know it worked, not what the agency should produce. A briefing that already describes the solution buys execution, not thinking.

---

IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19