Almost always over something small nobody said out loud. Rarely over the work itself, because if the work were the problem someone would have mentioned it already.
The four most common causes
Too many decision makers. Every extra person with an opinion adds a round, and rounds are where creative work loses its edge. The agency also receives contradictory signals and then picks one itself, usually the wrong one.
Briefings that start verbally. What is said in a meeting arrives differently with three people. A one-page written briefing solves more than an extra meeting.
Feedback that changes direction every round. For an agency this is the most expensive and the most demoralising: work that was good in round one turns out wrong in round two, with nothing changed except who looked at it.
Nobody saying no. An agency that accepts everything and a client who asks for everything end up with a scope neither would have chosen to buy.
What the measurements show
In IKAg's COLLAB benchmark, across 166 measurements where brands rated their agency, the lowest scores sit on four questions: using data (6.49), steering timing (6.76), "we learn from the agency" (6.81) and value for money (6.85). The highest sit on reachability (8.36), trust (7.91) and enthusiasm (7.82).
That pattern is strikingly consistent: the relationship is usually fine, so is reachability, and what grinds sits in the craft and in the planning. Friction therefore rarely comes from unwillingness, but from expectations that were never agreed.
How to unstick it
- Ask the agency what it needs from you. That question is almost never asked and always produces something.
- Limit the number of decision makers to two, with one contact who consolidates the feedback.
- Put the last three briefings side by side. If you cannot summarise them in one sentence yourself, you know where it started.
- Measure it, on both sides, with the same questions. See how to evaluate your agency.
See also: how to give feedback and my agency is not performing.