Q & A with Anthony McFarlane, VP of Client Success
For the next article in our series on Service, we sat down with Brkthru Vice President of Client Success, Anthony McFarlane, who has spent his career on the front lines in day-to-day service to clients.
Anthony, we know Service is THE foundation of Brkthru’s business model, so elaborate on why that’s so important:
Brkthru functions as a concierge in the industry of paid digital media because many clients (agencies and brand clients) value a higher level of service, which we provide. Every business and competitor in our environment claims “service” is important, but it’s simply not true because it’s more a function of activity. We take it to another level, not just with our responsiveness and results, but moreover, our people. In a complicated, fast-paced, and rapidly changing industry, we have the right teams assembled with proper processes in place to make it look less complicated and run smoothly.
Why do clients come to Brkthru?
Our partnership flexibility and ease of use. Many of our clients have tried managing paid digital media on their own or have been frustrated with other partners. Marketers small to large need help sifting through all the noise, and we do that objectively, while treating all budgets and campaigns as priority. Clients also benefit from having a partner that has access to multiple demand side platforms and all tactics, making their goals and objectives paramount, not a proprietary product or shiny toy. Working with Brkthru eliminates barriers such as minimum spends and complications that many advertisers face.
How do you know Brkthru’s commitment to service is working?
One of the things I am most proud of that when clients come to Brkthru, they stay. We have an impressive client retention rate, in an industry where 40% of clients say they intend to fire their agency partner within 12 months and the average client-agency service partner relationship is just 2.5 years. We also measure satisfaction every year with our annual client survey. We typically see a 50% or higher response rate and consistent overall client satisfaction rate of 90% or higher.
Why do clients stay with Brkthru?
Again, it’s service. From every employee at Brkthru. This commitment to service is embedded in the DNA of the company from our founders, Jeff and Andrew, through to every person in every department. As we continue to build our teams, we hire talented people who share in our belief about service.
Can you give us a few examples of exceptional service at Brkthru?
Fun question to answer, as I have plenty of examples and in asking a few team members, received multiple responses immediately – a true testament to a shared goal.
From building independent case stories or POVs, to our ability to be in front of clients. We ask for in-person meetings, knowing the impact and mutual benefits of it. As recently as this week, multiple members of our sales team had an opportunity to meet with an agency partner, but also brought members of our client services team – we do this every day. We regularly offer insights and trainings for potential partners, agencies we’ve just begun engaging with, without an RFP, order, or commitment of any kind, to show them what we’re capable of, and more importantly, how we can help their business grow.
We solve problems. For instance, recently a member of our analytics team immediately noticed a pixel drop off from the client’s website during an important ROAS campaign. Our teams took immediate action, built a temporary fix until we could meet with the client’s team, and ultimately ensured the campaign wasn’t negatively impacted while assisting the client to troubleshoot and eventually fully resolve the issue.
We all look forward to holidays and long weekends, and I do more so knowing that when a campaign has that inevitable emergency after hours or close of business, our people are ready to jump in immediately to assist, move and resolve. Last Thanksgiving, we received a request from an agency partner to add a geofence for a seminar they found out was taking place Thanksgiving weekend into early the following week. The client noted that they were fully aware we were closed for the holiday, and asked upon our return if we could quickly set it live in effort to capture Monday and Tuesday. We received that message, and regardless of the holiday, all hands were on deck. Our team was able to set live the geofence that night to capture the full five days.
Lastly, this past weekend we had a partner call us at approximately midnight on Friday, with an urgent request to launch a campaign immediately. We had it live and running Saturday morning. I can assure you, that does not take place in other organizations, however we are built for that call. Our people instill a confidence that cannot be replicated, and that level of service will undoubtedly continue as it’s at the core of Brkthru.