Renewal Decisions
Part of Agency renewal decisions
Reviewing an agency against the original engagement goals
Reconstruct agreed goals, delivery obligations, client inputs and evidence before judging an agency’s past work.
Review past work against the goals and obligations in force at the time, approved changes included. Record what the agency delivered, what the client supplied and what available measures show. Keep that assessment separate from whether the original goals still matter for the next engagement.
Reconstruct the agreed goals
Gather the signed scope, original brief, agreed measures and later decisions that changed the job. Put them in chronological order. For each goal, note the agency’s commitment, the client’s inputs and when a result could reasonably be assessed.
A goal such as “improve enquiry quality” needs a working definition. Did the parties agree what counts as a useful enquiry, which record supplies that judgement and who reviews rejected enquiries? If they did not, mark the definition as missing. Do not create one retrospectively and grade the agency as though it had been agreed.
Make a goal-by-goal record
Use a row for each material goal or commitment. Keep delivery and business outcome separate.
| Record | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Applicable goal | What result was agreed for this period? |
| Agency commitment | Which work, output or decision was promised? |
| Client dependency | Which facts, access, approvals or implementation were required? |
| Evidence | Which dated work record or defined business measure is available? |
| Limit | What changed, was delayed, went unmeasured or lay outside agency control? |
| Finding | What was delivered, missed or left unresolved, and on what evidence? |
Approved pages can establish delivery of pages. More enquiries can establish an observed outcome if the measure is defined. Neither observation alone proves how many enquiries the agency caused.
Agency commitment vs. client dependency for key goals
- Improvement in enquiry qualityAgency: Defined output (enquiry forms), Client: Provided criteria and access to CRM data
- Social media engagement growthAgency: Monthly campaign management, Client: Provided brand guidelines and post approvals
Account for changes during the work
Mark when priorities, budgets, products or client resources changed. Assess work after an approved change against the scope that then applied. If a request was never resolved, record the ambiguity and how it limits the finding rather than choosing an interpretation silently.
Where a commitment was missed, identify the requirement, submitted version, relevant client inputs and any correction or recheck. Use those records to support the goal finding; keep a detailed incident log in the ongoing quality process.
Write a usable conclusion
Give each goal a short finding with its evidence and limit. For example: “The agreed pages were delivered and approved; qualified enquiries were never defined, so that business outcome remains unresolved.” This is illustrative wording, not a finding about an agency.
Invite the agency to correct factual gaps. Its response may change the record without deciding the client’s judgement. Summarise what the review establishes about delivery, dependencies and measurement. Use it in the renewal decision alongside a separate account of what the business needs next.
